Nearly 200 girls, their mothers and grandparents, teachers, old scholars and community leaders, joined hands at É«ÇéÖ±²¥, to help the women of the world on International Women's Day, Tuesday 8 March.
The É«ÇéÖ±²¥ International Women's Day breakfast has become an annual highlight for the community, and the numbers and spirit at the breakfast were both outstanding.
Money raised goes towards scholarships for girls at our sister schools in Samoa. The support women give each other, the pledges they make to work hard and fairly for gender equality and rights, and to improve the standard of healthcare,education and safety of women and girls in all societies, especially in the Asia-Pacific and our own indigenous communities, is also very important.
Our staff and students and in some cases, their mothers and grandmothers, shared prayers and stories from their own lives.
Our special guest speaker, Kate Talbot Smith, was an old scholar, Class of 1995, who has worked in nursing, public health and international aid for a variety of government and non-government organisations, and who has experienced the way women in Cambodia, Vietnam, the Solomon Islands and in many societies, have suffered and struggled to improve the lives of their children.
Kate credited the values and ethics of her home and her school, and the joy she found in helping others, such as in the Dominic Vinnies or Amnesty in her schooldays, with helping to shape her life for the better. Kate's life was recently shattered with the death of her husband in the Solomons, and she has struggled through her grief and that of their children.
Kate shared some of her life and her passion, her sadness and determination in a moving story for us. Thank you, Kate.
You can see photos on our websaite gallery: .