The Big Day has Finally Come!
For the last week the World YWCA Office in Geneva has been in full effervescence. Phones were constantly ringing with calls from every corner of the globe - Have you booked my hotel? Can I still register? May we discuss my speech? May I still offer to be a volunteer? What’s the weather like in Zurich in July? Are all the plenary halls equipped? The entrance of the Office was an abstract, chaotic carpet of boxes, publications, posters, and documents, all ready to be transported to Zurich. Often working until the early hours of the morning, World YWCA staff was inevitably frantically completing their tasks in order to fulfill their respective roles at World Council and the International Women’s Summit.
By Friday, the Office was quieter and emptier - the boxes had left, as had some of the staff. Those who remained were still running in all directions, finalising all pending logistical details, speeches, documents and publications before taking the train to Zurich on Saturday.
The first day in Zurich was one of discovery – that of a city, colleagues, Board members and volunteers. Upon arrival, setup in Zurich’s “Kongresshaus” was in full swing as a team of enthusiastic volunteers filled the Council bags with essential documents and exciting goodies offered by the host association. Walls started to become more colourful with decorative posters, wires were pulled in all directions and the Kongresshaus team was busy setting up the halls. The first meetings took place and everyone sensed that after the long wait, the big day had finally arrived.
On Sunday the Kongresshaus started bustling with the arrival of excited delegates from all over the world – the screams of joy echoed throughout the building as old friends fell into each others arms: “I’ve just flown in from Fiji, it took 36hrs;” “we were on our honeymoon and I just dropped off my husband at the airport;” “I’m here from Kenya, it’s my 3rd World Council.” The atmosphere is vibrant and at the Delegate Orientation session where the programme was laid out, it was loud and clear that no one would have missed this important event!
The rest of the week promises to be exciting and event-filled – interesting sessions, impressive key note speakers, appealing special events, and of course the fascinating encounters which will be made throughout the week and the warm feeling of having friends on every continent. It is already clear that the World YWCA Council is a success and will make YWCA history for all of the participants.
