Hazel Holmlund resports from UN WOMEN's day at the Belfast Mela:

This festival, meaning ‘to meet’ only began 4 years ago and was then closely associated with Northern Ireland’s Indian community.  Now it is the leading international, intercultural festival in Northern Ireland and this year approximately 30,000 people crowded into the Botanic Gardens to enjoy a varied programme of music, dance, food and colourful craft stalls.

After last year’s success, the Northern Ireland Branch decided to reserve a larger stand and we were delighted to find that our twice-the-size stand was next to the entrance and almost opposite the main stage.  The festival starts officially at 12.00 noon but we had visitors non-stop from 11.00 am.

Undoubtedly much of the attraction was our almost non stop sponsored musicians and UN WOMEN's obvious connection with Nicole Kidman.  Inge Haghighi, who organised the performers and also sang, tells me that the money from the sponsorship is still coming in but by the end of the day we had raised over £650 from the sale of cards, silver jewellery and sponsorship.

Visitors to the stand were invited to sign the Say NO to Sexual Violence in Conflict 1325 Women Count for Peace Petition.  Over 300 people signed and we met one young man who told us that his mother had been raped during the war in Bangladesh and they now have a site to raise awareness of the issue.

The Deputy Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Mrs Judith Gillespie visited the stand again this year.  Not surprisingly the PSNI’s gender champion was happy to sign the petition.

Was the event a success for UN WOMEN?  The answer is a resounding ‘yes’!  Several visitors told us that they had also stopped by last year, Hazel received a request to speak to a women’s group, the first postal delivery after the event contained a membership application and 3 people asked to join the new Coleraine Branch.