Bringing together women of different cultures and ages to celebrate being women and look together towards the future, in honor of International Women’s Day.
The Women’s Day event was beautifully prepared and many came from all over Norway. The speeches were short and captivating. Margoth Kalstad and Turid Matsdal gave the history of Women’s Day in a creative dialogue. The main speaker, Rana Abusamra, immersed us in her story of her experiences both in Gaza and as an asylum seeker in Norway. Afterwards, the entertainers came and brought a new energy to the room. We had two lovely singers, a joke that left all the women chuckling, and an electric African dance group that got several people out of their seats to dance with them.
At the end of the main program, we held a Bridge of Peace ceremony to bridge the generation gap. The young met the “not so young anymore” on the bridge, embraced, gave each other an origami heart and walked off together hand in hand. About 20 pairs participated. Afterwards, we enjoyed food from all around the world that the guests had brought from their home cultures and several danced the night away in an inter-generational dance. A special moment was when a little toddler came onto the dance floor and led everyone in her own version of “The Twist.”