Page 22 - BPW-UK - E-news - Edition 120 - March-April 2024

After a lunch break Siiri Tiivits-Puttonen from BPW Estonia and Chair of the Green
and Sustainable Task Force joined us to explain the resolution that BPW should try to plan
to be greener when booking a conference or indeed Congress. BPW UK seconded this as
we ourselves had endeavoured to have a greener national conference. The hotel that we
used in Bristol was a gold award winner under the Green Tourism scheme. Therefore, to
second this was aligned to our own values within BPW UK. It was passed unanimously and
will now be drafted into the correct format to take to Congress in November.

The formal twinning of BPW UK and BPW Chernihiv took place at the Gala Dinner on
the final night of the Presidents’ meeting. I had the privilege of introducing this to the
room, and our MM VP Margo then spoke to our hosts in fluent Italian. As you can imagine,
this was very well received by all in the room. Amélie and I had been working with a Bul-
garian NGO who agreed to assist us with the travel costs to be able to bring a YBPW mem-
ber from Kiev to the YBPW European Symposium. BPW Europe kindly sponsored YBPW
Ulyana Symonenko for her registration fees and to be able to share a room in the hostel
which the YBPW members had booked. Ulyana is living in Kiev with her parents, as they
are internal refugees from the occupied Melitopol. Ulyana is a beacon to us all, a fully
trained architect but currently unable to work in this field due to the conflict, she instead
has two part-time jobs to help support them. A truly beautiful young lady in every aspect.
As if through this twinning we did not have enough emotion in the room, Anu Vicks pre-
sented me with an award from BPW Europe, the “Certificate of Appreciation” which was for
the work I had done towards the BPW UK van project. Thank you to all of you who have
supported phase one of this project, phase two is coming …….

Best Personal Wishes,

Jo Kinsey, President BPW UK

At the Twinning Ceremony: Jo Kinsey, Ulyana Symonenko,
Margo Davidson-Wood, Chris Nendick, Lynne Robinson
and Amélie Leclercq in the rear