Thursday and Friday

Again, yesterday was so busy that I did not get a chance to write a blog entry.

Starting with a UK NGO briefing at 9am, I then attended a number of side events on education before "Girls Speak Out About Violence Against Girls" which was an amazing event run by the Salvation Army. Three teenage girls each gave a story on what they knew and had learnt about violence against girls, before offering a creative contribution - throguh dance or music. It was a very moving event and the three young women were clearly very passionate.

The afternoon was spent filming messages and getting others to give messages for a number of WAGGGS video projects.

Today I managed to attend a panel on education delivered in Portuguese (muddling through with a powerpoint in English to guide me) before an extremely informative session on new technologies and free technologies which may be useful to women's organisations and other NGOs.

This left time to grab some lunch and book a table for a delegation meal out this evening before the second WAGGGS side event on violence against girls. We partnered with Soroptimists International, World YWCA and UN Women to deliver an interesting session combining case studies, questions and policy outcomes. During the session I took lots of notes in preparation for a blog I then typed up to go on the UN Women website. Other members of the delegation filmed the speeches and I was also able to put together a short video - also to be put on the UN Women website.

We finished the day with a delegation meal out - though Fiona from New Zealand sneaked off to a Bon Jovi concert instead.

Tommorrow we have a day of debriefing before I will depart for the airport in order to get a flight to the UK. My time here has gone so fast and I have so many ideas of what I want to advocate to change!