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| Bahá’í News | November 1985 | Bahá’í Year 142 |
Kenya: Welcome to our Bahá’í nursery school!
On the cover: One of the delightful sidelights during the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women and the UN’s NGO Forum ’85, both of which were held last July in Nairobi, Kenya, was a visit by Bahá’ís and their guests to Bahá’í-sponsored development projects in nearby areas. One of them was the Gingilili village nursery school, about two hours from Nairobi near Nakuru, whose teacher is Leonida Nafula. The school, supported by Bahá’í funds, serves 50 children (25 boys, 25 girls) ranging in age from three to five years from the surrounding village area. (An article about the UN conferences and the visit to the school begins on Page 4.)
Bahá’í News[edit]
A ‘Trail of Light’ teaching team wins new respect, love in Colombia | 1 |
55 Bahá’ís attend World Conference for Women in Nairobi, Kenya | 4 |
Solving women’s problems, says UNICEF, is really no simple matter | 8 |
In Panama, the Guaymi Cultural Center has its dedication ceremony | 12 |
More than 300 attend Hawaii’s Bahá’í International Youth Conference | 14 |
Bahá’ís in more than 60 countries undertake Youth Year activities | 16 |
Pictures show progress in building Mother Temple in New Delhi, India | 17 |
Bahá’í News is published monthly by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States as a news organ reporting current activities of the Bahá’í world community. Manuscripts submitted should be typewritten and double-spaced throughout; any footnotes should appear at the end. The contributor should keep a carbon copy. Send materials to the Periodicals Office, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, U.S.A. Changes of address should be reported to the Office of Membership and Records, Bahá’í National Center. Please attach mailing label. Subscription rates: one year, $12 U.S.; two years, $20 U.S. Second class postage paid at Wilmette, IL 60091. Copyright © 1985, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. World rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.
Colombia[edit]
‘Trail of Light’ completes successful visit[edit]
In Colombia less than five per cent of the population is indigenous, but ever since the Hand of the Cause of God Dr. Muhájir first visited the country, the indigenous people have presented a challenge to the Bahá’í community. There are around 80 tribes with various dialects scattered from the deserts of the Guajira to the heart of the Amazon jungle and even up to the most inhospitable of Colombia’s mountain ranges, and until now the Bahá’ís have gained little ground among them.
Last May, however, a light appeared on the horizon: the Trail of Light began its work in Colombia. Among the participants were two youth from the Guaymi tribe in Panama; six members from the Guajiros, the Colombo-Venezuelan tribe among whom most Bahá’í work has been done; and two youth from the Paez, a tribe in southern Colombia.
After a few days of preparation in Riohacha with Counsellor Donald Witzel, the work was initiated among the Guajiros (population about 40,000). The group began visiting the most deepened communities around Riohacha, then crossed the desert and proceeded up to the salt mines on the coast of Alta Guajira. There, in the town of Manaure, more than 60 per cent of the people are indigenous, but the predominant sect is Evangelist and the Bahá’ís only receive visits during Riḍván.
When the group arrived they were informed that all the Bahá’ís had either gone or had converted to Evangelism. All they had was the name of one Bahá’í woman, and when they found her she started unloading their bags, pots,
When (the Bahá’ís) had finished, the Mamos began to converse among themselves. Then the most venerable among them stood and said, ‘We too have prophecies the same as yours—a miracle—we are in agreement with your teachings.’
pans, etc. from the truck. Then she went to tell the Bahá’ís and other friends of the group’s arrival.
That night, 150 Guajiros gathered at the woman’s house to receive the surprising message of hope and unity and to hear in their own dialect the affirmation of the value of being indigenous and to see the promise of Bahá’u’lláh fulfilled in the radiant faces of the young teachers. Among the Evangelists in that town, dancing is prohibited; but an important part of the Guajiro culture is its traditional dance, the Chichamaya. When the townspeople saw the dances presented by the Guaymis, then heard the roll of the drum as the Chichamaya was begun, in the name of God, it was a joy and an inspiration to all. There were many declarations, and, more important, statements that “Yes, I’ve always been a Bahá’í.”
A teacher from the local high school was at the meeting, and the group offered to present its program at the school. The man went immediately to secure the permission of the school’s principal and board of directors, and the following day the Trail of Light presented the message of Bahá’u’lláh to more than 400 students and teachers. With the help of Auxiliary Board member Cecilia Iguaran and one of the students, the message given by the Paez and Guaymis was translated into Guajiro. Bahá’í songs were sung in each dialect, and members of each tribe explained their traditions, native songs and dances. Of great interest was the explanation by the Guaymis of how the Bahá’í teachings have affected the development of their people. They emphasized the importance of preserving their roots, of maintaining the traditions of their forefathers while also growing from those roots, following a spiritual path toward a future when the indigenous peoples will lead the rest of mankind.
What an impact! The principal said he’d never seen anything like it. Later, the group was asked to present the program to the primary school the next day. That program was another success, and after hearing the songs, prayers and simple explanations of the Faith, the children, with pride and joy, presented for the group the national anthem of Colombia, sung in their own dialect, Guajiro.
From the Guajira the group headed toward Valledupar, en route to the Sierra Nevada, cradle of the Arhuaco tribe. In Valledupar the program was presented at a fireside to which many non-Bahá’ís came, attracted by the diversity of the group.
The next day they rode for five hours to the ancestral town of Nabusimaque, administrative center for the Arhuacos. This tribe had been dominated for nearly 70 years by the Spanish Capuchino monks who built an
| This report of the ‘Trail of Light’ teaching team’s visit to Colombia last May was written for Bahá’í News by Auxiliary Board member Leslie Garrett. |
imposing mission atop a hill overlooking the town where they established a boarding school for the indigenous children. But over the years the Arhuacos began to feel more and more the loss of their own traditions and language, as the native way of dressing and speaking was considered unacceptable there. The non-conformists among them were denied entry in the main church of the mission, and later on those who lived
[Page 2]
in the surrounding hills were not permitted to associate with the more “civilized” Arhuacos. Not only did these
people feel a crisis of identity, they also
perceived an irreparable division
among themselves. Finally, the Arhuacos rose up and took over the mission with armed force.
In 1982, with the intervention of the national army, the Capuchinos vacated the Arhuacos’ land. The doors were thus closed to the Catholics, but the Evangelists slipped in the back way. For a short time they were tolerated, but again the Arhuacos realized that their message was not directed to the needs of the people. For three years the Arhuacos, with help from government-paid teachers and anthropologists, have been reclaiming their dignity and, in the material sense, uplifting their community. They are having more difficulty, however, with the task of unifying a divided people: the Spanish-speaking “civilizados” and the more traditional Arhuacos who wear the native costume and speak their native tongue. Worn down and wary of outside religions, they have turned inward to their traditional forms of worship, looking for guidance from their own priests, the “Mamos,” or “wise ones.”
Hearing of the Arhuacos’ dilemma, the Bahá’ís in that region were eager to take them the Bahá’í message. But it was obvious that not just anyone could go. It would have to be the Trail of Light. Some local Bahá’ís went to the Commissioner (an Arhuaco of traditional dress and a faithful servant of his people) to discuss with him the Trail of Light and the Bahá’í message. After much consideration and consultation with other members of the community (among them an Arhuaco woman with a university degree) he gave permission for the Bahá’ís to come.
On arriving in Nabusimaque, the members of the Bahá’í group were enchanted by the beauty of the town. About 40 round, whitewashed houses made of mud and stone with straw-thatched roofs make up the entire village, which is surrounded by a low stone wall and situated in a valley surrounded by mountains and pine forests. The Arhuacos earn a living from their flocks of goats and sheep, as well as from their work with the pine wood and their corn and vegetable gardens in the valley. The women work with the wool, weaving their own clothing and lovely bags that are sold throughout the country. In the mission they’ve set up workshops with teachers and technicians from Bogota. The school continues to function, but now it is bi-lingual and the director is Arhuaco. In addition, there are about 30 bi-lingual schools in the hills around the town (only about 200 of the 7,000 Arhuacos live in the valley). The mestizo Arhuacos, or “civilizados,” though living close to the town, are somewhat removed in their wood-framed houses with tin roofs.
The Commissioner received the Trail of Light group and situated them in two houses within the town. All day the members of the group visited and acquainted themselves with the community, but few of the Arhuacos came out of their houses to investigate. The Commissioner left, returning late in the afternoon. The Trail of Light team, accompanied by two non-indigenous Auxiliary Board members, went to the Commissioner’s home to find out where the group should present its program that evening. The Commissioner told them it was necessary to have permission from the Mamos because without the approval of the wise ones, nothing could be authorized by him. The group decided it would be better if only the indigenous members dealt with the Arhuaco authorities. Early the next morning the Commissioner appeared and said, “Now we will talk.” In an interview with Cecilia Iguaran, he said he would call together the Mamos so that the group could present its program to them. And so it was. Within an hour, some 12 Mamos met in the town’s central hall. While the Mamos’ official interpreter took notes, each member of the Trail of Light was asked to give his name, preferably his indigenous name, and his place of residence. Then Cecilia took the reins. For 15 minutes she presented the principles of the Faith and some of its history as well as the purpose of the Trail of Light. She became so carried away that she forgot to pause for the interpreter (the Mamos live in the mountains, and do not use Spanish). But when she excused herself, one of them said, “We are understanding you.” Until that moment it had been impossible to guess the reaction of the Mamos to the Bahá’í message; the 12 of them seemed more like statues with their long hair, high caps and immobile faces. When Cecilia had finished, the Guaymis stood up. In their native tongue, one spoke while the other translated his remarks into Spanish. With the conviction of a lover, they explained the Guaymi prophecies about the coming of a message that would unite them and take them to great heights. When they had finished, the Mamos began to converse among themselves. Then the most venerable among them stood and said, “We too have prophecies the same as yours—a miracle—we are in agreement with your teachings.” The Trail of Light knew it was no miracle but that the same truth, the same divine power was entwining their hearts. The door was opened to the Bahá’ís.
After the meeting, the group went outside to the plaza to present their dances and to share some of their culture with the Mamos, and little by little, the rest of the townspeople began to come out of their houses. The group asked for permission to present the program in the school that evening, and also asked the Mamos to share with them their dances and traditions. That night, the group walked up the hill together to the beat of the Guajiran drum toward the old Capuchino mission where they would deliver to more than 100 Arhuacos—mestizos of traditional dress, teachers and students— the Bahá’í message. The evening ended with the “chicote,” a unity feast, with members of four indigenous tribes dancing together and young Arhuacos playing the accordion.
The following day, the Commissioner and some of the Mamos met with Cecilia and asked to know more. She explained to them the visual aid Knowing the Bahá’í Faith, then asked if they would like to become Bahá’ís. The Commissioner said, “We must study more,” so she left them with a copy of the book The New Garden. Later, the Commissioner asked the Trail of Light to stay for a few more days because they hadn’t had time to prepare their traditional dances for the group. Cecilia explained that they had to leave in the car that had been hired from Valledupar, but said that whenever the Arhuacos were ready to hear
[Page 3]
more about the Bahá’í Faith, the group
would return. The Commissioner gave
them a warm farewell, and with hearts
rejoicing, the Trail of Light team made
its way down the mountain.
The line that divides the Guajiros of Colombia and Venezuela is imaginary, but not so for the Yuko Motilones. The separation between them has a name: it’s called the Sierra de Perija, a formidable mountain range. On one side the land belongs to the Yukos of Colombia, on the other to the Yukpa of Venezuela. The names Yuko and Yukpa have the same meaning: “our people.” On both sides of the range, the Bahá’ís have been working hard ever since the Hand of the Cause of God Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum hiked up the mountain to visit the Yukos. She mentions them in Letter to the Indigenous as “last in order but not in importance.” And that’s how they were for the Trail of Light too.
The point of departure was Casacara, a small town at the foot of the mountains, where the group presented its program one evening. For the first time, the townspeople saw a group of indigenous people different from the Yukos (who often are scorned by the “civilized people”), defending their culture and speaking of the importance of preserving traditions. Also, they saw for the first time the power of the Bahá’í Revelation to penetrate and attract toward them such different and faraway cultures.
The following day, the group began the eight-hour trek to the first Yuko camp whose 150 or so residents were visited some 18 years ago by the Hand of the Cause of God. Arriving at the camp, one can see in the valley below the thatched roofs of the round-houses, the traditional dwellings of the Yukos. They are similar to those of the Arhuacos but instead of stone and mud, the walls are made from sticks. One can also see a large, tin-roofed structure made of boards, the school that for many years was occupied by the Evangelists but is now sustained by the Catholics. The Trail of Light was given a warm reception, characteristic of the Yukos, who accommodated them around a campfire with mats on the ground, and the cacique, Agustin, offered them half of his house. Also, the two young Catholic teachers invited the Guajiros to hang their hammocks in the school.
In each Yuko camp there is a school with two teachers who give classes in reading, writing and health to the children. In addition, there is a health care center run by the Franciscan nuns who take care of the entire region (the Yukos are one of the most remote of all Colombian tribes). About the only influence they have received from “civilized people” has been pernicious (for instance, alcohol). The little material progress that has been made over the years is due largely to the efforts of the nuns who are now carrying out a housing project in each camp, building around 70 wood-framed, tin-roofed houses.
For many years the Yukos have received the Bahá’ís as friends, but until the arrival of the Trail of Light they had never been considered true spiritual brothers. With authority, the group members told them that Bahá’u’lláh has come for them, that the Bahá’í Faith is as much theirs as it is the Guaymis’, the Guajiros’, the Paezes’, and that all peoples should preserve the culture that makes them who and what they are. To be Yuko, the Guaymis told them, means to have their traditional houses, their dialect, their dances and music. The Yukos had been looking forward to the construction of a road leading to their camp. For the first time, they were warned about what they could lose and were advised that the only way to protect themselves is to work hard to unite and raise up their people.
The last night there was a unity feast that those who were present will never forget. The Yukos showed the group their lovely dances with traditional music and songs, and many of them learned the dances of the Guaymis and the Chichamaya of the Guajiros. While they danced, the rest of the Yukos chanted “Yukpa Panama! Yukpa Guajira!” With great delight, the three-day visit came to an end, and the jubilant members of the Trail of Light departed from their dear new friends, the Yuko Motilones.
In the three weeks the Trail of Light spent in Colombia, the way was opened to the hearts of the indigenous peoples of that country. All of the participants felt that the achievements were transcendental, but that it is only the beginning; the work ahead is to raise up and deepen native-born teachers, especially the Guajira; to go back with greater strength to the Arhuacos, the Yukos and the Paezes and finally to take them to the level of the Guaymis; to be traveling teachers who will ignite all the tribes of Colombia.—Leslie Garrett
Japan[edit]
Counsellor Hideya Suzuki (seated third from right) is shown with other Bahá’ís attending the first National Teaching Conference in Naha, Okinawa, held in March 1985.
Kenya[edit]
Conference ends UN Decade for Women[edit]
Fifty-five Bahá’ís were among the 14,000 people from more than 140 countries who gathered July 15-26 at the Jomo Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, for the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women.
In addition to participation by member states of the United Nations, about 180 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including the Bahá’í International Community sent delegations to the conference and to Forum ’85, held July 10-19 in Nairobi, at which delegates drafted a report on “forward-looking strategies for the advancement of women” and discussed plans for a worldwide women’s peace movement.
A document drafted by the UN was accepted unanimously by the delegates for the first time since the inception in 1976 of the Decade for Women. A supplementary document, “The State of the World’s Women, 1985,” prepared by the UN, outlines the results of current research on the position of women around the world. The report itself is divided into six categories: the family, agriculture, industrialization, health, education, and politics.
A 10-member “official” Bahá’í delegation was invited to attend the World Conference as representatives of an accredited non-governmental organization in consultative status with ECOSOC. It was headed by Mrs. Mary Sawicki, a representative of the Bahá’í International Community at the United Nations in New York City, who has been vice-chairman for programming of the NGO Committee for the Decade for Women since the beginning of the Decade. Besides coordinating the work of the delegation, Mrs. Sawicki provided liaison help to the Bahá’ís at the Forum.
Other members of the Bahá’í delegation were Dr. Magdalene M. Carney, a Counsellor member of the International Teaching Centre in Haifa, who served as its senior adviser; two members of the Continental Board of Counsellors in Africa, Thelma Khelghati and Peter Vuyiya; Mrs. Shomais Afnan, a health education specialist from Canada; Dr. Alberta Deas, an educator and member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States; Dr. Jane Faily, a clinical psychologist and member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada; Dr. Ethel Martens, a public health professional and director of the Bahá’í International Health Agency; Richard Mandara, a development consultant in East Africa; and Mrs. Catherine Mboya of Kenya, who was a member of the NGO Forum Planning Committee in Nairobi and who served on the Bahá’í delegation to the International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico in 1975.
Counsellor Thelma Khelghati (second from right) chats with visitors to the Bahá’í International Community’s exhibit at the NGO Forum ’85 for Women and Development held last July in Nairobi, Kenya.
Dr. Faily presented one of the 1,000 or so workshops at Forum ’85. It was titled “Problem-Solving Skills for Women in Managerial Positions: Bahá’í Methods for Management from the Grassroots Up.” Dr. Deas, meanwhile, spoke to an audience of about 750 at a teachers’ college in Nairobi.
Thanks to the hospitality of Kenya’s Bahá’ís, all of the delegates were accommodated in Bahá’í homes, thus avoiding the accommodation crisis that affected many of the 13,000 delegates who had to rely on city hotels.
Bahá’ís had participated significantly in four preparatory conferences sponsored by the UN Regional Economic Commissions. BIC representatives also attended three meetings of the UN Commission on the Status of Women which served as the preparatory committee for the conference, and the Bahá’í International Community was represented on the planning com-
[Page 5]
Right: Bahá’í and their guests respond
to a greeting from children at the Gingilili village nursery school near Nakuru, Kenya. The Bahá’í-supported
school is one of a number of social and
economic development projects undertaken in the area by the National Spiritual Assembly of Kenya. Below: Leonida Nafula, who teaches at the Gingilili nursery school, with some of the
50 children who regularly attend. The
children (25 boys, 25 girls) range in age
from three to five years.
mittee for the NGO Forum ’85, and at four advance meetings in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi.
The National Spiritual Assembly of Kenya had wisely prepared to take full advantage of an event that was to draw worldwide attention. The National Assembly arranged for a field trip for 30 delegates and guests to Nakuru to see first-hand the development projects begun by rural Bahá’ís in Kenya. These included a pre-primary school with programs for mothers and children, basket-weaving, developing fuel-efficient stoves, and other projects related to conservation and farming.
The emphasis in news releases was the equality of men and women; one newspaper headline read “The New Reality: Equality of Men and Women.” Advertising featured words from the Bahá’í Writings such as the reference to the “two hands” of the physical body being analogous to men and women, the two factors of the social body. Media coverage was extensive with radio and television broadcasts totaling several hours, and many items in the Nairobi press.
A permanent exhibit at the Forum, constantly attended by Bahá’ís, drew considerable attention. It depicted “Women in Development—Bahá’í Communities at the Grassroots Level.” The high standard of the presentation and its content were widely noticed and appreciated; one indication of this was the number of non-Bahá’í women who wished to be photographed beside the Bahá’í display.
Among the items on display were six educational manuals for mothers and
[Page 6]
Bahá’ís and guests including Counsellor Magdalene Carney of the International Teaching Centre (foreground,
facing camera) at Gingilili village.
teachers published by the National Spiritual Assembly of Kenya. These manuals, on nutrition, growth and development, discipline, spiritual education, and family advice, have been instrumental in the progress of rural education in Kenya and are being translated into Swahili and French for use in other African countries.
On behalf of the delegation, Dr. Carney sent the following cable to the Universal House of Justice on July 18, the third day of the conference:
“Bahá’í delegation UN Conference Nairobi deeply grateful Bahá’í community Kenya outstanding job coordinating arrangements our participation numerous interviews radio TV other activities. Ads beautifully designed by Margot McPhail featuring Bahá’í quotations re women prominently displayed leading newspaper daily. Second newspaper requests permission run same statements offering place two ads for price of one. Bahá’í Centre receiving numerous inquiries more information Faith response ads. Two wings bird analogy now frequently cited by others.
“Visit Bahá’í pre-school Gingilili village with non-Bahá’í guests highly successful. Development activities among rural Bahá’í women Luwanda impressive. They displayed produce crafts Bahá’í Centre Nakuru. Clearly explained to astonished visitors benefits consultation followed by action (to) improve their condition. Exemplary application Bahá’í principles grassroots.
“About 100 guests present Bahá’í Centre last night for first of three planned receptions. All visibly touched spirit Bahá’í unity. Every detail preparations first-class. Sincere expressions appreciation guests. UN High Commissioner
| Bahá’ís, guests visit rural development projects
Among the highlights of Bahá’í participation in the NGO Forum ’85, a part of the World Conference for Women held last July in Nairobi, Kenya, were visits to rural development projects organized by the NGO Committee in Nairobi, which requested the Bahá’í community of Nairobi to host one site visit. Bahá’ís and their guests visited the Gingilili Nursery School, about two hours from Nairobi near Nakuru. Shiva Tavana, the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly’s recently appointed representative to the United Nations in New York, had these impressions of the visit: “When we reached the nursery school, which also serves as the Bahá’í Center, we were greeted by the Bahá’í teacher, Leonida Nafula, who told us that the school serves 50 children (25 boys, 25 girls) ranging in age from three to five years old from the surrounding village area. In the first week of the school year the parents teach their children how to get to and from school; after that they come on their own. The curriculum consists of both material and spiritual education; they learn reading, writing, arithmetic, discipline, good conduct and to know and love God through prayers and songs. After questions and answers, we gathered outside to listen to the children sing, dance and say prayers.” The significance of the school, she says, lies in the important foundation and training the village children receive there. They will subsequently be able to enter public school on a more equal footing with the city children, will have less disciplinary problems, and will not be left behind because of inadequate learning in pre-school. The Bahá’ís are providing a valuable service to the local community by supporting financially the school and its dedicated teachers. |
Australia holds Bahá’ís high esteem. Said Bahá’í reception best organized, most hospitable, most delightful of all she has attended.
“About 45 Bahá’í participants besides delegation being urged make friends initiate cordial relations women all parts world. Opportunities unlimited amongst over 13,000 attendees. Forum and UN Conference delegation extremely busy thrilled serve Cause this manner.”
In a second cablegram on July 26, Dr. Carney reported:
“During past week over 500 invitations to receptions sent selected governmental (and) non-governmental delegations. Invitations proving valuable means proclamation Faith. Reception (at) Robarts home brought together 35 close friends of Bahá’ís from national, international circles. Heartwarming hospitality fellowship praised by diverse guests during and after affair. Those unable to attend often acknowledged receipt invitations. Forty guests attended reception Tuesday
[Page 7]
night Bahá’í Centre. Among them
(were) representatives official delegations Fiji, Samoa, Seychelles, Swaziland. Among NGOs represented were
All India Women’s Conference, International Association for Religious
Freedom, International Federation of
Women Lawyers, Latin American
Council of Catholic Women, World
Federation of United Nations Associations. After brief program which included statement optimism Bahá’ís
hold re progress women, decade and
beyond, a guest requested permission
speak. She identified herself with latter
organization mentioned above and said
proud close links established Bahá’ís
Australia thanked hosts for occasion.
Few others followed her example expressing appreciation event. Feel bonds
ties friendship established....
“Three members delegation, Afnan, Mboya, Carney had opportunity speak briefly presence representatives other religious organizations in meeting called by International Association for Religious Freedom. Significant contacts made head Israeli delegation. Sent flowers behalf BIC at opportune moment.
“In response news article featuring booklets for mothers, head Kenya National Library came to Bahá’í Centre, met Mr. Wafula (secretary of National Spiritual Assembly) insisted purchase two sets for library. He was impressed books, commended realism illustrations strongly suggested books be placed immediately all libraries and social service centres throughout Kenya that they be quickly translated all local languages for maximum benefit population....
“Publicity media continues generate widespread interest Faith. National Spiritual Assembly responding immediately numerous calls requests information literature.
“Peace main topic discussed this week. Deliberations sometimes came close Bahá’í position. More often dwelt on superficial conditions means bring about peace. Over-all assessment makes us profoundly grateful timeliness your forthcoming message to peoples world.”
Above: Among the Bahá’í participants at the UN Conference for Women and UN Forum ’85 in Nairobi, Kenya, were (left to right) Dr. Jane Faily, Canada; Catherine Mboya, Kenya; Shiva Tavana, United States; and Cossetta Scotto di Freca, Italy. Below: Also attending the conferences were Counsellor for Africa Thelma Khelghati (left) and Dr. Alberta Deas, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States.
United Nations[edit]
Equal rights for women no easy matter[edit]
Beyond slogans and projects, women are fighting for their own space in societies around the world. To do this they must struggle with their interpersonal relationships, and develop effective social and political networks. They do this largely on their own. In both Brazil and Costa Rica, which have been held up as development models over the past quarter-century, women’s struggles help make the case that this is not as simple as many would like to think.
With high economic growth rates in the early 1970s, Brazil challenged widespread pessimism that developing economies could not display the same capacity for growth that industrialized economies had. Costa Rica, in Central America, has been praised for its democratic political system and the surprisingly peaceful history it has had in a region of the world noted of late for excessive violence.
Now, much of the promise in both countries has soured. Brazil has the largest debt of any developing nation—$100 billion—and inflation is running as high as 230 per cent. “There was no miracle,” says one prominent Brazilian business woman. “We just had a stable economy for awhile.”
In Costa Rica, governments are still brought to power through a rather peaceful and uncorrupted process of vote, but there is growing fear that as economic difficulties mount and the civil wars in Central America continue, the country will succumb by degree to the same problems its neighbors have so much difficulty solving. Some already see signs of regression.
But when women are considered, many claims of economic and social progress seem particularly difficult to
| This article, “It’s Not as Simple as You Think,” is reprinted from UNICEF News (Issue No. 122, 1985/1) in which progress during the United Nations Decade for Women (1975-85) is discussed. The article was written by John Richardson, editor of UNICEF News. |
support and make Brazil and Costa Rica no different from most other countries in the world. In both countries, close to half—and perhaps more—of the population are women. The majority of them are poor and powerless.
In Brazil, women’s wages are 40 to 60 per cent those of men. Following the dictates of tradition, women occupy many of the socially most important but financially least remunerative positions—such as teachers, nurses, mothers, and social workers. They also occupy some of the dreariest—such as secretaries and domestic workers. They are the majority of minimum wage earners in a society where large numbers of them do not have a paying job at all.
But because families are breaking up under economic pressure and more and more women are left alone with children to raise, they are also the ones with the greatest responsibilities for shaping the character of future generations. Their limited education, high rates of illiteracy; relative inexperience in the job market, and general confinement to the routines of the home make the job exceedingly difficult for many of them.
In Costa Rica, the pattern repeats itself. Even in the socially more progressive organizations—the workers’ unions that have been allowed to grow under democracy—women have not had much voice, and it was not until quite recently that the first woman joined the top leadership. While they have the vote, most of the country’s women do not believe it necessarily gives them the political power they need to make dramatic changes in their lives. There is no guarantee that the people they vote for—the overwhelming majority of whom are men—will necessarily represent their interests, or even know how to. Without money, many say, political power is impossible—even in a supposedly democratic system.
Part of the problem can be attributed to the shortcomings of the programs designed to address the problem. The majority of development programs over the years have been designed and directed by men—who more often than not have either discounted the importance of women’s needs or never even thought of them to begin with. The “old boys’ club” that has run the development business has displayed a general “lack of familiarity in dealing with women,” according to Bob Berg, a former project evaluator with USAID. A “fear of doing things differently” has led to credibility problems. How can you have credibility, Berg asks, when you have token women sections in otherwise male-dominated organizations? “Often,” he adds, “it has taken a woman on the evaluation committee to raise the proper questions at all.”
But the problem is also “buried in cultural behavior,” in the words of one Costa Rican health official. Both men and women, he says, “act without serious understanding of the problem. It’s something very deep, and a lot more serious than we often think.”
It was phrased somewhat differently by a Brazilian woman. “Brazil,” she said after a lengthy assessment of the status of women in her country, “is still a very machismo society.”
In both Brazil and Costa Rica, many women leaders cite the International
[Page 9]
Women’s Year of 1975 as the first time
that the social and economic problems
of women were sufficiently recognized
to provoke constructive action. At the
time, though, women were even more
hampered than they are now by a lack
of training and education. And they
had little experience in organizing
themselves.
The majority of the world’s women, like those in the slums of Rio de Janeiro or on the cooperatives established in the past decade by former laborers on Costa Rica’s fruit plantations, have learned by force of circumstance—which, in many cases, is the hard way. Through community projects and discussions about community life, many women are beginning to see their own problems—of poverty, marriage, economy—as representative of poor women everywhere. They are beginning to understand that their problems are not necessarily their own fault, but reflections of greater social shortcomings that they themselves can help correct.
A UNICEF-supported study conducted among a group of households in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro’s slum of some 80,000 people, reveals that more than half of the women surveyed do not work outside their homes for money. Close to three-quarters of those who do list their occupation as domestic worker. Among the reasons for not working outside their homes, 65 per cent gave the need to stay at home to watch over the children. Of the women who do have jobs, some 20 per cent report leaving children under 12 years old at home with no adult to take care of them. More than half of the first born children were to mothers under 20 years of age. And, of the women surveyed between 17 and 50 years old, nearly half had not completed primary school.
As a result of the survey’s house-to-house visits, many of the women were obliged to think about problems of sexuality, child care, education, and their own health that they had not considered previously. A number of them are now involved in discussion groups, where they learn more about the problems of other women like themselves who live in the community. “They have come to know about their bodies, their children, in fact about the whole woman,” says Maria-Helena da Silva, head of the local neighborhood organization.
The reality behind these statistics, though, is quite harsh, and helps put such efforts into perspective. Eliza Pirozzi, a community leader in Rocinha, counts close to 10 different family situations that occur in slum life (see chart, Page 10) that often make the best intentioned efforts to improve upon them appear to be running against the current. They also form a
A UNICEF-supported study conducted among a group of households in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro’s slum of some 80,000 people, reveals that more than half of the women surveyed do not work outside their homes for money.
solid case for the need to educate women and provide them with the tools needed to prevent further deterioration of family and community life—such as knowledge of home health care techniques and local schools to which they can send their children.
Some of the women involved in the UNICEF-supported survey have begun to assert more control over their lives. They work as health workers, teaching other women how to use oral rehydration to combat diarrheal diseases among infants, and spend one day a week working at the local clinic. Others are involved in starting a community school. “We are no longer asking for favors,” says Maria-Helena da Silva, “we are asking for our rights.”
The Coopesierra Cantilla in Costa Rica is a 900-hectare cooperative. Its members are 150 former laborers from a fruit plantation about 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of San Jose, the nation’s capital. In the early 1970s, the men lost their jobs on the fruit plantation. Many were jailed when they and their families occupied land that belonged to the fruit company. Later, an arrangement was worked out with the government and the fruit company which allowed them to own the land.
Women earned the respect of many of the men for their support while the men were either unemployed or in jail. When it came to their struggles with the authorities, it was the women who often displayed the greatest strength. “Women are more courageous than men when it comes to facing police during a strike,” says the male manager of the cooperative. Other men agree.
But when it came to the economic life of the community, men weren’t so sure. Early projects that involved women were financial failures, largely because women had neither the skills nor the experience to make them successful. When further suggestions for women’s projects came up, many of the men told them to stick to housework. They were afraid of losing money through the inexperience of women, says the manager.
Now, though, rising inflation and restricted markets have made many of the men realize that the survival of the cooperative may well depend on involving the women as producers too. When the younger women started leaving the cooverative because there was no work for them, the men got worried and decided they had better find something for them to do to keep them there.
But the problem of getting women involved still exists. One woman, Yolanda Duran, holds both men and women responsible for resistance to change. Before the recent involvement of FECOPA, an organization of cooperatives supported in part by UNICEF that encourages members to deal with their problems through discussion and self-critique, she really wasn’t aware that the women in her community had problems. Now she is.
The men, she says, have not tried to understand the women’s problems. They have kept them from working in the fields, claiming it is too difficult, but have done little to provide any alternatives to isolation in the home.
It is not just the men, though. Women don’t make a sufficient effort either to let the men know what they are thinking. When FECOPA first came to their community, she says, the women should have discussed the need for more projects—like vegetable gardens—to provide the kinds of jobs that might have prevented the young women from leaving. They didn’t. If they had, and if they had fought for their own needs, the situation might have been prevented. There’s a group of
[Page 10]
women who never came to meetings at
all. It was, she says, largely the women’s fault. But through the examples of
a few, like herself, she thinks things
will change—slowly.
A significant part of the problem is that women are simply timid, according to Margarita Lazara, who lives in
| Family situations in slum provide sense of challenge to community development
1. The mother is a prostitute without a husband. Her child is locked at home or is a street child. 2. The mother has no husband. Her child is kept in the house and eats off the floor. 3. The mother’s husband is unemployed. She works and he cares for the children. 4. Both parents (or just the husband) drink too much and the children are in the street. 5. The parents have enough money but don’t care about the children. 6. The parents do nothing but criticize and expect others in the community to do things for them. 7. The mother is old and alone. She lives with no children, no money, and drinks all day. She has no involvement or perspective. 8. Both parents work and can afford to buy rice and beans for their children. 9. Only the husband works. The wife is a good mother who is worried about social problems. But reality prevails and her children end up delinquent anyway. 10. The family is wealthy but the child is rejected by the community because he’s rich. 11. The husband works and is involved in community affairs. The wife is a good mother to her children and kind to other children. |
the Indian community of Boruka high in the hills south of San Jose. “They’ve spent all their lives at home,” she says, “and haven’t spoken to any outsiders.”
Margarita is a member of a committee of female artisans learning to make traditional Indian clothes and household items that are in danger of disappearing as the community depends more and more on manufactured goods. While the committee exists to train women—a job done by the only woman in the community who still possesses the skill—it is the men who run it.
“Perhaps,” Margarita says, “the men think we are not capable, but the reality is that there are many of us who are just as intelligent. There are very few women who go to meetings because they’re afraid to, but there are women who can do the work.”
The president of the committee is her father. He thinks that men run the committee because women don’t want to be involved, but says he thinks women should be more involved because their ideas often are better. But “most men,” he says, “are afraid the women will pass them, be more capable and intelligent, and then they’ll lose their wives.”
Some women, though, like Luisa Ovarez, one of the original members of the Coopevaquita cooperative near the Panama border, are not timid. The cooperative grew out of violent struggle in the early 1970s, when workers on fruit plantations in the area lost their jobs and tried to settle on company land. They were jailed, beaten, shot at, and the land was burned. Enough of them hung on, though, and with the support of the banana workers union in the mid-70s, they earned the right to own the land, which they started paying for by any means they could. Problems continued. They knew nothing about bank credit, and accumulated debts. They were swindled by people who sold them expensive but useless farming machinery. Even though the land they had cultivated began to yield enough food to live on, they had no water supply for the community and children were in poor health. Education for the children was a problem.
The cooperative itself was formed largely out of necessity, as a way of sharing meager resources and acting in solidarity. Men allowed women to work largely because the need for everyone’s contribution was so great. Luisa was a pioneer, convincing a group of women to start raising pigs and using the funds for communal needs.
Because of Luisa’s influence, FECOPA’s recent involvement, and because the severity of circumstance gave them little choice, women in the cooperative are becoming more and more involved in community problems. They are learning about child health and nutrition, and about the need for safe water and better schooling for their children. Had they known about these things earlier, Luisa says, they might have been able to do something about the food shortages that prevailed during most of the 1970s.
But like most other cooperatives in Costa Rica—which by no means incorporates the majority of the country’s poor, many of whom have much less social organization to support them—Coopevaquita continues to have problems. There may never be enough money to allow them to do what they would like. They are learning, and things are much better now than they were even five years ago, but the struggle is still very hard. “All of the cooperatives have problems,” says one cooperative manager, “because they are cooperatives of poor peasants.”
What is important about the cooperatives—particularly for women—is that they give poor peasants a chance to exert some control over their lives, to make some decisions about their fate consistent with their needs and lifestyles. As one woman at a sewing cooperative in San Jose said, “The most important thing about the cooperative is that we are the owners, we run it, and it gives us more confidence in ourselves. We don’t have a boss. This is very important, because when we worked at the factory we couldn’t get permission to see our children or take them to the hospital. Now we have more unity. We have met some objectives in life. We have goals and a sense of how to prepare for them.”
Yet some of these women talk despairingly about their chances of securing greater influence in the larger society. At another sewing cooperative, just north of San Jose, women agree that they have much greater personal
[Page 11]
freedom than before. But they point
out that many are working because
their husbands simply gave in to hard
economic times and need whatever
money their wives can bring in. As to
their chances of ever having the kind of
political influence needed to change
laws or secure greater economic equality with men, they are skeptical.
“There is simply too much machismo,” one of them said. “Politics are
run by men, and women are put in isolated positions.”
The challenge for women, then, is to overcome positions of isolation—as housewives isolated from community affairs, as workers without economic power, as constituents without sufficient representation—and build networks which give them access to the people and resources needed to improve their lives. Cooperatives in Costa Rica represent one possibility, while taking responsibility for child health care and education in Rocinha is another. But ultimately these efforts need to be helped along and built upon by other women if genuine social change is to come.
In Brazil, early efforts to promote women’s issues often resulted in more talk than action, according to one feminist. Many women were political exiles in Europe during the 1970s because of Brazil’s oppressive military government. There they began to organize around the issues identified by various women’s movements in the European countries. When they returned to the country after an amnesty in 1979, many of them went to work in their communities or in various government agencies to see if they could help their own society recognize and respond to the needs of women. Today a number of them work with established agencies—like government welfare departments, the church, and international organizations like UNICEF—which help support efforts among the poor to raise consciousness and deliver tangible necessities like jobs, education, and improved health care.
As Brazil’s military government gives way to civilian rule, attempts to use the system for social change will be easier. “Now we have a role in policy formation,” says Eva Bley, president of the State Council for Women’s Affairs in Sao Paulo. “Many of us decided consciously to go into politics, and the result was the creation of a council at the state level to deal with women’s issues. We can use the existing structure and provoke action from the inside.”
The Council is linked to unions, neighborhood associations, and political parties. It advises women workers on how to start day care centers, how to change worker laws and get maternity leave increased from three to five months, and how to get their issues on
What is important about the cooperatives—particularly for women—is that they give poor peasants a chance to exert some control over their lives, to make decisions about their fate consistent with their needs and lifestyles.
union agendas. It also plans to do something to increase women’s wages. “In short,” says Eva Bley, “we do things for women that they want us to do.”
In Minas Geraes state, there is another state council for women’s affairs—the only other one so far in Brazil—which was created with the support of Tancredo Neves, former governor of the state and now the civilian president-elect of Brazil. It is headed by Junia Marise, one of the few female state representatives in the country—in what is recognized by many to be one of the most conservative states.
The council, much like that in Sao Paulo, tries to change laws or create programs that will help women deal with family violence, job discrimination, and low wages. But the system was not created, nor has it evolved, with these issues as its priorities. “So far,” according to one council member, “the justice system has not solved the problems of women.”
In October 1984, with promotional and financial help from UNICEF, the council organized a meeting to discuss the problems of rural women in Brazil. It was the first time such a meeting was held at state level, and furnished evidence of just how long it has taken for women’s issues to get on government agendas at high levels.
With political changes in Brazil promising more attention to social issues than the country has seen in 20 years, many are becoming optimistic about opportunities for change. Interest groups—including those like the state women’s councils—will have more of an ear from representatives because for the first time in two decades the representatives will be dependent in part upon their votes. “These programs will be much easier to fight for now than even a year ago,” says one woman who works at the State Secretariat of Housing and Labor in Rio de Janeiro.
The state women’s councils in Brazil are among many efforts being made by Brazilian women to change their social status and secure greater opportunity. They are also evidence—along with the women’s group emerging in Rocinha—of how much progress has been made in the past 10 years. Examples can be found in other countries around the world although in many—including Costa Rica—the established social and political structures needed to support substantial change for women are still undeveloped.
There is no particular reason to expect that they will develop unless women see to it themselves—as evidenced also in the case of Brazil. Even though president-elect Neves has made it clear that he considers women’s issues important, few women are anticipating miracles. “He will not give anything,” says Eva Bley. “We will have to take it. He is giving us a space. Nothing more than this.”
Panama[edit]
Guaymi Cultural Center is dedicated[edit]
For more than a week the Guaymis (an indigenous tribe in Panama) could be seen working on the road to the Muhájir Institute in Soloy to assure a loving and dignified reception for the long-awaited visit to the Guaymi area of the Hand of the Cause of God Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum.
Seven months earlier, in August 1984, the Guaymi Bahá’í youth had gathered for a teaching conference in Soloy and written a letter to Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum in which they invited her to come to Panama to visit them. Shortly afterward a cable was sent to Panama from the Holy Land saying that she would not only visit the Guaymis in Soloy but would lay the cornerstone of the Guaymi Cultural Center.
Beginning at dawn on February 1, everything was activity in Soloy. With great joy the Guaymis cleared the site where the cornerstone was to be placed. Others prepared the inscription on the cornerstone while the women began the cooking.
Later that morning Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum arrived. A group of Guaymi youth accompanied by women and children went to greet her carrying welcoming signs. Everyone began to sing “Alláh’u’Abhá.” She entered the Muhájir Institute where many others gathered for a program of welcome.
After lunch, everyone climbed the hill for the laying of the cornerstone of the Guaymi Cultural Center. The program began with an uplifting devotional service conducted by youth and children who recited prayers from memory. This was followed by a number of speakers including Mas’ud Khámsi, a Counsellor member of the International
| This article about the dedication last February of the Guaymi Cultural Center in Soloy, Panama, was prepared under the direction of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Panama. |
Teaching Centre in Haifa; Counsellor for the Americas Ruth Pringle; and Dean Stephens, a member of CIRBAL and consultant in radio broadcasting for the Universal House of Justice.
The Hand of the Cause of God Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum greets members of Panama’s Guaymi Bahá’í community on her arrival in Soloy, Panama, last February 1 to lay the cornerstone of the Guaymi Cultural Center.
Next, the Hand of the Cause of God spoke and lovingly laid the cornerstone for the historic edifice. Later that afternoon there was a delightful program of songs presented by Julita Acevedo of Puerto Rico and talks by a number of Guaymi youth.
The evening program in honor of the Hand of the Cause was varied, entertaining and educational, providing an interesting overview of the Guaymi culture through drama, songs, poetry and tribal dances. The following day, the distinguished guests took part in a Guaymi youth conference in Soloy.
The placing of the cornerstone of the Guaymi Cultural Center represents the first tangible aspect of a project which had its beginning in January 1983 when the National Spiritual Assembly of Panama decided to establish the Center to offer educational and cultural opportunities to every Guaymi according to his interest and ability. It proposes to provide universal education on three levels: material, human and spiritual.
One of the goals of the Center is to preserve the Guaymi culture—their language, folklore and legends, crafts, dances and music. While they are gain-
[Page 13]
ing pride in their cultural heritage,
basic education and new technology
will be introduced to them through seminars, workshops and “tutorial
schools.” Activities at the Guaymi
Center will include programs on nutrition, agriculture, general education,
and the training and development of
children as well as conferences for
women, youth and children. In addition, there will be institutes and workshops for the orientation and training
of outstanding individuals to become
traveling teachers, tutorial school
teachers, and even professors at regional institutes.
In conjunction with the development of the Guaymi Cultural Center and tutorial schools, a Bahá’í radio station will be established to broadcast educational programs to the Guaymi community and to serve as a “voice” of the Guaymi Cultural Center programs.
The spiritual foundation of the concept of the Guaymi Cultural Center was developed through an intensive teaching campaign to greatly augment the number of Bahá’ís among the Guaymis. The Guaymis themselves directed the campaign and also provided full-time pioneers to teach and deepen their people.
Two weeks after the cornerstone was set in place, construction began on the Guaymi Cultural Center building, the design and plans for which were drawn up by Floyd Heaton. Construction was supervised by Paul Jensen. Both men are Bahá’í pioneers to Panama. In the course of construction the Guaymis, who were the major work-force, had to learn to use all the tools and equipment such as wheelbarrows, ladders, etc., as they had no previous construction experience.
The walls of the Center are made of Cimva adobe blocks which are made of soil from the area mixed with dry cement and pressed into shape by hand-operated block-making machines. Guaymi men, women and children all helped make 1,200 blocks a day with four of these machines. Leaders in the fields of education, medicine and government in the Soloy area have visited the construction site to see the adobe block-making process and have expressed an interest in the use of this type of adobe in other Guaymi areas.
The unique concept of the Guaymi Cultural Center to combine Bahá’í radio, tutorial schools, and adult education programs—intertwined and supporting one another—is designed to develop the capacity and potential of an indigenous people—the Guaymis.
“... The Great Being saith: Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.”— Bahá’u’lláh
Guaymi Bahá’ís in Soloy, Panama,
have a good time making adobe blocks
with which to build the Guaymi Cultural Center. Also scheduled to be built
in the Guaymi area is a Bahá’í radio
station to provide educational programs and serve as a ‘voice’ of the
Guaymi Cultural Center programs.
A Guaymi woman carefully lifts an
adobe block from the block-making
machine before adding it to the many
such blocks required to build the
Guaymi Cultural Center in Soloy, Panama. Guaymi men, women and children made some 1,200 blocks a day
from soil and dry cement as construction of the Center began last February.
Hawaii[edit]
300-plus at Pacific Youth Conference[edit]
Pictured are many of the more than 300 youth and adults from 20 Pacific area countries who attended the Bahá’í International Youth Conference-Australasia held August 8-11 at the Kauai Surf Hotel Convention Center on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The conference was sponsored by the National Spiritual Assembly of Hawaii.
More than 300 youth and adults from some 20 countries attended the 1985 Bahá’í International Youth Conference-Australasia held August 8-11 at the Kauai Surf Hotel Convention Center on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Most of the attendees were from the Pacific-area nations.
With its theme “Youth Can Move the World,” the conference considered the challenges facing today’s youth and how Bahá’í youth can help build world unity and peace. Speakers and workshops centered on ways in which youth can prepare themselves to be of service to God and mankind. The young people were challenged to put into practice the principles of morality and behavior taught by Bahá’u’lláh and to spread His healing message across the Pacific.
Highlights of the conference included a public meeting attended by about 500 persons which featured the Pacific area premiere of the music video “Mona with the Children” and a personal appearance by internationally known singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie who presented an hour-long performance. Ms. Sainte-Marie praised the work of the Bahá’ís for world unity and peace.
The conference was blessed by the presence of the Hand of the Cause of God H. Collis Featherstone and Mrs. Featherstone. Other special guests included Counsellor Ben Ayala, members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Hawaii, four Auxiliary Board members, and pioneers to New Zealand Russell and Gina Garcia.
The conference program included a Polynesian show and welcomes by representatives of the governor of Hawaii and the mayor and city council of Kauai. The governor’s message said in part: “Through activities such as this International Youth Conference, we insure that a precious part of our heritage is preserved, and that even greater numbers of people gain an appreciation of the teachings and philosophy of
[Page 15]
Internationally known singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie performs
during the International Bahá’í Youth
Conference in Kauai, Hawaii. Her
hour-long performance drew an audience of more than 500 including many
non-Bahá’ís. Ms. Sainte-Marie, a part-time Kauai resident, has been a friend
of the Faith for many years.
The Hand of the Cause of God H. Collis Featherstone (left) on stage at the Bahá’í International Youth Conference on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. With Mr. Featherstone is Scott Wolff, chairman of the Hawaii Bahá’í National Youth Committee who served as master of ceremonies for the conference.
the Bahá’ís.”
With help from the Hawaiian Bahá’í youth, the Garcias wrote and produced “Dawn of a New Age,” a music-drama on the history of the Faith.
Youth, especially members of the Hawaii National Youth Committee, played a major role in planning the conference and were active in the presentations, workshops and reports. Scott Wolff, chairman of the National Youth Committee, served as master of ceremonies for the conference.
The gathering closed with an inspiring taped message from the Hand of the Cause of God William Sears who was unable to attend the conference but called upon the youth to become “teaching martyrs” for the Faith.
The conference included entertainment by the youth themselves and an art exhibit by Bahá’í artists from Hawaii. The conference coordinators were Bruce Dusseault and Duette Rochelle.
In a cable to the Universal House of Justice, the youth reported: “Conference expected to generate many homefront teaching projects, travel teaching and pioneering. Youth of the Pacific ready to move the world.”
Taiwan[edit]
Mary Wallace, a retired school teacher from Florida who pioneered to Taiwan in 1984, has made many friends there simply by telling them that we are all one family and that she loves the Chinese people and Taiwan. After meeting Wu Shoei-Yun at the Chinese Cultural Center and telling him that, she found that he is the magistrate of the county. Later, he invited her to his office where she was made an honorary citizen of Hualien County.
World Centre[edit]
Youth Year spurs worldwide activities[edit]
A summary of reports from National Spiritual Assemblies and Continental Boards of Counsellors indicates that 60 national Bahá’í communities have undertaken activities for International Youth Year.
Eleven communities in Africa, 18 in the Americas, 11 in Asia, nine in Australasia and 11 in Europe had made known to the Universal House of Justice by June 15 the specific activities in which they were engaged.
Twenty-eight youth conferences will or have been held—eight of them international in scope. Twenty-two national Bahá’í communities are collaborating with agencies of their governments or other non-Bahá’í groups to hold IYY events.
Eight countries on four continents are producing IYY literature or related materials such as compilations, pamphlets or special editions of their youth magazines. Creative and unusual events are included along with the more traditional ones. A sampling:
Africa[edit]
Youth in Benin are planting trees; in Botswana they will help tutor children in Bahá’í tutorial schools; from the Gambia a young Bahá’í woman was sent to represent her government at a youth conference in Jamaica; in three regions of Zaire the youth plan to offer stage performances called “Peace or Sword” and lectures on “Participation, Development and Peace”; in Malawi a Bahá’í delegation is in touch with the Ministry of Youth regarding Bahá’í involvement in the year’s celebrations; Zambia’s youth are cooperating with their government’s activities, are teaching Bahá’í children’s classes for their local Assemblies and holding a tutorial school.
The Americas[edit]
Barbados plans to hold an International Youth Camp; youth in Belize worked with their government’s Ministry of Youth to put on the largest and best-organized conference in the country’s history; wide-ranging actions in Brazil include an essay contest open to all youth, special publications, conferences and a youth deepening institute during Carnival. In Canada, six Native American youth were scheduled to go to overseas development projects to serve for six-month periods; Chile held a drawing and painting exhibit of works by children and youth; El Salvador’s plans include aid to refugees, help for the sick, and a festival of poetry, painting, music and photography; youth from Colombia will help strengthen tutorial schools in that country as well as in Panama and Paraguay using young volunteers trained in residence at the Ruhí Institute; in the United States, the youth conference at Ohio State University with more than 5,000 attending generated massive publicity and good will, while social service projects carried out locally include a reforestation effort with at least 20,000 trees planted; five outstanding Venezuelan youth have volunteered six months’ service in rural areas, working in development and community consolidation; efforts in the Virgin Islands have been highly visible—a prize-winning float, a joint task force with a government commission, and more.
Asia[edit]
Plans and projects, past and future, include seminars and conferences in India, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines. A Bahá’í Youth Night was to be held at a respected polytechnic institute in Singapore, and the same community is to join in a national book fair from which it will launch a poster and essay competition. Taiwan will hold an island-wide school level essay and photo contest on themes related to IYY, while Thailand planned to hold a music institute in connection with a youth conference in the fall.
Australasia[edit]
In Australia, a youth conference was held in December 1984 with a second scheduled in September 1985; an Australian Bahá’í youth on an IYY committee has many opportunities to present Bahá’í principles; Hawaii’s International Youth Conference in August drew youth from 20 countries and islands of the Pacific; conferences also are planned in Kiribati, New Zealand and Tuvalu. In Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu, Bahá’ís serve on public or government committees to plan and carry out IYY activities; and links between youth of Tonga and Japan have been forged through joint participation in Youth Year activities involving the two countries.
Europe[edit]
Belgium, Denmark, France and Austria have held international gatherings of youth; Finland will send a Finnish and a Gypsy youth to a service project in India; in France, the Spiritual Assembly of Bordeaux is raising money for a development project in an African village while nationally, the country plans to present the UN Declaration of Human Rights at scores of universities and schools; Luxembourg is to host American youth in a teaching project; Norwegian youth have produced pamphlets on topics relevant to IYY; Portugal will also take up the human rights question, presenting a series of talks with permission from educational officials to grades 10 through 12; Sweden is publishing a special pamphlet geared toward youth; and the United Kingdom’s program of presenting the UN Declaration of Human Rights to all secondary schools in that country is well under way.
[Page 17]
Above: The model of the Mother Temple of the Indian Subcontinent, in the
right foreground, is compared with the
actual building in progress on June 30,
1985. The photograph shows that the
exquisite geometry of the design has
been perfectly replicated in the actual
building. The precision demanded in
the construction of the vast, multiple-curved surfaces allows for tolerances
of only a few millimeters deviation.
Far left: The wooden frames of one of
the outer leaves of the House of Worship at New Delhi are fixed according
to an exact pattern, and the geometry
checked by step templets. The sections
are then covered by plywood to provide the exact geometry for the back
forms of the leaf. Each piece of back
form is of a different size, and each is
marked for a special place. Left: The
special staging designed for the work
of applying the marble to the finished
concrete surfaces of the Temple is in
place.
The extraordinary story of how the Bahá’í Faith was brought to North America and how the early Western Bahá’ís survived the disaffection of their first teacher and became firmly grounded in the Covenant
IN AMERICA Origins |
| Secret meetings, inaccurate explanations, the seeking of personal gain through the promulgation of half-understood teachings—these are some of the factors that lead to the conversion before 1900 of almost 1,500 North Americans from 25 U.S. states and at least one Canadian province. Many fell away when their leader broke the Covenant. But the strong and dedicated group of Bahá’ís who remained steadfast would build Bahá’í institutions that would become models for Bahá’ís everywhere. Read about such early Bahá’ís as the wealthy PHOEBE HEARST (mother of William Randolf Hearst); ROBERT B. TURNER (the first black Bahá’í in North America); Canadian-born PAUL DEALY (who was appointed Chicago’s first Bahá’í “teacher”); EDWARD GETSINGER (one of the many persons from the medical field attracted to the Bahá’í Faith); LUA GETSINGER (destined to become one of the greatest teachers of the Faith); and THORNTON CHASE (an insurance executive designated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as “the first American believer.”) |
| ROBERT H. STOCKMAN, who became a Bahá’í in 1973, holds a bachelor’s degree in geology and archaeology from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut; a master’s degree in planetary geology from Brown University; and a master of theological studies degree from the Harvard Divinity School. At the present time he is teaching astronomy at Bentley College, in Waltham, Massachusetts, while he is pursuing a doctorate of theology in the history of religion in America at the Harvard Divinity School. |
| xxix + 277 pages, including appendix, notes, annotated bibliography, indexes 23 photographs |
$1995* |
*Available from Bahá’í Distribution Service
Wilmette, IL, U.S.A., at prices listed plus 10% for
postage and handling.
- Available from
- Available from
415 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, IL 60091 ■ TEL. 1-800-323-1880
