Home> Activities> Candle Lighting Ceremony     Dr.Chonchanok Viravan International President 2005-2008 President's Message for International Candle Lighting Ceremony 2007 Dear BPW Presidents and Members. It is a pleasure for me to greet you with my International Candle Lighting Ceremony Message for year 2007. The International Candle Lighting Ceremony is an opportunity for BPW members to remind ourselves that we are not alone in our effort of developing women’s professional and leadership potential at all levels to strive towards equal participation of women and men in power and decision-making roles. Since I was elected as International President in June 2005, I have visited 19 countries. I met BPW members world-wide during my trips to Australia, Austria, Bermuda, Brazil, Egypt, Finland, Italy, Korea Mexico, New York, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan and United Kingdom. The trips to Copenhagen, Denmark, to Shanghai, China and to Ha long Bay, Vietnam, gave me a platform to publicize BPW work attracting business and professional women to the possibility of forming BPW clubs in those locations. Even when I am at home in Bangkok, Thailand, I welcomed BPW friends from many member countries, such as Japan, Germany, Philippines, Singapore and Spain. These trips and visits exposed me to the numerous BPW projects and activities that make a difference for working women. To further improve the recognition of BPW accomplishments, I decided to transform the BPW International competition “Beyond 2000: Helping Women Help Themselves” into “BPW Power to Make a Difference” Competition, with three categories – advocacy, action, and leadership. This will allow the scope of projects and activities eligible for the competition to be expanded and the BPW accomplishments to be more comprehensively documented. Winners of the first BPW Power to Make a Difference competition will be awarded at the BPW International Congress in Merida, Mexico in 2008. And to further enhance the value of our ongoing BPW work, I would like suggest the following strategies. Bridge the “gaps” in women’s development. To address all phases of women’s development, BPW should work in collaboration with governments and other organizations instead of doing everything ourselves. We should also bridge the gaps that block the success of existing government projects. Anticipate future needs for improving women’s participation in the economy. It is equally important to enable older women over 60 to be economically engaged at their acquired professional or skill level as it is to enable younger women to be trained and proficient for career advancement. This is in recognition that social welfare may become less and less adequate as the aging population over 60 approaches a billion people world-wide by year 2020. Create opportunities for women to rise to the level of top executives. This can be done through collecting evidence on “The Return on Investment when more women became top executives” and use it to persuade the relevant stakeholders such as governments, agencies and the private sector that companies would perform better when the percentage of women at top executive level increases. It takes time, extreme heat and pressure to turn a lump of coal into a diamond. As such, BPW may have to take the heat and the pressure to transform women’s life into something precious. But in the end, if the difference we make is good enough to be remembered, the value of what we accomplish will be higher than any diamond and any jewels. May the candles we light today continue to shine inside the heart of BPW members and strengthen our will to improve the status of working women. May BPW be blessed with the POWER TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE for decades to come. Chonchanok Viravan BPW International President     Download President’s Messages for Candle Lighting Ceremony 2008   Previous Messages 2007   English French Italian Spanish Instructions   English French Italian Spanish 2006 2005   Home | BPW International Newsletters | BPW Business Pages | BPW Roster Online | BPW Online | Projects | Calendar | Site Map BPW International International Federation of Business and Professional Women Contact : member.services@bpw-international.org Copyright © BPW International. All rights reserved.