Introducing the QCC/Women's Caucus for Art/UN Representatives from the Department of Art & Design
Practices Across Industries.
at UN Plaza.
Civil Society briefing, Start Local, Go Global! Bridging Sustainable Practices Across Industries: A Focus on Food, Film and Waste.
QCC/WCA/UN Participant Diane Cadena and Professor Liz Di Giorgio attend a forum by the Feminist Majority Foundation and Girls Learn International entitled Girls Political Empowerment during the sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women, March 14, 2019.
Faculty Mentors and QCC/WCA/UN Representatives Professor Liz Di Giorgio and Kebedech Tekleab.
My name is Shristi Sookram. I was born on the scenic and beautiful island of Trinidad. My family and I immigrated to the United States when I was five years of age. We came to the “land of opportunity” in pursuit of a better quality of life. For as long as I can remember, my dream has always been to help other people. It was instilled in me that my purpose in life is something bigger than myself and more about the people around me. As I started to get older, I realized that I needed to aspire to a job that combined my passions for helping those underrepresented and my strengths, which are writing and speaking. Human rights law became the obvious choice for me.
I still remember being 11 years old in middle school and hearing about this young girl who had survived a bullet to the head while going to school. I remember the outrage I felt at the thought of a girl who simply exercised her right to acquire knowledge being oppressed by those who thought a girl’s education was a threat to their power. I understood the importance of education, especially for girls, and the role it would play later on in her life. That girl would serve as my daily reminder that there was work to be done in the world. Her name is Malala Yousafzai. She inspired an entire generation and reminded us that education and opportunity are something to fight for, and that they should be accessible to everyone. I'm particularly passionate about women's issues in the human rights sector. Our sisters all around the world are being denied opportunities, education and the fundamental right to voice themselves as human beings. When I think about other young women my age who are subjected to early marriage at a young age, denied post-secondary education, shamed for simply expressing their feelings and many other forms of oppression that women face, it validates the work that I know I need to do professionally.
This internship would allow me to put my feet on the ground in a place that I have regarded as holding a very high standard when it comes to fighting injustice; a place that stands for the very values and principles that I hold dear. The Women's Caucus for Arts is an organization that would allow me to engage in a once -in- a- lifetime opportunity. This organization combines two of my passions, art and human rights, into an internship that I could only have dreamt of.
I am also an independent artist and express myself through paintings that I deem near and close to my heart. The value art has had on my life in unexplainable and spiritual for me. It's a journey that takes me closer to myself. This internship would allow me to further explore and grow into someone more insightful, just by even being in a room with people whom I aspire to emulate. At the core of my beliefs, are justice and peace, two things I want to fight for. As Nelson Mandela once said, “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.”
Mental health issues have affected many people around the world, and recently it has been an issue that the United Nations has taken notice of. This past May, at a roundtable discussion with the World Health Organization and the Wellcome Trust (a foundation that supports scientists and research), Secretary-General António Guterres stated that, “The UN is committed to working with partners to promote full mental health and wellbeing for all” (United Nations). The United Nations has a set goal for the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda to tackle mental health problems and find creative solutions. When I read about this, I knew that I wanted to be a part of the Women’s Caucus for Art and help represent women at the United Nations. According to the World Health Organization, “Depressive disorders account for close to 41.9% of disability from neuropsychiatric disorders among women compared to 29.3% among men” (World Health Organization). This is a big difference between the genders. As reported by the World Health Organization, the leading mental health problems of the older adults are depression, organic brain syndromes and dementias, and women comprise the majority of those suffering from these problems (World Health Organization). I want to know why the majority are women and what can we do to help prevent this for both men and women. The roundtable discussion also included Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, who pointed out that, “mental health is not just an issue for the health sector because it also related to equality and basic individual rights.”
Like the world leaders at the United Nations, I am interested in helping to find creative solutions for everyday life problems. I believe that making art is an important component of wellbeing and mental health, and an important way to address pressing problems. This is why I created the Artists and Designers Development Club on campus along with fellow art students. Our Club allows artists to interact with each other in and outside of the class environment. It includes painters, photographers, animators and many more in one club. Students have told me that they love the Club because it was the first time that they’ve felt included. The students also reported that they gained new inspiration from each other and that the Club led them to collaborate on independent projects with other members. This is something that made me proud and inspired me to keep the Club going. I am studying to be an animator, and this has been my dream career. I’m always looking for new ideas, new opinions and new inspirations. My experience working in architectural firms and doing graphic design work has allowed me to see different perspectives through different types of art. I look forward to attending UN DPINGO briefings, gaining knowledge of global issues, new perspectives and new inspirations.
Works Cited
United Nations, “Mental health ‘neglected issues’ but key to achieving Global Goals, say UN chiefs” UN News, Health, May 2018, www.news.un.org/en/story/2018/05/1008822
World Health Organization, “Mental Health, Gender and Mental Health” 2018, www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/genderwomen/en/
World Health Organization, “Depression” 2019, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-disorders
DIANE CADENA
My name is Diane Cadena and I would like to be a representative for the Women’s Caucus for Art at the United Nations because making a difference is crucial to me. I believe and value the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Number 3: Good Health and Well-being, as well as Number 6: Clean Water and Sanitation. Finding solutions to keep our water systems clean prevents premature diseases and deaths. Prolonged good health enables families to have a good quality of life because it allows people to work and support their families. Clean water is essential for growing crops and preventing hunger. The Sustainable Development Goals will only lead to a domino effect of positive outcomes.
This past summer I worked with the CUNY Service Corps with its New York Stands with Puerto Rico Recovery and Rebuilding Effort. During my service, I truly realized that you need to get up and get physically involved in order to make a difference. In Puerto Rico I worked with other CUNY students to restore the lives of those affected by Hurricane Maria by building new homes. This experience gave me a fuller understanding of Sustainable Development Goal Number 13: Take Urgent Action to Combat Climate Change and its Impacts. Our goal as a group was to first make our presence known when we got there, and to let the homeowners know that we were there to help. Our next step was to find out more about the homeowners because some of them were elderly and really had no one to talk to. They shared their experiences and beautiful stories of their childhoods in the town of Vietnam just south of San Juan, Puerto Rico. After hearing all the stories, we realized we wanted to do more, and we went around and made sure that we got everyone on the entire block signed up so that they could get some assistance and get the life they had back. We were determined to leave no one behind.
The members of the Woman’s Caucus for Art have played a major role in working for equality and providing opportunities for women to voice global concerns through art. I would love the opportunity to learn more about the initiatives of the Women’s Caucus for Art and to learn more about how it supports the Sustainable Development Goals and the work of the UN.
