Media release
For immediate release
12 October 2011
International Day of Rural Women celebrations
October 15 is the International Day of Rural Women and Rural Women New Zealand members are celebrating with a diverse
line up of events around the country.
South Canterbury and Marlborough members are following an ‘Enterprising Women in the Pacific’ theme, hosting a guest
speaker from Tonga. Waipa King Country women are learning about latest scientific research on child brain development
with Neonatal Unity for Mothers and Babies (NUMB) and the Brainwave Trust. The Lower North Island region is having a
lunch at Woodville with guest speaker Dame Miriam Dell. Otago members are focusing on walking and the outdoors with a
speaker from the Walking Access Commission. Moutere branch is combining its 80th birthday celebrations and marking the
International Day of Rural Women with a garden trail event, and walking is also the broad theme for Southland’s get
together.
Multi-coloured balloons feature in Hamilton’s Rukuhia branch celebration, as members present a car to Rainbow Place (a
branch of Hospice Waikato) on Saturday 15 October.
The car will be used by Rainbow Place’s therapists and nurses who travel some 2,600 kilometres each month providing
support services to children and their families through serious illness.
The new car fundraising project began with a bequest from Chica Gilmer, a long time Rural Women New Zealand member from
Rukuhia branch, with top up funding from Rural Women New Zealand groups throughout Waipa King Country, Waikato and
Coromandel.
The International Day of Rural Women is intended to highlight the contributions that women make in rural areas and the
many challenges they face. Established by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2007, this international day
recognizes “the critical roles and contribution of rural women, including indigenous women, in enhancing agricultural
and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty.”
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