News Release – AAUW Monthly Meeting March 8, 2017

To celebrate International Women’s Day, AAUW first a sponsored a breakfast for four international women March 8, 2017 and had them as a panel for the Manhattan High School students who asked great questions of them.  In the evening the Manhattan AAUW Branch meeting was at the Holiday Inn Manhattan at the Campus in the Landon Room.  We first had a wonderful dinner at 6:00 pm and the Public Forum was at 7:00 pm.  The speakers for the Public Forum were Dr. Paola Paez, from K-State’s Center in Excellence in Human Ecology, Maria Fernando Rivero Perez a senior at KSU in Marketing and International Business from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Dr. Fatlma Radhi, a neurologist with Medical Associates was from Iraq, Sneha Gullapalli, KSU Master’s degree student in Computer Science from India. They were asked to speak about why they came to the US, political climate in their home country, barriers here in the US and have they been affected by the pending travel ban here in the U.S.?  Mary Stamey moderated the panel discussion at Manhattan High School and Usha Reddi, mayor of Manhattan made opening remarks and moderated the panel discussion at the evening meeting.

In summary, the women spoke about their countries being very, very poor as we have never known. They did remark that men do not help with jobs in the home as many do here. Children do stay at home longer in their countries as many stay at home until they a re married. Here people are much more independent as they often move many times with their jobs.  Women are given at least three month pregnancy leave when a baby is born with the mother, mother in law or grandmother staying with you for six months after a child is born.   There are many, many teen pregnancies. Men often discriminate with having women get everything for them in the home.  In some countries the marriages are still arranged, but they are changing this slowly. The women do like America but are scared of hate crimes and are amazed that we are so obsessed with sports in America.

The next Manhattan AAUW Branch meeting will be held at First Congregational Church at 700 Poyntz Avenue at 6:00 p.m. on April 10, 2017.  Katrina Porter from Katie’s Way in Manhattan will inform us on how they provide youth, young adults and their families an opportunity to face mental health issues as they work with psychiatrist and psychologists.  Christiana Schadegg from No Stone Unturned will also provide us with information about their treatment with children who have neurological or developmental impairments.  Both organizations do great work with Social-Emotional Health Challenges for our families in Manhattan.

Persons interested in learning more about AAUW in Manhattan may go to manhattan-ks.aauw.net or email manhattanksaauw@gmail.com.