Zonta Paul
Volume 80 Issue 3
October 2006 |
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PEGGY'S MESSAGE
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Dear Zontians, |
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Zonta International http://www.zonta.org Zonta District 7 http://www.zontadistrict7.org Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency Club 100 http://www.mvna.org/club_100.htm Women's Advocates, Inc. http://www.wadvocates.org
Minnesota Women's Consortium
Neighborhood House
American Association of University Women
Women's Prison Book Project
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NETS Students to Plant Peace Pole at NYFS Students in NYFS’ Northwest Educational and Therapeutic Services (NETS) program will erect a Peace Pole outside our main building on Wednesday, October 18. Everyone is invited to attend a special dedication ceremony at 1 p.m. Refreshments will be served. The NYFS Peace Pole will be one of over 250,000 similar poles planted throughout the world as an outward sign that people from diverse circumstances and nationalities are actively committed to promoting peace in our world. It is especially fitting that our NETS students, many of whom are struggling with behavioral and mental health difficulties that make achieving personal peace very difficult, are the ones who are leading the effort to install the peace pole and help bring peace to others.
NYFS Program Profile- Senior Chore “We will help seniors with just about any chore that needs to be done around their homes to make their lives easier,” says NYFS Senior Chore Program Leader Debbie Petersen. The program matches seniors in need of chore services with youth and adults who can provide the services at very affordable rates. Seniors who meet federal income guidelines can also qualify for free services. “We get calls for picking up apples, gutter cleaning, window cleaning, garage cleaning, moving heavy furniture -- even painting and doing small repairs,” Petersen says. Currently there are 100 seniors actively enrolled in the program. The oldest is 97. Each year over 200 youth and adults provide nearly 2,400 hours of service. For more information about the Senior Chore Program, please call Debbie at 651-379-3451 or email debbiep@nyfs.org.
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(excerpts from MVNA recent newsletter) Liz also visits a 72 yr old Arab speaking woman named Safia. Because of the language barrier, she is isolated and lonely. She has kidney disease / renal failure. We were asked to see her because of a need for greater compliance with medications. She has spent a lot of time in the Emergency Department and her physicians feel with better medication compliance she could be much healthier and use the E.D. more judiciously. Liz was considering closing the case because she wasn’t making much progress. In the extreme heat of July, Liz noticed that her apartment was hot and Safia was uncomfortable. The next visit she brought a fan. She was so happy – she was hugging and kissing. Liz hopes that this will be a breakthrough and Safia will see her as a person who genuinely cares about her well being. Maybe – just maybe the fan will have done much more than just keep her cool. ADOPT-A-FAMILY!!! It is time to start thinking about the holiday season. Due to the large volume of families adopted last year, we are in preparation mode now!!! We would appreciate some on call volunteers from December 8 through December 22. This is the time when presents pour in from far and wide and keeping gifts straight, keeping nurses informed and gifts moving through the system can be a 24-7 proposition. Consider spending a half day with us during this time of year!!! Current Needs: We are in great need of developmental toys for infants and small children and for sleepers for infants of all ages. For adults and seniors we need phones both cordless and with cord that have large key pads.
If you have an interest in adopting a Club 100 family, we will need to get a form from them, which will list the members of the family, and recommended gifts. There is a deadline for the applications and for purchase and delivery of the family's gifts. Think about this project, and we can discuss at our upcoming meeting.
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October 24, 2006 – UN Program Meeting November 28, 2006 – Business Meeting December 12 2006 – Business Meeting and Holiday Get-together January 23 2007 – Business Meeting February 27, 2007 – Joint Meeting with Minneapolis March 27, 2007 – Program Meeting April 24, 2007 – Business Meeting May 22, 2007 – Business Meeting
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We will be continuing to meet at Joseph's for our 2006-07 year unless otherwise noted.
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Members are to call Dorothy if they are unable to attend no later than that the Friday before the monthly meeting date. If you do not call, it will be assumed that you are attending and you will be billed for that meeting. If you are unable to attend due to last minute circumstances, you will be billed for that meeting. "Exception": Please contact Dorothy or Peggy for the President's dinner by October 20th. We need a close count so that we have adequate food and refreshments.
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District 7 Fall Seminar We did not have a delegate attending this seminar.
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The day's highlights include a gourmet lunch, great entertainment, holiday shopping at our boutiques and a silent auction with attractions for every taste and bankroll! Our beneficiary this year is Women Achieving New Directions (WAND), a non-profit organization committed to the career and economic self- sufficiency of single lower income, working mothers. This year our entertainment is Patty Peterson - a dynamic vocalist with seven Minnesota Music awards to her credit. She is a great jazz singer, a radio talk show host and is a mainstay in the radio jingle and recording industry. Raffle Prizes: Diamond Necklace & Earrings - valued at $400, Collection of 25 bottles of red and white wine - valued at $350, and a 26" HD LCD TV - valued at $600. You can purchase a $5 ticket before or on the day of the event. You do not need to be present to win. Sunday, November 19th International Market Square in Minneapolis Silent Auction and Boutiques open at 10:30 AM
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We will not be hosting our Annual Global Event this year.
I would encourage members to attend the Minneapolis event.
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November 16th - December 10th Join the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. This year's theme is "Advance Human Rights - End Violence Against Women." The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. The campaign highlights the connections between women, violence, and human rights from 25 November to 10 December. The Campaign is an organizing strategy for individuals and groups around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women. Zonta International invites all Zonta Clubs, Zontians and friends of Zonta to join in this global campaign against gender violence. Campaign participants have been instrumental in bringing issues of violence against women to the forefront of local, national, regional and global arenas since the first campaign originated in 1991 This year’s campaign emphasizes the connections between women's human rights, violence against women and women’s health, and the detrimental consequences gender violence has on the well-being of the world as a whole. For millions of women, the experience or fear of violence is a daily reality and increasingly so is HIV/AIDS. Women and girls are at greater risk of and are more vulnerable to HIV infection because of deep-rooted, pervasive gender inequalities, in particular violence against them. November 25th was declared International Day Against Violence Against Women in July 1981 in Bogota, Colombia to commemorate the violent assassination of the Mirabal sisters (Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa) on 25 November 1960 by the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. In 1999, the United Nations officially recognized November 25th as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. December 1st marks the beginning of an annual campaign to encourage public support for and development of programs to prevent the spread of HIV infection and promote awareness of issues surrounding HIV/AIDS. First observed in 1988, World AIDS Day serves to strengthen the global effort to face the challenges of the AIDS pandemic. This year, the theme of the UNAIDS World AIDS Campaign is “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise,” and demands governments keep their policy commitments related to HIV/AIDS. December 10th marks the celebration of the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This document was one of the first major achievements of the United Nations and provided the basic philosophy for many legally binding international instruments to follow.
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Violence against women is a universal problem and one of the most widespread violations of human rights. One in three women will suffer some form of violence in her lifetime, becoming part of an epidemic that devastates lives, fractures communities, and stalls development. In no country in the world are women safe from domestic and intimate violence. Half of the women who die from homicides are killed by their current or former husbands or partners. Although a majority of countries now have legislation that address domestic violence, high levels of violence persist. There is a need to focus on implementation and enforcement of legislation, and an end to laws that emphasize family reunification over the rights of women and girls. Domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for European women ages 16 to 44, and accounts for more death and ill-health than cancer or traffic accidents. In the US, a woman is raped every 6 minutes; a woman is battered every 15 seconds. 700,000 women are sexually assaulted annually; 14.8 percent of them are raped before the age of 17. In South Africa, more women are shot at home in acts of domestic violence than are shot by strangers on the streets or by intruders. The Russian government estimates 14,000 women were killed by relatives in 1999, yet the country still has no law specifically addressing domestic violence. In India, more than 7,000 women will be murdered by their families and in-laws in disputes over dowries. In Peru, a study of 12- to 16-year-old girls giving birth found that 90 percent of them were pregnant from rape, often incest. In Bangladesh, 200 women this year will be horribly disfigured when their spurned husbands or suitors burn them with acid. This year, more than 15,000 women will be sold into sexual slavery in China.
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Honors Domestic Violence Victim UPDATE On 21 July, Keith Landers was found guilty of killing his wife, Zontian Evangeline Landers and of the attempted murder of her friend and Zontian Joerene Hout. Evangeline Landers, a member of the Zonta Club of Anchorage, Alaska, USA since 1993, was shot to death in her home in November 2004. Saddened and shocked, Evangeline’s friends in the Zonta Club of Grants Pass, Oregon, USA, wanted to honor her by providing women a way out of domestic situations before it is too late. In January 2005, the club started a project that prints a domestic violence hotline number on grocery register tapes, a non-threatening way to provide women contact information to abuse hotlines without their abusers knowing. Originally named the E Project, Zonta Club of Grants Pass board members voted to re-name the project The Evangeline Project following the conviction of Evangeline's husband. Since the project's inception, the domestic violence hotline has appeared on more than 15 million grocery receipts, thanks to the hard work and networking of Grants Pass members and the kindness of Janice Hennings, CEO of Register Tape Advertising, Inc. and member of Zonta Club of Everett, Washington, USA. Grocery receipts containing the hotline have been distributed throughout 50 communities in four states, at a value of $82,675.
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We will be selling poinsettias again this fall for our fund raising project. The proceeds of this project will be used to provide financial support for our service recipients. Shirley has graciously agreed to head up our sales event. Let's make this a rousing success this year! Information should be available for our upcoming meeting.
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Here is a schedule of upcoming campaign debates that you may want to attend, listen to or watch.
Thursday, October 5, 2006 12:15 p.m. Monday, October 9, 2006 - Absentee ballots available
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 9 a.m.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 8 p.m.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006 7 p.m.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006 8 p.m.
Thursday, October 19, 2006, 7 p.m.
Sunday, October 29, 2006, 6 p.m.
Friday, November 3, 2006 7 p.m.
Sunday, November 5, 2006 8 p.m. Let's all get out and vote - remember, one vote can make the difference!
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Last month's newsletter erroneously listed Janet as Secretary. At the present time, Zonta St. Paul does not have this position filled.
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If any members have events or activities they want to share in the newsletter, please let Peggy know. I know we would all be glad to hear what is going on with you! See you October 24th! Peggy
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