Fundamental Challenges to International Development
Conference Held 2-3 November 2006
Ft. Lee, Hilton Hotel, New Jersey, USA

A Great Success
by
Bill Cadwallader, PRID
Conference Chairman

On 2-3 November 2006 the Rotarian Action Group for Population and Development (RFPD) held a a conference entitled,"Fundamental Challenges to International Development."

The conference was opened by RFPD Chairman, PDG Salem Mashour from Egypt who explained the goals of this important meeting. The agenda items included Women's Empowerment, Education, Maternal Health, and HIV/AIDS. The event was planned to complement Rotary UN Day that was held on the following day Saturday. November 4.  112 Rotarians from 16 countries and 37 districts from around the world attended this RFPD conference.  Rotarians and guests came from 15 different states of the USA.

Thursday night started the excitement with a welcome reception led by conference chairman, Bill Cadwallader, PRID (at left).  Bill related his experience with wife Jean when they lived in a small village in the mountains of Mexico from 1965-67.  When Jean had their third child, the other women of the village who had given birth at the same time as Jean came to her and asked what she knew that they did not know.  Six months after giving birth to children, Jean was not pregnant again and they were once again with child.  It became obvious to Bill and Jean the level of despair among the women that had no way of spacing their children and fearing for their own lives, as well as their ability to feed, cloth and educate their offspring.  It was at this time that Bill and Jean became acutely aware of the plight of women in developing countries and the critical need of child-spacing knowledge to maintain the stability and integrity of poor families around the world.

Peter Neuner from Austria followed Bill's opening remarks with a film of the comprehensive approach to tackle maternal mortality including prevention and treatment of fistual - a joint project of Nigerian, German and Austrian clubs. This project was initiated and supported by RFPD.

Friday morning, speakers from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), included Arletty Pinel at right. Rotary International has a Memorandum of Cooperation with the UNFPA now in its second term of service. Speakers spoke about women's empowerment and education as well as the status of maternal health around the world. They were followed by examples of work being done by Rotarians in Nigeria, India, Egypt and Germany to help meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in developing countries.  It must be noted that universal access to reproductive health is now a target of the UN Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). Breakout sessions considered education of women, micro-credit,  and mass media projects to bring about social and behavioral change.

Afternoon plenary speakers were from the UNFPA and RFPD. They discussed all aspects of HIV/AIDS; especially the treatment and care of orphans and the mass testing of population groups. The focus was on pregnant women and high school seniors to prevent transmission of HIV in adolescents and from mothers to babies during childbirth.  Afternoon breakout sessions considered maternal health and proper protocol for doing voluntary counseling and testing and the tests available for this work.  Presentations were made on the nature of the HIV virus and resistance to treatment.

The entire audience was upbeat and appreciative of the vast amount of knowledge made available to those in attendance.  Many questions were asked, and answered.  Tables with information from the UNFPA, our Rotary Foundation, HIV testing procedures, mass media to change social attitudes and RFPD.  A project Fair was available to distribute projects from many parts of the world from micro-credit to AIDS orphans and HIV voluntary counseling and testing.

The Friday night banquet provided a report on RFPD and an update on the development of Rotarian Action Groups.  The highlight of the event was the conference highlighter, Past RI President Frank Devlyn, who gave his usual masterful presentation and made us all glad that we have the opportunity to help the women of the world have stable families that can contribute to the sustainable development of all nations of the world.

You are encouraged to review the presentations below for more complete information about this outstanding conference.