Balancing the World

The day is commemorated around the globe as an opportunity to reflect how far we have to go to truly achieve gender equality.

The Australian International Women’s Day theme for 2019 is ‘More Powerful Together’.

The theme is a call for a united approach to gender equality. There is a special campaign for IWD 2019 which is around the hashtag #balanceforbetter.

To recognise the day, the Illawarra Mercury put together a special wrap of our March 9 edition featuring the headline ‘Balancing the World’.

The campaign reinforces the point that a balanced world is a better world.

The front page celebrates the leaders in our community who received scholarships to help them continue the great contribution they make to our region.

The Illawarra International Women’s Day event has become arguably the biggest social event on the Illawarra calendar.

Again this year’s event was sold out and another high calibre speaker in author and humanitarian Rabia Siddique. Over 800 people attended the event and it is the largest IWD event in Australia.

Behind the scenes there is a passionate group of committee members who come together to make this event happen each and every year. A special mention of course must go to committee chair Vicki Tiegs and her co-founder and parton Judith Henderson.

At the luncheon a special announcement was made with $20,000 in funding for an  Australian-first program which is being run in the Illawarra. The Illawarra Women’s Health Centre’s Preventing Violence–Supporting Mothers program was developed following numerous requests for support from mothers attending the centre.

The program helps mothers educate and raise respectful young boys, helping particularly those how have been witness to a broken relationship or lacking a good male role  model in their life.

Initiatives such as these help take the us towards a balanced world, which will ultimately be a better world.