Pine Lake History - 1976 - 1989

              ACWW president hip- hops the world
By LIZ DELAHEV
Life as world president of the
Associated Country Women of the
World is far from a dull affair .
That became evident as Ziny
Westerbring- Muller shared some of
her experiences at the Federated
Women's Institutes of Canada tri-ennial
convention held recently in
Fredericton .
The NetherlZnds is her home,
but if her 1982 itinerary is any
indication she has spent very little
time there since her election in
Hamburg in 1980 . When inter-viewed
in mid- June. Westerbring-
Muller has not been home since
Feb. 27 .
In the interval she has visited
some of the world body's nine
million members in the Caribbean .
South America . the United States
and Canada. She was caught is a
coup in Surinam and lived with
members in their homes in
Guyana .
While staying with one hostess
she was escorted to the bathroom
where she found the shower and
! bathroom filled with green frogs .
When she asked whether they were
By LIZ DELAIiEN"
FREDERICTION ( Staff) -
When 500 delegates and visitors
descended here for the ninth na-tional
convention of the 50.000
member Federated Women's Insti-tutes
of Canada they received an
education on the scope of the orga-nization
.
The world president of the Asso-ciated
Country Women of the
World and other speakers ad-dressed
international issues, while
workshop leaders and others delved
into national and social concerns .
Winding up a three- Near term as
president. Emmie Oddie of Tregar-va.
Sask . described the time as one
of image building and housekeep-ing
. She said the FWIC existence
depends on provincial WI struc-tures.
Directives following the last con-ference
were to improve communi-cations
between national and pro-vincial
offices and to present WI
opinion to government and the
public, to improve the image of
FWK' and speak for women dedi-i
i cared to home and country .
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poisonous she was assured they
were not .
" After six or seven days 1 almost
got used to them but I never got
used to the lizards," she confessed .
" It was absolutely frightening when
they found the holes to the mosqui-to
netting and crossed your face in
the middle of the night ."
Of course one must never show
that any of these things bother you .
she said, revealing her almost regal
sense of duty .
A long way up
Explaining that she was elected
as president after many years on
committees and a term as deputy
president, Westerbring- Muller said
she was always encouraged by her
late husband . He told her at one
stage of her career, " when they
want to elect you, accept your
responsibility and do your work ."
Her husband died one week after
the Hamburg conference but Wes-terbring-
Muller said they were pre-pared
. She looked into the future
and realized there was much she
could do for women .
The world president said travel-ling
to developing countries to visit
members is a good way of com-municating
. It helps to talk to the
women to give them guidelines for
approaching the government .
Sometimes one has to try to find
out what particular need they have
if they can't identify it themselves .
And it helps to understand cultural
differences when deciding on
ACWW projects.
When visiting a Zimbabwe vil- 500 FWIC delegates take
a look around the world
to a delegate's suggestion that Wls
should give money to FWIC to
help with projects. Oddie said per-haps
the national organization
could do that if WIN were commit-ted
financially to a cause . ( An
increa ,, e in the annual grant has
been promised by Eugene Whelan,
federal minister of agriculture but
the amount has not yet been set .)
A personal view
Zinv Westebring- Muller .
ACWW president gave a personal
account of what it's like to be world
president . Since elected in 1980 she
has visited South America, the Ca-ribbean
and Africa and was caught
in a military coup in Surinam .
When AC WW spends money on
officers travel u helps with an
understanding d- cultural practices .
she said .
Zimbabwe women told her
young boys destroyed water pumps
installed by the FAO in villages
because it had altered the marriage
market . The old watering sites had
been popular meeting places for
young people . But it's a different
story in Kenya she said, because
there, the older women carry the
water so it is an advantage to have
pumps in villages .
In Trinidad, Tobago and Gren-ada.
even the youngest children
had guns and have been taught to
hate white people. she said .
Arms control
Delegates demonstrated their in-ternational
concern by passing a
resolution asking both the provin-cial
and federal governments to do
everything possible to bring about
_ arms control and a reduction in
nuclear weapons .
A resolution dealing with a cid
rain called for continued research
efforts and control strategies bN
governments to reduce acid causing
emissions in Canada and continued
pressure for stricter controls in the
United States and Canada .
The Garrison diversion project is
to resume following the removal of
an injunction against construction
and land acy uisition .
In a resolu-tion
the FWK' again urged the
federal government to continue to
support the Manitoba government
in if, efforts to fight the project
which could pollute the Souris and
Red River Systems.
Other resolutions asked for a
chanfe in capital gains taxation so
that va uauo> ernits- is more
representative of existing values
and for the federal government to
fund research to produce a vaccine
for humans against equine ence-phalitis.
lage she asked women what diffi-culties
they faced . She found that
African men never give any money
to their wives. They have to earn
money from handicrafts like pot-tery.
Getting their products to mar-ket
proved difficult because as
many as 200 people crowd into one
bus.
A goal ACWW shares with
UNESCO is to give the whole
world pure drinking water and
sanitation by 1990 .
It's an enormous task she said .
but if all the women of the world
mobilized and realized that it was
for the next generation. for their
children, it could be possible .
UNESCO estimates half the
world's people - 2000 million
men, women and children - are
without reasonable access to a safe
and adequate water supply . This is
blamed for disability, disease and
death, especially among infants and
small children .
Saving resources
The world president said some-thing
has to be done about refores-tation
as well as water and sanita-tion
In Africa. every woman has to
cook her meals with firewood and
much is needed daily. Carrying
firewood as well as carrying water
is a female responsibility and wood
is becoming difficult to find.
Transportation is another con-cern
Westerbring- Muller cited . It
has repercussions on health and
child care . Only 25 percent of the
world's population has access to
hospital and health care .
Westerbring- Muller said some-times
men have to be fought in the
development process . In Malaysia
men complained that the women
were getting too lazy, as a result of
the changes .
She views education as the key to
development. When you educate
women, you educate a whole fami-ly
and a future generation, she said .
There is a particular need to edu-cate
women in agriculture and give
them more say at the decision
making levels, because they are the
ones working in the fields.
To help solve some of these
problems. Westerbring- Muller said
grouPs and individuals can support
UNESCO Co- action Project No .
71 . Six dollars would buy a shovel
to dig a latrine pit while a $ 120
donation would buy a water pump .
The Canadian address is Canadian
Commission for UNESCO. C . P .
1047, 225 Alberta St . . Ottawa K I P
5V9.