Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 08/99) - Yellowknife's YWCA executive director, Lyda Fuller, was one of 600 women from more than 100 countries to attend a YWCA World Council meeting in Cairo, Egypt.

The event is called every four years to focus the organization and to promote issues surrounding women's rights, health and welfare on a global scale.

"One of the themes was religious tolerance and they picked Egypt because three major religions co-exist there," Fuller said.

"Religious tolerance isn't as much of an issue for our organization but cultural tolerance is."

She said by meeting delegates from organizations in different countries, she learned what unique problems exist from region to region, and what issues are common to YWCAs worldwide.

With two other Canadian delegates, Fuller conducted a workshop on the inclusion of people with disabilities in the YWCA.

The written responses she received back from the participants were eyeopening.

"Even though we're all doing similar work, the diversity of how we tackle that work is amazing," Fuller said.

"In Denmark, the YWCA is part of the Christian youth movement while in some of the African countries the main thrust is about things like getting clean water, and getting cows for the women in each family so they can have milk."

One of Fuller's missions was to find other nations that had strong policies surrounding the inclusion of aboriginal women in the organization.

She was teamed up with delegates from New Zealand.

"Incorporating more aboriginal women onto our board is something I've been working on since I became executive director, and

New Zealanders have come a long way in including indigenous women in decision- making positions within the YWCA," Fuller said.

"From them, I learned there are different ways to approach that issue. Hopefully, we can build on their successes without having to reinvent the wheel."

After it was over, Fuller is the first to admit she was glad to be back.

She was careful to always drink bottled water in Cairo, a city of 16 million people, but she accidentally accepted one cup of tea.

It made her ill for a month. The entire experience made her realize just how lucky we are as Canadians.

"I almost kissed the ground when we landed in Toronto," Fuller said.

"The quality of life that we enjoy is unequalled anywhere in the world and that's something we should be proud of."