The United Nations Delegations Women's Club.

• Author: Wall, Tim
• Position: Passing By

Nearly 8,500 children in a devastated zone of Darfur, Sudan, will be able to return to school because of a humanitarian effort originating 7,000 miles away. The United Nations Delegations Women's Club (UNDWC) held an international food fair and bazaar in April 2005 in New York City to fund the repair and rebuilding of 40 brick schoolhouses in the villages of Arara, Masterti, Beida and Knavo Haraz, close to the border with Chad. Created by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the project also helps in building capacity for school authorities and parent-teacher committees, mobilizing community participation and encouraging enrolment and retention of girl students.

Similar projects supported through bazaar sales have been a hallmark for many years of UNDWC, which seeks to promote and display cultural diversity while doing good in diverse corners of the world. Women delegates and spouses of diplomats are eligible for membership in the Club. "At the beginning of its existence, UNDWC was largely a social club in which the wives would inform each other about their respective cultures and help one another to contend with life in New York", said Danara Kazykhanova, chairperson of the 2005 bazaar and wife of Kazakhstan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

Since the Club's founding in 1963, its mainstay programme has been its National Displays and Teas, hosted by different Permanent Missions, which provide a unique opportunity to exchange views and develop an appreciation for different cultures and traditions. UNDWC also...