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Women’s group proposes neighborhood ‘coffee time’
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Posted on Mar 10 2000
“The process must continue,” was a common sentiment among 27 women when the first Women’s Issues Forum was held at the Marianas Resource Center in Oleai in January.
The women’s forum included a legislator and an out-of-work Carolinian housewife, a college nursing instructor and a Korean-American business woman, a PSS Special Education educator and a Filipina house helper, a mental health counselor and a Micronesian Catholic sister, a Melanesian housewife and a DD council officer. The diverse and broad-based representative group were drawn together to discuss the issues facing contemporary women in Saipan, and discern practical proposals to deal with those issues.
The process will continue this Saturday, March 11, 2000, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. when women will take the process one step further.
“Forum participants came up with practical proposals that included the voluntary holding of neighborhood ‘coffee’ time for women as well as the establishment of local day-care facilities for children and the elderly,” said Jaime Vergara, lead forum facilitator and director of the Marianas Resource Center. “We will now focus on strategies and tactics on how and when the proposals are going to be implemented,” he added.
Cyndy Tice, president of the United Methodist Women (UMW), the forum sponsor, noted that one of the group’s articulated hopes is for an effective women’s support network particularly at the village level. “Our group would like to enable such a network at Oleai,” she said.
Other proposals include home-based crafts and other economic ventures, accessible student loans for women, village-based non-formal education and the monitoring of legal discrimination against women.
For further information, call 288-7777, or 235 7776.
