An Intergenerational Experience
Attending the Commission on the Status of Women with the World YWCA at the United Nations is an intergenerational experience, and an energizing one!
Women of all ages from the entire world share real life experiences in preventing, overcoming, and striving to eliminate violence against women and girls, discrimination, and racial injustice while promoting equal access to education, decent work, finances, health care, safety, political opportunities, decision making and dignity.
The intergenerational commitment to sharing these issues at each age and working together to promote women at every stage of living is essential to making this happen.
Look at your life at your age today in the environment in which you live. Imagine that
- You have no pure water. You walk for hours each day to carry the infected water that you do find.
- You are unable to attend school because your mother is ill and you must replace her to work in the home.
- You denied decent work opportunities or advancement in the workplace.
- You risk violence and rape on the path to school.
- You do not have access to health care. The nearest infirmary is three hours by foot.
- Your parents arrange for you to marry while you are still a child. You have no choice.
This may be difficult for you to imagine or it maybe the way life is where you live. Either way it is important for discussions and solutions to be intergenerational.
