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volunteer. Kide’ Book Program is ‘ln the Bag’ I he Schoolhouse Literacy Skills Program based in Wiarton in Bruce County V is a mostly volunteer agency working to boost literacy and promote greater interest In reading within the region. Joan Allan, a former teacher in the area had an idea for a companion program. She thought: “Why not simply ‘bag' a reading kit for residents in rural and semi-isolated pans of the Peninsula and appoint regional ‘mobile librarians’ for pick-up. drop-off and networking duties?“ Allan calls it the ‘book bag‘ method, whereby books and audio tapes of books are distributed directly to the homes of select families by Schoolhouse Literacy volunteers. The initial target group will Chris McCrae (left), owner or By Design in Fern- daie, holds one of the book bags for Norma Stewart (right), School- house Literacy Photo courtesy ol the Wranon Echo, be pre-school ch ildren. for the ongoing program. the Wr‘urmn Eclm. Most of the materials. bags, books and tapes were donated. A marathon bag sewing bee was held at the By Design shop on Highway 6 at Femdale, owned by Chris McCrae, Chris donated her premises and sewing machines to the cause, along with a bolt of durable cloth for the first batch of 80 bags. Volunteer sewers and cutters from Stokes Bay WI and Femdaleâ€"Swan Lake WI pitched in with their skills. The remaining eight Branches of the Bruce North District Women’s Institute - Adamsville, Bluebell, Colpoy' 5 Bay, Mar, Oliphant, Park Head, Purple Valley and Zion Amabel - will also donate material and labour Tlu'r infnnnalr'mr wrrr extracted from an (tr/role written by Lirrdray Eaglerlram. a .rlafl reporter for .Address... continued from page 16 In Europe: - women from Estonia are free, at last. and were able to host theACWW European Area Conference in Tallin last year; now they can meet openly and speak with a national voice; t new ACWW Societies will probably have been formed in Hungary and Italy by the 1995 Conference in New Zealand; 0 and, Czechoslovakian women will be meet- ing in Prague to learn “How to Build an Organization" - a skill with which they have no experience. In East, West and Central Africa: 0 political instability. poverty and discrimina- tion is the harsh reality lacing women. much of it beginning in the family itself; 0 many women are taking care of the infants of Ale mothers: 0 and, one million sufferers of WF. mostly girls, become beggars who are ostracized from the community due to a disease that no longer exists in Developed Countries. In South East Asia: 0 women need training that will generate in- come and they need education about nutrition and food preservation, food safety and proper sanitation; ' and, some means must be found to halt the prostitution that is forced upon young girls and children. In South Africa: a with its 9 countries and 22 languages, women must overcome what appear to be insunnounlable barriers to communication; a women have to deal with AIDS and malaria as health care issues; - and. they must learn how to participate in the management of their natural resources. Perhaps their greatest challenge is to learn how to educate and relay a sense of belong- ing to an entire “lost generation.” In India: a women are victims from birth to death - many girl babies are strangled because their par- ents worry they will not be able to supply a sufficient dowry to attract a good husband; - young women are forced to undergo female circumcision; - and, old women are left to die because there is insufficient food. From all our stories, whether from Develâ€" oped or Developing Countries, we realized that changes must begin in and with and through the family, the smallest unit of our social structure, And ACWW can supply the tools to help women help themselves, but cannot impose its standards on the cultures or religions of others. But it is in organizations such as ours, that women learning and working together, wrll build better, safer and healthier communi- ties. We need to reach out, again, as women did in the [3905. to identify these new 19905 needs and then move to fill them. Only when we come to grips with the challenges of this changing technological world, where success is so often measured only in dollars. will our organization survive as vital, viable and visible â€" and necessary. We are only limited by our own vision; we have the background. the ability, the experi- ence and the people. Our challenge is this: do we have the courage? From whatI have seen in my country and around the world, the answer is YES. We do. My best wishes as all of us clear our vision so we can proceed on a course set for us long ago by women of courage, wisdom and grace. “ The future is not what is going to happen. The future is what we are going to do. ” Mary Viewer van Drmm, The Hague, I992 Peggy Knapp i: the ACWWArea Prerr‘dentfor Canada. Home & Country, Fall'94 17