b'with Lugari Community Resource CenterWith the support of the SI Road to EqualityWith Global Alliance for the Rights of Appeal, the Lugari Community ResourceOlder People Center Youth Leadership and Mentorship Training Camp took place to celebrateSI Road to Equality sought out a project the 10th Anniversary of its Leadershipfor the topic of Older Persons, partnering programme in rural Kenya, and 150 girlswith the Global Alliance for the Rights were selected from around Kenya as youngof Older People (GAROP), with the goal leaders. Soroptimist Board member and SIof raising awareness of this overlooked UN Representative, Nairobi, Mary Muia, ondemographic. GAROP has over 400-member behalf of SI President Sharon Fisher, openedNon-Governmental Organisations from 80 the event, encouraging the girls to walkcountries advocating for a convention for their leadership path and to learn all theythe Rights of Older People. A UN Convention could during the camp and then take thatwould strengthen the rights and voices of knowledge to practice and to teach in theirolder people globally and we will support own communities. GAROP during 2022 to sponsor this campaign. The girls spent eight days at Lugari learningAt the Open-Ended Working Group on about leadership and many of the issues thatAgeing in April 2022 over 300 organisations impact girls aged between 13 and 18 yearsput their signatures forward calling for clear old, including leadership, human rights,action on older peoples rights. This was a safety and violence prevention, Menstrualsignificant increase from April 2021. This Hygiene Management and FGM, nutrition,campaign is known as AGE WITH RIGHTS. and much more. They were shown how toA CSW parallel event webinar was hosted create a vegetable garden, encouraged to joinwith several hundred people registered. The a debate, and a Head Teacher guided themproject will continue through 2022 with the in ways to connect with their communities atnext event scheduled for 1 October, 2022, the home and in school, to help them establishInternational Day of Older Persons, where the groups and implement and complete projects2022 theme is Older Women.once they had left the camp. The successes will be judged and the girls with the topwith AIDromprojects will return next year to share their stories with the next group of future leaders.The topic of Migration took us to Romania providing a pathway to citizenship for 40 refugee women. With the Ecumenical Association of Churches in Romania (AIDRom) as a partner, these women are enrolled in vocational training, given a job on completion, assisted with housing and eventually citizenship. SI hosted a webinar with AIDRom and Romanian Soroptimists, discussing the project. This was prior to the war in Ukraine that has seen hundreds of thousands of women and children cross the border into Romania. Some of these Ukrainian women will be enrolled in the programme.soroptimistinternational.org 7'