10 June 2000

Bonn, Germany: “I’d like to believe that my interest in gender issues first manifested itself when I, at a fairly young age, made my father clear the dining room table so that I could watch Sesame Street,” recalls Zazie Schäfer. Today, the German UNV is a gender specialist in Morocco, serving in a joint UNDP/UNIFEM/UNV project that aims at bringing gender issues into the mainstream in all development activities.

Five years after the Women’s World conference in Beijing, the UN General Assembly in a special session takes stock — and so does UNV. This issue of UNVNews gives an impression of the work currently undertaken.

The gender mainstreaming project is a direct outcome of the Beijing conference, but there are many more UNV activities giving voice and visibility to women around the globe: In Rwanda, UN Volunteers assist women, many of them widows after the 1994 genocide, to make a living and sustain their families. In El Salvador, single mothers — often still teenagers — are counseled by UN Volunteers. In the Palestinian Territories, a UN Volunteer coaches teachers on how to build self-esteem among teenage girls and break down sexual stereotypes. All these are practical steps to empower women — and perhaps make them eventually ask their fathers or husbands to clear the table when urgent matters are pending.