HAPPENING AT THE UN
A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE FOUNDATION AT THE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
After three years of interruption due to the pandemic, the Rovereto Peace Bell Foundation has once again "landed" in New York, in the form of its president Marco Marsilli and its director Morena Berti. It did so at the beginning of March in occasion of the annual working session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which within the United Nations represents the most important and attended event dedicated to the "radiography" of the female condition from the point of view of the achievement of gender equality and the effective empowerment of women in today's society. The recently concluded edition - the 67th in history - was further enriched, given the coincidence in timing with the celebration of International Women's Day on 8 March.
For the record, the first presence of the Rovereto Peace Bell Foundation at the CSW was shortly after obtaining special consultative status by the Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) of the UN in 2009, and has translated, to date, in 7 participations. The co-financing of a social-health facility in Senegal, which took place in that period, for the hospitality and assistance of single mothers in difficult situations, was at the origin of the choice of the Foundation's representatives to favour this event over others which have an equally natural setting in Ecosoc.
The specific theme for 2023 was very actual, focusing - in extreme synthesis - on the analysis of the causes of more limited and difficult access of the female component compared to its male counterparts to the "world of IT", with serious repercussions of a professional, social and cultural nature. Not being able to go into too much detail here for reasons of space, for further information please refer to the website www.ngocsw.org. The nature of the issues examined attracted a large number of official representatives to New York. The Italian delegate Eugenia Roccella, Minister for Equal Opportunities, Natality and Family, was also co-organizer of two highly appreciated and attended side-events, respectively focused on digital education and on genital mutilation / child brides. Themes, on closer inspection, only apparently distinct from each other, as they share the observation of how the female element is, mainly or even exclusively, the victim. The Foundation, alongside the other Italian NGOs present, attended these events owing to the invitations of our Permanent Representation.
During their stay in New York, the Foundation President and Director were also able to hold separate talks with the permanent representative, ambassador Maurizio Massari, and with the director of the New York Italian Cultural Institute, Fabio Finotti. With these qualified figures, possible initiatives were drawn up that the Foundation might promote in the "Big Apple" to celebrate the anniversary of its centenary in 2025.
Before returning to Italy, the last engagement consisted of a convivial meeting with the local Circolo della Trentini nel Mondo (Trentini in the World association), set up in Ridgewood (Queens) in 1963, which took place in an atmosphere of friendly informality with particular thanks to the cordial hospitality of the president Stephanie Auman and her collaborators.
Due to a coincidence of dates, the group of Trentino coordinators was visiting Colle di Miravalle in those same days as part of a work trip and training course organized by the competent services of the Province of Trento. Against this background, the connection via zoom with the coordinators on the one hand, and our face-to-face visit to the Ridgewood office on the other, represented the classic two sides of the same coin, and ended up strengthening the relationship even more between Trentini in the World and the Bell of the Fallen that already presents itself as solid and mutually beneficial.
