Good News!

We want to thank everyone who helped make the crafts table at WRI Triennial such a success—over US $500 was raised for the Women’s Conference! Special thanks go to Pippa, Francoise, Shelley, Trini, Niramon, Laddawan, Margaret, Matt Meyer (for the bagels), Peter Jones and Milan for donating their time and goods. We also want to thank the Interfaith Women’s Fellowship for Peace and Development of Sri Lanka for their donation from the sales of the beautiful batiks made by the women’s cooperative (the cooperative can be contacted in care of IFPD, P.O. Box 12, Ragama, Sri Lanka).

A tremendous amount of work was accomplished in organising for the women’s conference (which has several new co-organisers), which you can read about in the following pages. Dates have been set for the women’s conference: November 25 to December 1, 1992, near Bangkok, Thailand. Jeannine Edel-Otte is coordinating an international photo exhibit for the women’s conference, which will show positive and strong images of women from around the world. Please send your black/white photos for the exhibit to: Jeannine Edel-Otte, 19 rue Principale, 68149 Griesbach-au-Val, France. Many women were also,.elected to the new WRI Council—their names and addresses are included in this issue.

A warm welcome was also extended to WRI’s new staff woman, Caroline Pinkney-Baird. Born in the USA, Caroline has lived in several other countries, including Britain, Brazil and Palestine, and speaks English, French, Portuguese and some Arabic. She will work in the London office three days a week, particularly on the women’s conference.

Many thanks also goes to Veronica, Ulla and Trui for organising the Women’s Theme Group during the Triennial, which focused on the links among women’s liberation, militarisation and poverty. After Niramon’s moving presentation on sex tourism, the theme group decided to learn more about sex tourism and prostitution inside Thailand, and to encourage WRI to become more involved in working against the sexual exploitation of women. Several articles in this newsletter reflect this concern. This concern does not ignore the many positive accomplishments of Thai women and the work they have done to secure their rights. It does reflect the work Western women need to do in educating men from our own cultures against using Asian women by participating in sex tours.