Successful 2008 Conference About Women and Health
Willemstad – ‘Taking responsibility for your own health, recognize what threatens your health and make use of the available information to benefit your health’ those were the conclusions of the fifth annual women conference in Curaçao ‘About Women and Health’, organized by Bright Ideas and Services.
The conference that took place on March 7 and 8, 2008 in the International Trade Center was visited by professional men and women and also students from the local University UNA and of the Nurses School IFE.
Sady sings national anthem of Curacao
‘About Women and Health’ was opened on Friday night by Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles Emily de Jong Elhage after the opening words of organizer Reyna Joe. The prime minister said that she hopes that professional women will continue to look for information that will benefit themselves and their career.
Keynote speaker Rita Andrews MA from RIJAAN Consultant in Washington followed with a presentation on misogyny. In her presentation she showed the different ways of misogyny in communities around the world and how this has a negative impact on the health of women.
At the end of the evening it was member of the juror committee for the Outstanding Woman Award, Orphaline Saleh that presented Mila Palm as the 2008 outstanding woman, based on her contribution during her career as a teacher, adviser and coach that benefited women and their families.
The About Women and Health conference continued on Saturday morning with an invocation by Lieutenant Governor of Curaçao Lizanne Dindial LLC. Mrs. Dindial expressed that professional women must realize that what ever happens and no matter what medical condition they may have, that this may never be in the way of their professional work.
Next it was Dr. Justine Heyden from Curaçao who in a clear way presented different tips for everyone and in this case especially professionals; to be able to help themselves when they need to seek medical help. Her emphasize was on taking care of physical, mental and sexual health.
Minister of Health of the Netherlands Antilles Omayra Leeflang on her turn presented emphatically the need to have more healthy people since this will benefit the long term medical costs.
And finally it was plastic surgeon from Aruba Dr. Hunt Riley who in an eloquent way explained what a healthy person must know before undergoing cosmetic surgery to change what she does not like of her body.
The About Women and Health conference ended with a presentation of Dr. Heyden who showed the women how to look for a good bra and why they need a good fitting cotton bra. She also explained why it is necessary to have a good bra if you have a job where you have to sit for long hours.
Rita Andrews MA finally did a workshop for participants to recognize misogyny around them and to see their internalized misogyny in order to benefit from this knowledge.
Master of ceremony for the conference Nohraya Godfried did a very good job. The participants expressed their satisfaction for the conference, especially because they acknowledge the need to continue to get information on this level. And the topic health also got very good reactions.
