The fifth meeting of the Executive Committee of the Eighth National Women's Congress was held December 12--14, 2002 in Beijing. At the meeting, Peng Peiyun, Vice Chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee and President of the ACWF, delivered an important speech. A work report by Gu Xiulian, Vice President and First Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, on behalf of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National Women's Congress was discussed and approved. Huang Qingyi was named Vice President and Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, and eight people were named members of the Executive Committee. In accordance with Constitution of the All-China Women's Federation delegates decided the Ninth National Women's Congress will be held in Beijing in September 2003.

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Wife of H. M. King of Bahrain Makes Donation to the ACWF

On the evening of October 22, 2002, Karim Ebrahim Al-Shakar, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to China, presented a US $300,000 check to the ACWF on behalf of H. H.Shaikha Sabeeka Bint Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, wife of H. M. King of Bahrain and Chairwoman of the Supreme Council for Women of Bahrain. The presentation was held at the ambassador's residence. Gu Xiulian, Vice President and First Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, accepted the donation. Gu asked the ambassador to deliver the donation certificate to H. H. Shaikha Sabeeka.
Gu addressed the ceremony. She said the visit to China paid by H. H. Shaikha Sabeeka had promoted mutual understanding and friendship between the people and women of the two nations. Gu extended her appreciation and thanks to H. H. Shaikha Sabeeka for her generous donation and friendship, and to all the Arabian embassies for their vigorous efforts to strengthen Sino-Arab ties.
Karim Ebrahim Al-Shakar thanked the ACWF for the warm reception it afforded H. H. Shaikha Sabeeka. He thought highly of the important role of Chinese women and the ACWF in China's development, and expressed his sincere wish that ties between the women and the women's organizations of the two countries would be strengthened.

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China-US Conference on Women's Issues Convened in Beijing


With the efforts of the ACWF and Global Interactions, Inc., the China-US Conference on Women's Issues was held October 21--24, 2002 in the China Women's Activity Center in Beijing. Forty delegates from 14 US states and 60 participants from study institutions, universities, government departments and NGOs in China attended. The conference centered on four major topics, including women and development, women and violence, women and the environment and aging, longevity and active retirement.
Gu Xiulian, Vice President and First Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, addressed the conference's opening ceremony. Gu also gave a speech titled "Chinese Women's Involvement in Development." She introduced Chinese women's contributions in the past 10 years in politics, economics and culture. She pointed out women's involvement in economics and social development helped increase their status and promote their development.
The participants discussed four major topics. Both sides introduced measures adopted by their countries to promote gender equality. In the discussion group "Women and Development," US participants encouraged women to be more optimistic and energetic, and to try their best to realize their goals. Participants also exchanged their experiences on training programs, and the various ways micro-credit could be used to carry out anti-illiteracy and poverty-relief campaigns. In the discussion group "Women and the Environment," participants suggested Chinese and American women should work together to solve environmental problems. The US delegates said the United States, as a big country producing and using cars, should be responsible for energy consumption and air pollution, but regretfully the US government still does not approve " Kyoto Agreement." The NGOs of the US should actively push the government to approve "Kyoto Agreement" as soon as possible. In the discussion group "Aging, Longevity and Active Retirement," participants suggested society should pay attention to elderly women's health, reeducation, poverty and their participation in social development.
At the conference, Guo Junqin, an outstanding entrepreneur from Beijing, recommended by the ACWF, was awarded the ATHENA Award, issued by the ATHENA Foundation. She was the first Chinese woman to receive the award.
The China-US Conference on Women's Issues provided women both from China and the US, with different cultural backgrounds, with a good stage to discuss the challenges they face, share their successful experiences and establish strong friendships.

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Foreign Funds Create Employment Opportunities

From November 26 to 28, 2002, the National Experience Exchanges Conference on Reemployment Projects and Business Ventures for Women opened in Tianjin. The ACWF cosponsored the conference with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), Tianjin Municipal Government, UNDP and the Australian International Development Agency (AusAID). The conference summarized and promoted the experiences of the Tianjin Women's Federation, which strove for international funds, established the urban micro-credit fund and helped laid-off women workers find jobs.
The reemployment and business venture initiatives were funded by UNDP and AusAID, and supported by the ACWF and the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges under MOFTEC. The program started in Tianjin in 1998 in an effort to find an effective way to help laid-off women workers and to eliminate urban poverty by using micro-credit. Tianjin was chosen as a test site. Program workers first got to know the laid-off women workers' situations, and understood and analyzed their needs. The women received training to strengthen their competitive abilities in the employment market. The program offered interested women information and start-up funds to open their own businesses. Small enterprises with development potential entered the Women's Business Center sponsored by the Tianjin Women's Federation.
The program was completed by the end of 2002. In the past three years, the Tianjin Women's Federation extended 9.5 million yuan to more than 2,000 laid-off women workers. Nearly 6,000 laid-off women workers were reemployed, and 75 percent of them were from families in which both the husbands and wives had been laid off. Fifteen percent were single mothers. Beneficiaries whose monthly incomes increased by 800 yuan accounted for 15 percent of the total women helped; 500 to 800 yuan, 27 percent; 300 to 500 yuan, 25 percent; and below 300 yuan, 30 percent. Beneficiaries whose incomes either fell or did not increase made up three percent of the women.
At the conference, administrative representatives of the program explained how the initiative was administered, the beneficiaries discussed their experiences in their business ventures and their reemployment. Women's federations from Liaoning, Shaanxi and Yunnan provinces also introduced their reemployment programs for laid-off women. The conference participants visited the Tianjin Women's Business Center, Information Network System and the enterprises established by the micro-credit beneficiaries.

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Anti-Abduction Emphasizes Prevention

From October 31 to November 1, 2002, the Experience Exchanges Conference on Preventing the Abduction and Trafficking in Women and Children in Yunnan Province was held in Beijing. Preventing the abductions and trafficking in women and children is an international project carried out by the International Labor Organization in the Meigonghe region. In June 2000, the ACWF and ILO signed an agreement aimed at eradicating the abduction and trafficking in women and children in the Dameigonghe region. The project would be carried out in Yunnan Province from 2001 to 2003, with the aim of raising awareness and eliminating abductions.
The project basically achieved the expected goals. Since its implementation, villagers increased their awareness on how to protect themselves from being abducted.

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Sino--Canadian Symposium on Training Rural Women Held in Beijing

On December 8--11, 2002, Chinese and Canadian scholars of women's issues and women leaders from Beijing, Sichuan and Inner Mongolia gathered at Chinese Women's University for a symposium on rural women's training and discussions on the current work for rural women.
The experts suggested while the social transformation that has resulted from China's economic reform has brought enormous changes to rural areas, it has also resulted in many problems. As more men enter the cities to work, women must look after agricultural production and their families. Women in some regions make up 80 percent of the farm labor force.
Lack of sufficient knowledge and techniques to participate in society, lower incomes and educational levels and the traditional concept of men being superior have left rural women coping with unprecedented physical and psychological pressures. To improve their lives, a social service system that advocates gender equality and helps women participate in democratic decision-making must be developed.
In coordination with Canada's University of Manitoba, Chinese Women's University is carrying out a project to train rural women. This project is supported by the Canadian International Development Foundation. The project plans in the three experimental sites--Beijing, Sichuan and Inner Mongolia--to carry out a six-year training in work ability and service quality among county-, township-, town- and village-level women leaders, so as to provide better social services to rural women and improve their conditions.

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ACWF and DFID Launch Training Program for Poor Girls

The All-China Women's Federation and UK's Department of International Development unveiled in Beijing on November 6, 2002 an advocacy and skills training program for poor adolescent Chinese girls. In its first initiative with the ACWF, DFID contributed 30.5 million yuan to the project. Work will be carried out in three western provinces--Yunnan, Sichuan and Gansu--between 2002 and 2005. Tens of thousands of girls will benefit, textbooks will be developed and more than 400 teachers will receive training.
Gu Xiulian, Deputy Director of the National Working Committee on Children and Women Under the State Council, Vice President and First Member of the Secretariat of the ACWF, spoke at the launching ceremony. She said the ACWF's work for girls proves that an adolescent girl can bring wealth to her family just by learning skills, and that adolescent girls can help their villages escape poverty. The program will play a key role in improving the girls' livelihoods and general qualities and in urging more girls to participate in local development. Today's girls will be tomorrow's mothers--their growth, health and education will affect the overall quality of the whole nation.
Being concerned about girls is being concerned about the nation's development and progress,Gu said. As women's federations are responsible for safeguarding the legal rights and interests of women and children, the ACWF will emphasize children in the program and develop an effective pattern to push forward the work for girls nationwide.
Catherine Netlleton, a counsellor at the British Embassy in China, and representatives from the pilot provinces also addressed the ceremony.

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A Joyful Day

The Group of Spouses of Arabian Heads of Diplomatic Missions in Beijing donated money to Miliangtun Primary School in Yanqing County on December 30, 2002.
Before these spouses left for the school, Gu Xiulian, Vice President of the ACWF, met them in ACWF's headquarters and expressed sincere thanks for their support of girls education in poverty-stricken areas. Gu also said the ACWF appreciated the friendship between Chinese and Arabian women.
Accompanied by Long Jiangwen, deputy director of ACWF's International Liaison Department, the spouses attended the donation ceremony at the school. They had raised 45,000 yuan during a charity bazaar. Nehad R. Sukayri, chairperson of the group and wife of Jordan's ambassador to China, said they were happy they could contribute to Chinese education, and said they wished to enhance the friendship and cooperation between Chinese and Arabian women.
At noon, the spouses learned how to make dumplings, enjoyed Chinese traditional food, such as hand-pulled noodles and vegetable carvings. In the afternoon, the spouses visited the culture and sports center in the Asian Games Village. They watched dances, operas and fashion shows, and visited reading rooms, the painting and calligraphy society and sung with the choir. The spouses of diplomats from Jordan, Libya, Somalia, Mauritania, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, Djibouti, Tunis, Algeria, Yemen and Palestine attended the activity.

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A Brief on Friendly Exchanges
(From October to December, 2002)

From October 2 to 14, a Chinese women's delegation, led by Hua Fuzhou, Vice President of the ACWF, attended the World's Third Conference on Rural Women held in Spain. The delegation also visited Spain and Belgium, at the invitation of the Women's Bureau of Spain's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and Belgium's French-Speaking Women's Council.
From October 12 to 14, an ACWF delegation, at the invitation of Japan's Saga Prefecture, attended the "Asian Women's Forum," which was co-sponsored by Saga Prefecture and local women's groups.
From October 12 to 26, a women's delegation of Lesotho, led by Mathabiso Lepono, Minister of Women, Youth and Sports Affairs, visited China at the invitation of the ACWF.
From October 23 to 31, a Chinese women's delegation, led by Zhang Jing, director of ACWF's International Liaison Department, visited Thailand at the invitation of Thailand's National Women's Institute.
From November 10 to 13, Hua Fuzhou, Vice President of the ACWF, led a delegation to a meeting in New York on the fifth anniversary of the small-loan initiative, in the capacity of Special Assistant to the Director of the National Working Committee on Children and Women Under the State Council.
From November 22 to 28, at the invitation of the ACWF, a women's delegation from Japan's Fukui Prefecture visited China. The delegation was headed by Tujikinu, vice-chairwoman of Fukui Prefecture's Women's Consortium and head of Fukui Prefecture's Women's Problems Research Association.
From December 2 to 11, at the invitation of the ACWF, a delegation of the Mongolia Democratic and Socialist Women's Alliance visited China. The delegation was headed by D. Altai, chairwoman of the alliance and member of the Steering Council of the Mongolia People's Revolutionary Party.