Membership News

Membership Committee: Malaya Bhattacharya, Chair,

Vassana Barclay, Renu Paryani, Olga Ivanova

Goodbye to:

Elizabeth Bautista has been one of the most hard-working and committed UNWA members. She has served as secretary, membership and welfare chairperson on UNWA boards. Elizabeth, who is from the Philippines, has spent three years in Dhaka with her husband, who works for UNHCR.

Janet Jackson has been Deputy Resident Representative with UNFPA in Dhaka for three years.

Mary Killewo, an enthusiastic UNWA member, has been in Dhaka for three years. Her husband, who works with ICDDR,B is going back to his job in Tanzania.

Kuntala Ghosh has been an UNWA member for four years. She is leaving for New York with her husband, who works for UNICEF.

Caroline Van Zoolingen has been an active member of UNWA’s Welfare Committee. She joined her husband during his 3 year posting in Dhaka for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and now going back to Holland. Caroline says this about her experiences with UNWA: “I enjoyed being involved with the UNWA Welfare Committee. It is a good opportunity to see real life in Bangladesh. It is a very poor country, with a huge population. We all face this even around the Gulshan area. How will you ever be able to deal with the poverty? Being involved with the Welfare Committee gives you a chance to meet that side of Bangladesh in a pleasant way. You are able to make children happy, amidst their sad and depressing living conditions, and meet people with their hearts in the right places, willing to make an effort to change the life of women and children. I have seen places I never have been before, and which are sometimes hard to see. They struggle for life but they are so happy to see a Bedeshi.”

Hello to:

Edith Campbell has been here since October. Her husband is the Canadian High Commissioner in Bangladesh. Before Dhaka, she lived in Nairobi. Edith has already joined the Welfare Committee. She enjoys singing and yoga. She has three daughters, the eldest of whom is in college in Canada.

Olga Ivanova’s husband work for UNHCR and she was in Iran for a short while before coming to Bangladesh. She has one son. She enjoys walking, yoga and singing.

Julia Ackley spent the last 6 years in Washington DC before moving to Dhaka in July 2002. She came with her husband, Cameron Burks, who works for the US Embassy. She works at ICDDR,B as the Senior Associate in the Office of External Relations and Institutional Development, working on fundraising and communications. Her hobbies are yoga, tennis, reading and watching movies.