Day four

Well we are now officially under way, us officially we started long ago.
Chapel at 8 am was wonderful and a great way to start the day. There is no briefing today and since I am feeling a bit under the weather I returned to my room to do some emailing etc and stay quiet. At 12:30  I went to the North America/Europe. (NA/EU) caucus. This is a meeting of all the NGOs (non governmental organizations) in the North America European region. There are other caucuses from other regions. I have never attended a caucus with so many people present, it was awesome. Betty Levy chaired and the mentioned the document which was circulated about 10 days ago as a statement. I helped with the Canadian portion of the paper. Pierette from Geneva has already done a 2 page commentary on the draft agreed conclusions which she presented and the the floor was open to comments. There were comments about poverty, food,immigrants and migrant workers, faith based organizations,sexual reproductive rights, employment, and more. I commented on the immigrants in the Lindsay jail and about the fact that transportation is not mentioned in the document.

Several informal meetings ensued and I returned to the hotel to have lunch about 2:30.

More emails trying to arrange meetings for tomorrow and a half hour nap and it was time to get ready to go to the reception at the Canadian Mission (the equivalent to an embassy but the UN is not a country). A good reception, wine beer and soda and several trays of excellent food. The Minister for the Status of women from Canada spoke, Kelly Leitch I think) and introduced several other members of the delegation. There are 3 provincial minister for women s issues, another MP, and 5 young women sponsored by YWCA. Or YMCA . There is increasing emphasis on young people which is great. We have 3 under 18 and 2 more in their 20s in our group. The world YWCA is quite prominent and I met the Canadian head at the reception. The World Wide Girl Guides are also well represented.

One of the staff recognized me immediately and we chatted and I talked with several other NGO reps.
Back at our room and more work to do and emails to answer. I want to get to bed early to avoid getting overtired and making this throat worse.

Till tomorrow then

Blessings Judy