The Book of Ideas

              strength is in its Membership and that Membership is each and every Member of any Constituent Society in Canada, England, Australia, Mrica, India and so on around the globe. "Members cannot be strong and enthusiastic unless they know and understand their organization-its objectives, its history, its day to day activity, its problems and its other members. "Having this knowledge will develop interest and loyalty and encourage activity. The means by which to interest Members in AC.W.W. are legion. There is some phase which will appeal to everyone-scholarship, exchange, pen friends, competitions, work with the United Nations, finance and many others. Making this material available to the Membership is the responsibility of Provincial Boards. "AC.W.W. binds countrywomen of the world in one sisterhood with mutual interests and problems. In AC.W.W. we have the medium which makes it possible to know and help and learn from our sisters the world over. By being a strong link in this chain of understanding, Members will feel they have done their bit in helping to achieve the understandng without which our civilization must surely fail." From Mrs. Bessie van Heerden, A.C.W.W. Area Vice-President Africa 1962.65 "To be elected a leader in the vast network of the AC.W.W. is indeed an honor, but to be elected representative in Mrica under present circumstances is the most formidable task ever. Distances are vast; language barriers do exist; ideologies are divergent; illiteracy is ever present, especially in the adults; political set-ups differ from state to state. "That the women of Africa are awakening is everywhere evident and they are eager to learn. The simplest forms of household economy and procedure are big news to them. The above remarks apply solely to the Mrican populations of the developing countries of Africa. Members of the Women's Institutes in those countries, where they exist, are doing yeoman service in their great efforts to assist all those who most need it. "In Rhodesia the Institute movement amongst the white women started many years ago, around 1927. They have become a very important part of the rural life of the Rhodesians and have recently altered their Constitution to allow Mrican W.I. Institutes associate Membership. In Kenya two societies are functioning-one of them purely African. From Nigeria and the Camaroons come inquiries and Basutoland has flourishing Homemakers Clubs. The women of South Africa, the most highly developed country south of the Sahara, are very organized with a national body of nearly 36,000 active Members. "The greatest need in all this vastness is leaders. The training of these women and their service to their own countrywomen is a nearly impossible task. There is need of co-operation of many other persons to provide this training for leadership. "It is to me very evident, that should there ever be a cry of goodwill across Africa, it will be the voice of the women, the thinking educated women of Mrica. Not the University-trained, but those women educated within the scope offered to them by the different Constituent Societies of the Associated Country Women of the World."
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