María Luisa Chávez, Chief
NGO Relations Section
Department of Public Information
United Nations Headquarters
New York, New York

Dear Maria Luisa –

Please accept from us our deep expression of thanks for your years of remarkable efforts in transforming the NGO relationship within UNDPI. For more than 23 years, our organization has belonged to DPI NGO and this has been an experience that has enriched the lives of each of the women that has been accredited. The opportunities for exposure and learning are almost endless. Our interaction with the UN, through DPI NGO, ECOSOC, and various committee memberships, has given us the confidence to then return to our communities with authority and share information, ideas and build our networks while promoting UN ideals, especially those that pertain to the well-being of women and children.

Please excuse the informality of addressing you in the first person, however, even though you do not know each of us personally, every woman who has joined the UN NGO representation from the WFUWO, whether with DPI or ECOSOC, knows about the work of Maria Luisa, as we refer to you among ourselves. Throughout the years, not only DPI NGO members, but many members of our ECOSOC team, as well as members of our Executive Committee, have attended briefings and events organized by DPI NGO if it fell into their area of interest. At the Resource Center, our guests from Ukraine were provided with materials about the UN, and as a group, we have watched as you have transformed the DPI NGO program with your stated goal of increasingly giving the UN a “human face.” We all understand that the processes of the UN can often seem far removed from the communities most often affected and your vision of strengthening NGOs as the link is fundamentally sound. We thank you for your efforts in adhering to this vision. We wish you all the best.

Sincerely,

Orysia Sushko
President, WFUWO

Irene Jarosewich
Main Representative, DPI NGO

DPI NGO: Natalia Sonevytsky, Tamara Parubuchenko, Jaroslava Rubel, Moki Kokoris, Hanya Krill, Olha Stawnychy

ECOSOC: Dr. Martha Kichorowska Kebalo, Nadia Shmigel, Daria Dykyj, Dr. Larysa Dyrzska, Sofia Zielyk, Iryna Kurowyckyj