It has been a great privilege for me to be at the United Nations in my role of V.P. of International Inner Wheel. This has given me the opportunity of meeting our IIW representatives at the UN Martine Gayon and Michelle Burgess, together we have been to all the sessions regarding Digital Education and Skills for Girls and Women’s Empowerment the speakers were from UNESCO and UNICEF. Throughout the week we have heard the views from different Countries regarding the education of girls, some of it good and some not great at all! One of the sessions addressed the rights of migrant refugees and asylum seeking women and girls. There are 108 million people displaced in the world, 90% of women and girls have left The Ukraine, International Inner Wheel has responded through Poland, Moldova and Bulgaria with aid from the wider Inner Wheel community not forgetting the elderly who are also displaced. We also had a session on Arab women in Stem (Science, technology, engineering and maths) increasing women in the work place, 47% out of 60% were women! Amazing! One of the sessions was headed ‘Protecting Journalists’. This was a very powerful session regarding female journalists who suffer from ‘on line’ abuse which is 73% and off line abuse which is 25%, it appears that nothing is ‘off limits’. The goal is to crush female voices. We heard from Fatime Faizi who had worked as a journalist in Afghanistan, she had left the country as she had been targeted by the Taliban her message to the UN was ‘women don’t exist now in Afghanistan’ we are not in the news anymore what can we do? Very sad! We had a session regarding Female Genital Mutilation, which is still being practiced in The Gambia, this brought to mind my friend Sissel, our IIW Constitution Chairman who has campaigned against this practice for many years, this also happens in many parts of the world where it is illegal. There is still much to be done to Empower Women and Girls, hopefully through Inner Wheel World Wide we can ‘Work Wonders’.      March 2023