Peace Prize Nominee and Kenyan Presidential Candidate to Address Anaheim Gathering
Contact:
Kelly C. Martini, communications director/information officer,
United Methodist Women's Division
Press Room: 714-765-2098; Cell Phone: 610-996-2124; Office Phone: 212-870-3729
ANNAHEIM, CALIF., April 25 -- Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Kenyan presidential candidate Wahu Kaara, will address May 5 nearly 8,000 women attending the United Methodist Women's Assembly 2006, bringing a perspective of global poverty and urgency unknown to many in the crowd.
Kaara will speak to the gathering at 10 a.m. at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif. A candidate in the 2007 Kenyan presidential elections, she is the ecumenical program coordinator for the Millennium Development Goals at the All Africa Conference of Churches. She is also the founder and coordinator of the Kenya Debt Relief Network.
In a speech last year at the United Nations, she described herself as a grassroots woman "who experiences on a daily basis the pain and indignity of hunger, disease and illiteracy."
Yet Kaara's local work has gained international acclamation. With Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, she launched the Global Call to Action against Poverty in Porto Allegre, Brazil, in January 2005. The action became the largest global movement against poverty with campaigns in over 100 countries, including social movements, trade unions, churches, NGOs, women's, youth and human rights groups, and citizens. (www.whiteband.org; or www.millenniumcampaign.org).
"Africa is waging a determined struggle against poverty -- as nations and as a continent," she said, describing the challenges in Africa in her U.N. speech. "The Africa Union and the new African Parliament, led by a woman, is a symbol of this new Africa. However, the real transformation that is taking place is at the level of individual citizens in Africa. The people of Africa are increasingly refusing to accept a life of bondage, poverty and injustice."
The Kenyan leader further noted that achieving the Millennium Development Goals has to be top priority for every African government, stressing that Africans will no longer tolerate corruption and inefficiency from their leaders.
The quadrennial Assembly involves women from around the world concerned with the issues and struggles of women, children and youth.
Sponsored by the United Methodist Women's Division, the division represents United Methodist Women, an organization of approximately one million members whose purpose is to foster spiritual growth, develop leaders and advocate for justice. Members raise nearly $25 million each year for programs and projects related to women, children and youth in the United States and in more than 100 countries around the world.
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