I have loved Africa since I was a little girl and have managed to visit the continent in my adulthood which has only increased my love for its peoples and cultures. When I found out that the 2018 World Union of Catholic
Women’s Organisation General Assembly (WUCWO) was going to be hosted in Dakar, I was thrilled. There was also another exciting development to attending this event which was the small charitable educational organisation I had both founded and run – “Pencils for All” was going to become a new associate member!

Themes ADFCAC works on in Guinea Conakry:
• integral ecology
• "the family in its most vulnerable members."

What a blessing to be able to meet with Catholic women of faith from throughout the world and to be privy to the expertise of the women who provided so many points of reflection on the state of the world from the perspective of faith, environment, and geo-politics. The various speakers, while being realistic, left all with a sense of optimism. If, as Father Whelan stated in his homily, we spend time discerning who we are as women of faith, dream, and allow “hope to flourish”, we have no reason to fear. God is good, all the time. His Holiness is probably one of the most visible living examples of this optimism, while we recognize the myriad number doing their parts daily to secure a better world.

This recently concluded General Assembly opened my eyes to a number of things, however, the most important of all was the initiative of women around the world gathering together as Catholic Women from different backgrounds. I was really impressed about the discussions and sharing the cross cutting issues women all over the world face in their day to day life, especially living as Catholics.

The "Mamans Eucharistiques du Monastère," a diocesan association of Cameroon, present at WUCWO Meetings since its affiliation to this worldwide Christian organisation in 2011, welcomed the priority adopted at the Dakar General Assembly on "the call to holiness."

After the one in Fatima in 2014, God gave us the grace to celebrate our GA, a sign of our commitment as women and mothers, through our various activities and actions that are reflected in the paths laid out by Pope Francis. In fact, Pope Francis' encyclicals are a guide for our lives.

“In the service, let's reach out to Rural Families”

This is the motto animating the programme of Misiones Rurales Argentina, whose objective is to take the Word of God to the 1068 families of the 22 places that belong to the Parish  of  Nuestra  Señora  de Andacollo, north zone of the province of Neuquén.

The President General travelled to Geneva where she had a meeting with Nuncio Mons. Ivan Jurkovič on the collaborative work of WUCWO with the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the UN Human Rights Council, in particular for the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, has appointed the President of WUCWO as a member of the Women's Consultation Group.

The last meeting of experts of the International Forum, which is preparing the World Assembly to be held in December 2019, took place in Rome (17-18 June).

"It is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost"
(Mt 18:14)

The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life invited María Lía Zervino, as president of WUCWO, to participate in the event that it organises each year for Movements and associations.

Four members of Femina Europa participated in the General Assembly. Alix Lejard, delegate of Femina Europa to the European Parliament, Virginie Rotheÿ, WUCWO representative to UNESCO, Marion Senellart, treasurer, and Myriam Fourchaud, lay missionary and writer.