October is UNWA’s busiest month. With UN Day approaching, UNWA members move into fourth gear with plans for UN Day and its related events. These include: UN Day Exhibition; UNWA UN Day monthly meeting; UN Year of Fresh Water poster competition; and the UN Ball. Each of these events merits special attention on the part of our members.

The children’s poster competition will include entries from five international primary schools on the theme of "Year Of Fresh Water". The winners’ paintings will be featured on the UN Ball menu. We are placing special emphasis on the UN Day exhibition that highlights the work conducted by all of the UN agencies and affiliated international institutions.

This year Nigel Garvey and Marie-Ange Sylvain-Holmgren, who prepared an outstanding September meeting presentation on child labour and trafficking in Southeast Asia, are lending their special talents in audio visual and graphic display to the Exhibition.

Our guest speakers for the UN Day monthly meeting, Dr. Suzanne Hanchett, an anthropologist, and Begum Shamsun Nahar, will present their work in Bangladesh on "Gender and Water Resources".

This year’s ball will be held on Saturday, October 25, at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon. The Welfare Committee will identify several projects for multi-year funding to be announced at the Ball. The Ball will once again be the culmination of a busy week of events to acknowledge and support the work, sacrifices and accomplishments of the UN family in Bangladesh.

Personally, I am requesting participation in UNWA on the part of ALL members to ensure the success of the upcoming events.

While we anticipate a strong attendance by members at the Ball, we need you to additionally contribute your talents and time to make the events surrounding UN Day successful. Attend the UN Exhibition, bring friends, children, youth and young adults who are interested in development work to see how the UN and its partners contribute to the development of Bangladesh. Fundraise for the Ball if you know businesspeople and individuals interested in contributing funds to support our Welfare Committee’s work or will contribute raffle prizes for the evening of October 25.

Don’t let your participation in UNWA begin and end with the UN Ball.

Identify what you will be willing to work on in the upcoming months and share it with the Board members. We are seeking participation in developing programmes for the upcoming months, site visits for projects seeking UNWA assistance and talented artists and musicians among our UNWA families and friends for special events.

I’ll see you on Friday, October 24, for UN Day!