Former world president visits

By Jim Mynard
CRANBOURNE members were well represented at the West Gippsland Group Country Womens Association (CWA) international day in the RSL Hall, Berwick, on Monday, 30 April.
Former CWA world president Valerie Fisher AO MBE, and Finnish Society representative Anneli Rickards were guest speakers.
Mrs Fisher spoke about the extensive range of help throughout 73 countries that CWA provides.
She said the CWA was overseeing 70 self-help projects, many of them in the South Pacific Region.
The projects include water and sanitation improvement, including provision of tanks for a Kenyan village, bore wells in India, protected springs in Uganda, solar pumps in Sudan, sanitation facilities for an Indonesian school, a water storage tank in Western Samoa, and a safe water supply for a village in Peru.
The CWA also provides health understanding and care for families, nutritional projects, and education.
The CWA of Victoria names a Country of Study each year to encourage members to learn something of other countries and cultures.
This year the study country is Finland.
Mrs Rickards spoke about her homeland and exhibited some lovely Finnish handcraft.