Zonta Club of Cebu II celebrates UN Day via poetry reading

CEBU CITY – The Zonta Club of Cebu II with Zonta International joined the United Nations in celebrating the UN Day on October 24, marking the 75^th anniversary of the United Nations and its founding Charter with the advocacy for the rights of women and girls through virtual poetry reading session titled,” Peace and Poetry: A Celebration of Humanity”.

The “Peace and Poetry: A Celebration of Humanity” was planned to allow each member to discover unique insights and signature expressions and slogans of the UN ideals in real life, with moving and thought-provoking readings of various literary compositions that transported the participants to a place where the United Nations takes on a more profound and personal significance and that its relationship and standing with Zonta International is better appreciated.

According to Zonta Club of Cebu II that it endeavored to mark this significant anniversary in a more meaningful and evocative manner that would result in the profound internalization of the significance of the United Nations in each of their life situations.

The club is aware that Zonta International and the United Nations are synergetic and reciprocal partners working shoulder to shoulder to empower women and end gender-based violence in our communities and eventually the world.

The Club said that a core group of its members sought to design an activity that brings the UN ideals of inclusivity, tolerance, understanding, curiosity towards peoples and cultures, open-mindedness, fraternity and solidarity in diversity to a more personal level.

The virtual session began with a video presentation highlighting the projects undertaken by Zonta International in collaboration and partnership with the United Nations; followed by the reading thought-provoking poems and excerpts from emotive speeches and literary pieces that dramatized the UN principles of peace and goodwill from some members of Zonta Club of Cebu II.

The stage was set for a memorable afternoon with the first piece read, Excerpts from “A Strategy of Peace”, one of the more controversial and game-changing speeches of John Fitzgerald Kennedy given at the American University in 1963 just two months after the pivotal Cuban Missile Crisis.

It was followed by readings of three inspiring literary pieces by author, actress, screenwriter, dancer, poet and civil rights activist African American Maya Angelou: “Still I Rise” with its soaring message of survival, strength, resilience and hope.

“A Brave and Startling Truth” composed for the 50th anniversary of the United nations in 1995 which the author dedicated to ‘the hope for peace, which lies, sometimes hidden, in every heart’ and “Phenomenal Woman” read by guest Georgitta Puyat, Chairperson of the UN Committee of District 17, a piece that challenges the restrictive notions of feminine beauty and offering the message instead that real beauty comes from a place of self-confidence and self-acceptance.

The afternoon concluded on a somber note with the dramatic reading by Guest reader, Gina Atienza, president of Zonta Club of Cebu I of “Boat”, a stirring poem by Rupi Kaur Canadian poet and  illustrator inspired by a photo of the deceased three-year old who washed up on the shore of Turkey and whose image became an international symbol of the horrific refugee crisis.

Aside from members of Zonta Club of Cebu II the virtual poetry reading session featured guests from mother club Zonta Club of Cebu I, Area 3 Director and Vice Area Director Teresita Apistar and Teresa Chan respectively and UN Committee District 17 Vice Chairperson Esperanza Dacudao. (Photos: Zonta Club of Cebu II/Robby Alugar)