UNCSW - Billings and the United Nations Every year, WOOMB Australia sends a small team of representatives to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, to share how The Billings Ovulation Method® (BOM) helps advance the rights of women around the world. Alison Dreher, the lead instructor for the Sisterhood of Catholic Women and Adolescents, Education Coordinator for the St. Augustine Foundation, and a BOMA-USA teacher and member, has been on this small team for the last four years. Alison’s work with the UN includes influencing the delegates of the UN member states, assisting with and attending the side events that surround the commission, and raising awareness about the BOM and its benefits for women from all over the world. The team attends events, networks with other groups, holds parallel events, and every other year they partner with the Holy See to hold a side event as a contributing nation.
This past March, the CSW’s theme was “Empowering Rural Women through the Use of Technology.” Alison orchestrated the parallel event to present the benefits of the BOM to anyone who wished to attend. In the planning stages, she had a stroke of genius to use technology to “bring rural women” with her to New York by using a video conference program on the projector as part of the presentation. She hoped that other groups, who are opposed to her message, would not hear about her idea and steal it. Her hope was realized, and WOOMB’s presentation of rural voices via technology was a unique and beautiful implementation of the CSW’s 2018 theme. The presentation, entitled “Empowering Rural Women and Girls with The Billings Ovulation Method® ,” began with Louise Allard, an experienced teacher trainer with extensive international experience, and her colleague Emily Iradukunda, a WOOMB fertility awareness consultant and teacher trainer. They shared the outcomes of their work with the BOM in a rural context. The second portion of the presentation featured Alison. She began by sharing her own story of empowerment through the BOM and then opened the floor to the voices of 12 rural women who, as a result of using natural fertility regulation, have felt empowered in their relationships and overall health. One by one, each woman spoke from the comfort of their own homes, transmitted all the way to New York to speak to this event open to a worldwide collaborative body. In between each testimony, Alison read several stories from rural women around the world including stories from women from the Kikuyu tribe in Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria. The parallel event was a success and all the participants were thrilled to be able to add their voices to this cause. The Billings Ovulation Method® continues to engage the culture with the truth, beauty and empowerment that comes through the knowledge that every woman ought to have.
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