The Opportunity

Welcome to our very first blog post! Our names are Jenny Raw and Rachel Wibberley and we have the incredible pleasure of being able to represent the National Council of Women Great Britain at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women 61, and we want as many of you as possible, to follow our journey to the UN.

Firstly, a bit about how this opportunity arose...

The National Council of Young Women is an organisation which was formed in 2008, which allows young women to be represented on a National level, working with the well established National Council of Women, rallying government on issues that young women care about. At Nottingham Girls' High School, we have an established NCYW group - we meet regularly and plan events, marking the International Day of the Girl, Human Rights Day and International Women's Day. We think it is certainly fair to say this has helped us to grow in confidence, helped us learn how to voice our opinions and learn about global problems which women face. However, NCYW functions on a much larger scale than just our school, something we learnt about as we started attending seminars and as we gave our speech at their National Conference in October.

This is why we decided to start a blog - to share our story, our preparations and, (as clichéd as it sounds!) our journey to the UN. We hope that you will get involved and we can spread the word about the amazing and important work of the National Council of Women who have given us this opportunity.

With only 63 days to go (and counting!) it's definitely time to start getting ready. Booking flights, accommodation and transport are just some of the logistical things to think about... but more importantly, we want to research the issues that will be discussed. Balancing this with our A Levels will be a challenge, but certainly a rewarding one.

It's time to get the ball rolling and start preparing ourselves to represent women on a global stage!

Jenny and Rachel :)