PUBLIC AFFAIRS sub-committee

This committee consists of seven elected members, including a Board of Trustees Link member, plus the Officers of the Federation, the Skills Co-ordinator, the Resolutions Advisor and the Press Officer, ex officio

Chairman - Wendy Wilson (Tonteg WI)

Vice Chairman - Ann Hanford (Catwg WI)

Secretary - Glenys Care (Whitchurch WI)

Gill Irwin (Whitchurch WI)

Janet Jones (Pontypridd WI)

Val Morgan (St Fagans WI)

ACWW Representatives: Sylvia Davies and Novello Peters (six months each)

Sue Smith (Llanharry WI) ex officio Resolutions Advisor

Helen Chisholm (Upper Killay WI) ex officio Skills Co-ordinator and Link member

Sally Mabey (Culverhouse Cross WI) ex officio Press & Publicity Officer

PUBLIC AFFAIRS sub-committee

What is the purpose of Public Affairs? (Click on underlined words to go to relevant paragraph)
Public Affairs Network
Campaigns
EcoTeams & Climate change
Science Made Simple
International Days

Windfarm visit
ACWW
Other projects covered in Public Affairs

Tips
Useful websites

What is the purpose/function of Public Affairs?

The Public Affairs Department carries out the campaigning, lobbying, policy and research work of the National Federation of WI, (NFWI).
Public Affairs produces notes on the shortlisted resolutions, and materials and information to enable all members to lobby and campaign on the mandate at national, county and local levels.
The Glamorgan Federation Public Affairs committee supports and actions the work of the PA departments, at national and county levels.

Background to NFWI-Wales and Public Affairs:

The NFWI-Wales Office has a small team of bilingual staff which supports and represents the 16,000 members in Wales. The public affairs role of NFWI-Wales is to:-

Support Federations and WIs to take forward WI campaigns in Wales;
Promote the policies and campaigns of the WI to decision makers and the public;
Keep a watching brief over Welsh Assembly policies relating to the campaigns and policies of the WI;
Respond to consultation documents issued by the Welsh Assembly Government and other public bodies to influence policy development;
Establish partnerships with organisations with similar aims to add strength to WI campaigns;
Establish projects relating to WI campaigns such as the EcoTeams initiative.

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Public Affairs Network

The Public Affairs sub-committee has a remit to "keep members informed of issues which relate to rural affairs, social policy, health policy, consumer affairs, citizenship issues, international affairs, sustainable development and the environment" - Quite a wide range of topics!

Obviously, a lot of these are addressed at a national level and we can all read about these in the WI Life magazine.

However sometimes there are more local issues, concerns and actions that we want to be able to share with you, so we are setting up a Public Affairs Network to help this happen.

Many WIs have nominated a member who will be the particular link into this Network. The person nominated isn't necessarily a committee member, but she will be interested in the work we do, and be prepared to cascade information and get others interested and involved.

We will send you a quarterly newsletter to highlight:

Hot issues
Information from around Glamorgan
Sharing ideas for action

For this to work, there needs to be a 2-way flow of information and ideas, and the Network will act as a channel for this. In this way we can all share the best ideas and really make a difference.

The first newsletter is being sent out to signed-up members at the end of June

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Campaigns

Although work is progressing on other projects, the current campaign is Trafficking for sexual exploitation. NFWI-Wales and Amnesty International Wales are involved in a joint campaign to help victims of human trafficking for the sex trade in Wales. The campaign is calling on the Welsh Assembly Government to:-

Provide secure accommodation for the victims of trafficking in Wales; and
Provide support services, medical care and legal advice to victims in Wales.

Hundreds of WI members from across Wales have already supported the campaign by sending a campaign postcard to their Assembly Member and another to the First Minister. It is not too late to get involved - ask your WI Secretary for a postcard (postcards were circulated to WIs last autumn via Federations) or lobby Rhodri Morgan directly from Amnesty International's website at
Amnesty International's report which highlights the extent of trafficking in Wales can also be downloaded from this link.

Link to the NFWI-Wales 'news and campaigns' page on the WI website. From this link you can download the Wales Public Affairs Bulletins.

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Eco Teams & Climate Change

What are 'ECO TEAMS'?
"A WI EcoTeam is a small group of WI members who come together to learn more about climate change and share fun, easy and practical ways to make their daily lives more environmentally sustainable - while making friends and saving money, in the knowledge they are doing their bit to help the planet." (NFWI, Bringing Climate Change.)

Pictured above are some members of the Catwg EcoTeam on their first meeting. They enjoyed their time as members of the group and gained much from the sessions. Energy and water consumption was cut and two members began composting for the first time.

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WIND FARM VISIT

The Public Affairs sub-committee of Glamorgan Federation organised a visit to Ffynnon Oer Wind Farm, Resolven, Neath.

Npower Renewables, based at Baglan Energy Park, kindly arranged the transport and guides for the event.

The purpose of the visit was for the WI members to see for themselves, the impact that wind-farms have on the environment. This visit was linked to the WI's campaign on climate change.

The sixteen wind turbines supply enough power for 17,000 homes every year and save on average, 67,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. There is a 'Habitat Management Plan' in place to increase the biodiversity of the site and the turbines were surprisingly quiet.

During the visit one of the guides gave a short presentation on the technical aspects of the wind farm and each member was given a 'green' shopping bag containing more information.

Everyone benefited from the educational experience and thoroughly enjoyed the day

SCIENCE MADE SIMPLE

The Public Affairs committee organised a successful event in Briton Ferry community centre on Wednesday 30 April, with speakers from the Yakult company and Cardiff University. Shown below are some WI members enjoying the presentations.

Here, special glasses are used to observe the colours present in white light.

Becky, from Cardiff University, gave a lively performance keeping us well informed and entertained with her demonstrations and experiments.

Becky, from Yakult, is quickly surrounded by WI members eager to sample Yakult products.

Ystradowen was the venue for the second presentation of 'How science helps us from the cradle to the grave' on 14 May 2008, from Cardiff University and Yakult's 'Probiotics in the diet'.

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INTERNATIONAL DAYS

Last year, an enjoyable day was had by all who attended the 'Japanese Day' (Click)
in 'Ararat', Whitchurch.

Watch out for our next International day which will be about the food, clothes, beauty and dance traditions of INDIA.

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ACWW

The WI has always strived to build links with rural women worldwide and encouraged its members to participate in international public questions. Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) is a large international organisation of rural women and homemakers with a membership of nine million members through 365 member societies. WI is one of the member societies linked to ACWW.

At present, the Sow & Grow initiative is raising funds for ACWW. The 2008 project is for vulnerable women and children in Zambia.

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OTHER PROJECTS COVERED IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT - PLASTIC BAGS

A useful article to use with your WIs

Cowbridge, Newcastle Emlyn, Haverford West and Llangollen to Porthcawl, Hay-on-Wye, Newtown, Llandysillio and Pontypridd are planning to do it.
When is your TOWN/VILLAGE planning to do it?

DO WHAT?

Say 'NO' to PLASTIC BAGS!

Let's start a CAMPAIGN
Let's see if we can gain the support of all WI members in Glamorgan.

Gordon Brown has indicated that PLASTIC BAGS should disappear.
Roadside verges and river banks would be much cleaner and creatures of the deep could swim more freely.
On this planet we use an average of 300 BAGS per adult per year. One million bags used every minute and they pollute the environment for decades.
In our marine environment alone, plastic litter, much of it PLASTIC BAGS is lethal, killing at least 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles every year.
In 19 countries, from Australia to Zanzibar a PLASTIC BAG BAN is gaining momentum.

3 is a magic number
R a magic letter
Put them together and you get three magic words
REDUCE - RE-USE - RECYCLE
"But I re-use my plastic bags to hold my rubbish" I hear you say, "What can I use instead"? Wrap it in newspaper, use one large plastic bag in the rubbish bin and what is wrong with using grey water to wash out your bins?
Talk to your local councillors and retailers.
It has been done in Modbury in Devon.
Go to plasticbagfree.com to find out more.

BAN PLASTIC BAGS IN YOUR LOCALITY !

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Useful Websites

Welsh Assembly Government

National Assembly for Wales

Sustain Wales

Stop Climate Chaos

Proposed healthy eating in schools - Welsh Assembly Measure

NFWI 90@90 campaign

Link to the Welsh Assembly Government Public Appointments site
These web-pages are worth browsing through as there just might be a suitable post for you!

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This is a very busy and hard-working sub-committee - see below for more of their ideas

EcoTeams' hints & tips include turning down the setting on your gas boiler. One team member found that on her 'Combi' - boiler, where the settings graduated from 1 - 9, reducing the setting from 7 to 3.5 still kept the radiators warm but used half the amount of gas.

If you have a water meter you may be interested to know that a dishwasher uses 35 litres of water, whereas washing up by hand uses 6 litres approximately.
(Source: Southern Water. Actual amounts will vary according to the design of your appliances)
This is not intended to make you dispense with your dishwasher but may make you decide to run it more efficiently

A garden hose pipe uses 650 litres per hour!

Cleaning off the fluff that gathers at the back of your fridge
will help it run more efficiently.

If you like making soup, used plastic one pint milk bottles are ideal for freezing small amounts.

Finally, are you considering ripping out your kitchen for a new model? Think twice and call on your 'inner genius' to update it instead in your unique style.

click here for up-to-date information on WI campaigns

This prize-winning poster was created by Eileen Edwards. Download it free and use it to help the planet!

Glamorgan Federation of Women's Institutes, 13 Courtland Place, Port Talbot, SA13 1JJ Tel:01639 881588 E-mail glamorgan@btconnect.com