- Crystal Lee (@navajo_crystal) a full blooded Native American women with a PhD in Public Health. She talked on the shocking invisibility of the Navajo people in the USA, sharing how her grandmother lives in third world conditions; she doesn't have either running water or electricity. As a PhD graduate she said she is one in 10,000 as this is the statistic for Native Americans who get their doctorate.
- Holly Ransom (@hollyransom) a CEO at Emergent and a speaker on empowering young people, particularly women in business opportunities. Her experience of overcoming sexism and her work with young people was inspiring and motivating. In reference to everyday sexism, she quoted her grandmother, saying: 'if you walk past it- you are saying it's okay'
- Monica Singh (@monicasingh91) a motivational speaker and activist for ending violence against women due to her being an acid attack survivor. One quote we really liked from her profound speech was 'we are not just women- we are iron women, we can do whatever we want to do'. Sharing her experience and the harsh realities of being a woman in India- she was hospitalised for a year and had 46 operations simply for refusing a marriage proposal.
There were also various cultural breaks throughout the morning panel; we saw a traditional Korean dance and heard an Argentinian serenade.
Periodically, we split off into discussion groups where we talked about issues such as the role of faith in gender equality. This was a really informative part of the day as we got to hear the views of people around the world.
After lunch, and a really nice burger, we were given a choice of workshops to attend on a range of issues from violence against women, to climate change to girls education. These were eye-opening and gave us the chance to talk and learn about even more issues involving gender.
The second panel we listened to included a UN Youth Delegate from Romania, the Brazilian Ambassador to the UN and several other interesting people. One particularly fascinating speech came from Madame Rumi, who talked about many issues impacting women today. It was truly intriguing, even if it was 40 minutes long!
At end the day all of the youth representatives sang along to a live performance of 'I Am A Girl' by Tennille Amor, which got even the ambassador dancing!
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