PARTICIPATE: Women, Peace and Security Quilt Challenge

· Would you like to have a quilt exhibited at the United Nations?
· Are you interested in issues facing women around the world?
· Have you lived or worked overseas, or travelled and become interested in the role of women as leaders in other countries?

Then take part in the Women, Peace and Security Quilt Challenge.

Whether you take an idea from your own experience or research an issue new to you, this challenge offers the opportunity to add your voice to this creative cry to empower women to be leaders in the struggle for peace and security around the world.
You are invited to take part in a personally rewarding quilt challenge. This very unique challenge will give you the opportunity to make a difference on a global level using your quilting skills. As a quilter, and a woman, you can make a statement to raise the awareness to global representatives at the United Nations.

The quilts will first be displayed at the Palais de Nations in Geneva, Switzerland from March 1 – 14. Your quilt will hang next to other works of art which celebrate the human condition and the world's desire for peace and justice. For within the United Nations art exists to serve one of the Organization's major goals, the promotion of the unity of humankind in all its cultural diversity.

The UN office in Geneva houses such organizations as the WHO, the World Health Organization; UNFPA: United Nations Population Fund; UNAIDS: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and UNHCHR: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Other venues located in Washington, DC & New York are already in the works as well, the exhibit has been invited to travel throughout North America with Mancuso Quilt Festivals. A Winnipeg exhibit which we hope will coordinate with the opening of the Canadian Human Rights Museum in 2012 is also being discussed.

In honour of the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Resolution 1325, the Women, Peace & Security Quilt Challenge is underway. In spite of the short time frame please consider the following request.

The deadline for submission to the challenge is January 15, 2011. Consider this as part of the challenge; women confronted by the conflicts of war have not time to react to their situation. They have no choice, no time and no resources. Working under threatening circumstances they are enraged with fear. We have none of those conditions to deal with.

Women from around the world are invited to join the quilt Challenge in whatever way they feel is most effective.

Themes could include:
· Women's role in holding together torn societies in times of conflict;
· A demand for an end to crimes against humanity and war crimes including rape as a tactic of conflict;
· A depiction of conflict and crisis that insists on peace;
· Women's contribution to peace building, recovery and reconstruction.

Complete details and challenge entry form is available online at www.quiltchallenge.org

QUILT FOR CHANGE
Quilt for Change was founded by Allison and Dick Wilbur, curators of the Quilt Challenge in support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an exhibit which opened at the United Nations Palais in Geneva Switzerland in November 2009 and which has been travelling with the Mancuso Quilt Festivals. We have developed a web site (www.quiltchallenge.org), facebook page and twitter account with information about the challenges. We can be reached at quiltforchange@me.com.