From the President's Desk
by Carole Oglesby

From the Starting Line Newsletter, Vol 8.1
This column is written on 9/11 from my home in Philadelphia, about 100 miles from Ground Zero. It is a particularly somber time in the USA and one of the frequent refrains of the day is that the awful events one year ago “put everything in perspective” Generally, this seems to mean that life, death, and loved ones matter and all else is insignificant. Perhaps some might wonder if career work, the time spent advocating for “causes” is really worthwhile. Certainly life and family matter most to us all however health, longevity and quality of life for women are inextricably woven into the achievement of quality of life for global communities and the “causes” of WSI contribute mightily to women’s health and well-being. Surely this matters!

The results of our inaugural research conference, June 2 in St. Louis, sketched briefly in this Newsletter, emphasized repeatedly the positive contribution of exercise and physical recreation for women’s health and quality of life and the resultant positive effect on the health of children and families. Girls and women’s access to adequate exercise and freely chosen physical activity appears to be crucial to health but only attained by a fraction of the world’s women.
Those of us within WSI who have worked hard during the past years building our ties to the United Nations Division on the Advancement of Women (DAW) have been leaders in the achievement of a major step forward for our advocacy issues within that body. In Montreal, at the IWG Conference, and again at a NYC meeting of the WSI-State Department Voluntary Visitors Program following the St Louis Conference, UN-DAW leaders publicly welcomed the addition of exercise and physical recreation standards in each country as an aspect of the regular CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) review. There is still much work to be done to enact this step. What it will mean, however, is that when each CEDAW signatory state (the USA and a handful of other fundamentalist countries are the only hold-outs) undergoes review for its treatment of women’s rights matters, the exercise, sport and physical recreation opportunities for girls and women would be assessed as part of the review. This means, in turn, that each and every government will feel much greater pressure to study and correct such deficiencies, which reflect badly on the country profile.

Such steps of advocacy taken by each of us day by day, year by year can seem very small. In the crisis perspective descending upon us in times of violence, epidemics, and social chaos, it is easy to wonder what the little steps all add up to and if it really matters in the end. I hope we can remind ourselves, even at times like these, that the reckoning is not so much concerned with the solitary outcome of our action but that we spend the time given to us ENGAGED; in a movement for life enhancement in its most simple and fundamental form.

As you read the content of this Newsletter, I hope you will commit to one or more of the projects of WSI. Contact a Task Force leader for an area that interests you. Contact me if you have a new idea that needs to be pursued. Commit to Dr. Drinkwater to write a column for the next Newsletter or if you have a paper, essay or Abstract you would like posted on our website. We need you and others you may recruit to action! There is no shortage of challenges for people of strength and courage to take on.

WomenSport International
P.O. Box 743
Vashon, WA
USA