Page 8 - BPW-UK - E-news - Edition 112 - May 2023 - Binded

Thoughts on Equality

As I turned 40 this year, my understanding on equality has changed dras-
tically. As young girl I used to think the reason behind why women don’t have
equal rights is because men are not giving them but what I have learned is that
we, as women are not fighting for them in the right place because we are com-
fortable being around women’s groups most of the time.

Being the first women from Nepal to attend the executive meeting of the
Asia Pacific Federation of Clubs & Association for the UNESCO meeting at Almaty,
Kazakhstan was an overwhelming experience and above that to attend a meet-
ing where the first woman President was elected was the cherry on top of the
cake.

Neelima with Sunjoo Lee from Korea
who was elected as the first woman president of
Asia Pacific Federation of Clubs and Associations for
UNESCO

My mother was part of the UNESCO Federation of Nepal from when I was
in my school years and I grew up watching her attending meetings, organizing
events and opening clubs but she was never part of the executive or had an op-
portunity to know more about the international side of things. It was always men
who were in the leadership roles and for some reason I used to think it was
a man’s organisation until recently when I made it to the Board of the Executive.

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