Adelaide UNIFEM Breakfast

Sally Sara is an award winning foreign correspondent with the ABC. She has reported from more than 30 countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Sierra Leone.

At the age of 29, Sally was the first woman to be appointed as the ABC’s Africa Correspondent. She spent five years travelling and reporting across the continent. Her first book, GOGO MAMA told the stories of 12 African women. It debuted on the national best seller list and was nominated for best-non fiction book in the Walkley Awards.

In 2007, Sally was awarded the International Women’s Media Foundation’s fellowship for human rights journalists. She spent nine months in the United States, undertaking studies and reporting for the Boston Globe and The New York Times.

In 2008, Sally broke the glass ceiling again and was the first woman appointed as the ABC’s South Asia correspondent. She is currently based in the Indian capital, New Delhi. Sally has won a UN Media Peace Prize, has been named South Australian Young Journalist of the Year, Queensland Journalist of the Year and is a four time finalist in the Walkley Awards.

When she’s not reporting, Sally enjoys running. She won a silver medal at the Australian Masters Athletics Championships in 2007. Sally is from Port Broughton on Yorke Peninsula. At the age of eight, she was the first girl to play for the Port Broughton Football Club.

What is UNIFEM?

UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, is the women's fund at the United Nations. Established in 1976, it provides financial and technical assistance to innovative approaches aimed at fostering women's empowerment and gender equality. Today the organisation's work touches the lives of women and girls in more than 100 countries. UNIFEM also helps make the voices of women heard at the United Nations - to highlight critical issues and advocate for the implementation of existing commitments made to women. Placing the realisation of women's human rights and security at the centre of all of its efforts, UNIFEM focuses its activities on four strategic goals:

• Reducing women's poverty and exclusion;
• Ending violence against women;
• Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls; and
• Supporting women's leadership in governance and post conflict reconstruction.

Noeleen Heyzer, the former Executive Director of UNIFEM, stated that "Women want a world free from hatred, violence and poverty, a world of equal opportunities and rights, a world that is prosperous and secure for all." To pursue these goals, UNIFEM is active in all regions and at different levels. It works with countries to formulate and implement laws and policies to eliminate gender discrimination and promote gender equality in such areas as land and inheritance rights, decent work for women and ending violence against women. UNIFEM also aims to transform institutions to make them more accountable to gender equality and women's rights, to strengthen the capacity and voice of women's rights advocates, and to change harmful and discriminatory practices in society.

UNIFEM Australia began in 1989 and since evolved to include the National Committee based in Canberra, six chapters including Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney and International Women’s Day (IWD) events across Australia. UNIFEM Australia is one of 17 National Committees including the U.S., United Kingdom, Sweden and Canada. The National Committees support UNIFEM through membership programmes, raising public awareness of gender and development issues and supporting regional programmes through fundraising.

Around Australia, the celebration of International Women’s Day has now become synonymous with UNIFEM breakfasts. The first Adelaide UNIFEM Breakfast was held in 1992 and our breakfasts are now one of the biggest events for women in SA. This year we are pleased to invite you to join with us and our very special guest speaker, Sally Sara.

Each year, Adelaide breakfasts grow and 2009 was no exception with over 1900 people attending and $40,000 raised for donation to UNIFEM Australia. The funds raised by the 2009 Adelaide UNIFEM Breakfast were directed towards the UNIFEM Pacific Markets Project. It aims to improve conditions in rural marketplaces and increase women's participation in the management of these markets. This year's Adelaide UNIFEM Breakfast Committee will donate all proceeds to UNIFEM Australia to focus on empowering women to end poverty by 2015.