CWA Maclean Branch conducted its monthly meeting on March 13 and welcomed Almabelle as a visitor; she sat through the whole meeting with enthusiasm.
Jenny gave her report on International matters and talked about two books she had read that detailed the difficulties and joys of living in France as a foreigner. France is our Country of Study this year.
Linda reported on interesting facts about fungi as part of our Agriculture and Environment segment. Denise reported on the Handicraft section where ladies meet on the third and fourth Wednesdays of the month. Denise has embroidered hand towels with amazing images of Highland pipers and other images that celebrate Maclean, which we will sell at our next fair or market stall.
After the meeting we had a beautiful lunch in celebration of International Women’s Day. Our speaker Dr Angela James talked about the life of locals in countries where she has worked. Her recent work has brought her to countries where economic progress is slow, due to the scarcity of resources and where the most valuable resource is often labour, yet these workers are encouraged to go to other richer countries, such as Australia, to fill labour shortages there, but this disrupts families as well as taking away the only resource that these countries have.
The theme for International Women’s Day is to ‘Invest in Women’ but as Angela pointed out, that while education and employment are important, women cannot take advantage of these things if they are not safe. Safety is paramount if women are to be equal. Violence against women and children must be stopped. We ended the day with the pleasure of watching a demonstration of belly dancing by one of our wonderful members, Belinda.
Our next social morning will be on Wednesday May 1 at 10am but before then we welcome everyone to come to our handicraft mornings on the third and fourth Wednesday mornings. Our Branch meetings are held on 2nd Wednesday of each month starting at 9.30am at our Rooms, 40 River Street, Maclean.
We welcome new members and visitors interested to know what we do. For further information please contact our secretary by email cwamaclean@gmail.com or phone 0419 960 370.
Belinda Harris