‘Don’t be afraid to interrupt!’ was a key message shared during the recent ‘COVID-19 and Pacific girls’ webinar, hosted by Pacific Women together with partners across 6 countries on 15 October 2020. The social, economic and health impacts of COVID-19 on women and girls has been disproportionately high, with particular impacts on adolescent girls. In order to highlight the voices of girls and young women the webinar included young women performers and panellists, including a moving poetry performance by Anna Vea and a music performance by Mia Kami. Panellists included Roselyn Sidal, young feminist and gender equality activist with the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement’s (FWRM) Girls Arise program; Jacqui Joseph, co-founder and CEO of Equal Playing Field (EPF) in Papua New Guinea; and Julie-Ann Guivarra, Australia’s Ambassador for Gender Equality.
Three special guests provided pre-recorded messages for the webinar: Fijian activist Virisila Buadromo; Yoshiko Capelle from the Pacific Young Women’s Leadership Alliance; and Natasha Stott Despoja AO, Australia’s candidate for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
