Liberia: 1st Day of the International Colloquium

7 March 2009
blog

Carol Jenkins, President of the Women's Media Center, is the MC for this International Colloquium on Women's Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security being held in Samuel K. Doe Stadium in Monrovia, Liberia co-hosted by Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Finland's President Tarja Halonen.

This is what I texted Carol first thing this morning, "I'm sitting at stage left end of front row reveling in seeing you on the podium as the MC!"  Below are pictures of her presiding from the stage; the front row filled with heads of state and other senior government ministers from around the world; and the two co-hosting presidents shaking hands along the front row.

Lynn Sherr and her colleague Meagan Townsend are shooting a four-part series on the conference for "World Focus" www.worldfocus.org, a new, nightly international news program produced by WLIW and WNET in New York with the aim to provide in-depth global news to American viewers.  Their pieces will air in April so check out your local PBS stations to watch that (see picture of Meagan below and one of Lynn on my later March 9 post).

When Lynn, Meagan and I had dinner tonight we talked about how great it is that there are so many women from around the African continent.  I have included below a few of pictures of them including one Carol took of me with Ndeye Fatou Toure, MP, a member of Senegal National Assembly.

AllAfrica.com, founded by Tami Hultman and Reed Kramer, is covering the conference and Women's eNews, founded by Rita Henley Jensen, is as well. These two stories will give you a sense of what we are discussing in sessions from morning through evening.  My last picture is of former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, preparing one of the panels for a presentation on the themes being explored.

I believe I uploaded these pictures properly but I can't really tell.  And when I tried to include titles and descriptions with the photos, I completely lost the formatting so I removed the words and you'll just have to figure out who's who in each: oh the joys of being a tech neophyte… Nonetheless, happy to be learning and thrilled to capture some images of an amazing day!

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