FAWCO NEWS CORNER - January 2025

1/28/20251 min read

Welcome to some information and links from our “mother” association FAWCO to members. Just so you know, the Federation of American Women’s Associations Overseas was founded in 1931 and boasts 59 clubs in 29 countries currently.

There are four global issues that FAWCO is currently focusing on: education, the environment, health and human rights.

I already mentioned one aspect regarding education in the AIWAV Activities chat in January – which is the new trend (400% increase over 9 years) in book banning in the US. There’s a link to a FAWCO research article (https://www.fawco.org/global-issues/education/education-articles/5074-the-insidious-rise-of-book-banning-facts-figures-and-taking-action) that I recommend reading to learn more about the origins of the banning, reasons for its resurgence and methods for combatting it.

Here, I’ll talk about an element of health that we could tap into: Clubs In Motion. The idea is to encourage and chronicle our members’ efforts to stay fit. FAWCO records its members doing physical activity together. The 2024 world club report was just published.

To participate, there have to be at least 3 members doing something active together, like walking a few kilometers/miles or doing a mini-marathon. Sure, we walk no matter what in the lagoon area of historic Venice – just to get on with everyday life in town. But if our members are interested in getting together for extra walks/runs in the city or on the mainland and then pass on this information and photos to FAWCO, all the better! We could also send along info whenever we have several members rowing together. Wouldn’t that aspect of our “moving” be fun to get included as part of our Venetian club? So Ladies, let us know when you are staying fit together. Let’s get listed! Link to FAWCO’s Clubs In Motion: www.fawco.org/clubs-in-motion.

As for human rights, we’ll have our lovely Julia Runte give a talk on the subject at February’s clubhouse meeting!

Well, I gotta run now, but not in the moving sense,

Irene Woodbury, FAWCO rep for AIWAV