LATEST NEWS
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- By By Tina Huesing, Germany/USA, ICUUW President
This article is based on an interview Geri gave Tina.
Geri enjoys gardening, both in her own garden and volunteering in a Japanese garden not far from where she lives in the Northwest of the United States. Geri has also been serving our organization as treasurer for more than seven years. She’s determined that this is her last year. We interviewed her and asked her about her role:
When you hear the word treasurer, what comes to mind? Someone sitting behind a large desk surrounded by spreadsheets, calculators, and very serious-looking documents?
In our organization, the treasurer is much more likely to be someone who believes in both accountability and possibility—and perhaps knows a thing or two about growing things.
Geri says a treasurer needs to balance what is dreamed of and what is possible. She sees herself as the voice of reason, looking at short-term needs and long-term plans. Just as she tends her gardens—planting, watering, pruning, noticing what needs attention, and patiently allowing things to grow—she has helped our organization grow and flourish.
So, what does a treasurer actually do?
In simple terms, the treasurer helps make sure that the organization's financial life is healthy, transparent, and aligned with its mission. Together with her committee, and supported by a bookkeeper, she keeps track of income and expenses, monitors the budget, reviews financial reports, pays attention to cash flow, prepares or oversees financial statements, and helps the board understand what the numbers are telling us. She also makes sure that our financial practices meet appropriate legal, ethical, and organizational standards.
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- By Gail Sandlin, USA, Communications Committee Co-Chair
What does it mean to work for peace in a world that can feel increasingly divided and uncertain? Perhaps it begins closer to home than we imagine.
In this issue of the ICUUW newsletter, we encounter our members creating peace and possibility in many different ways: from dancing together, cultivating community gardens, caring for mental health and finding healthier ways to navigate the demands of our digital lives. We also learn the similarities of nurturing gardens and our own budgets! These may seem like very different activities, yet each reflects something essential to our work: the recognition that our local and extended communities are built through relationships, care, creativity, and the everyday choices we make about how we live with one another.
Our stories begin with the local and then extend far beyond our immediate communities. The United Nations remains an important arena in which women’s voices, leadership, and commitment to peace and justice can shape global priorities. In this newsletter we look at developments within the UN, including the recent activities concerning nomination of the next Secretary-General. We also look ahead to the upcoming 2027 Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), where women from around the world will again gather to address the challenges and possibilities before us.
For ICUUW, these dimensions are not separate. Peace is both a global aspiration and a daily practice. It is found in the ways we care for ourselves and one another. Take a few minutes to scan our library of recently categorized YouTube videos and discover ICUUW members creating resilient communities, protecting the earth, nurturing dialogue, and insisting that women have a meaningful voice in the decisions that shape our shared future.
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- By Sylvie Nyiramana, Canada, ICUUW Board member
When I moved from Africa to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada about two and a half years ago, as a newcomer, everything was new to me, and I wanted to find a place where I could meet people and feel welcome.
Soon I learned about The North Grove, a community whose vision it is to create a safe and inclusive space that fosters community connection, well-being, and support. A place where the sounds, smells, and feel tell people they belong. Joining North Grove gave me a sense of belonging. It was nice to be part of a friendly community in a new country.
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- By Sally Mabelle, New Zealand
During the closing ceremony of ICUUW’s 4th convocation 2024 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, we endorsed a Peace Declaration and committed ourselves to personal and institutional actions towards peace. Sally is a Universalist Sufi minister and Dances of Universal Peace leader. She explains how Dances of Universal Peace contribute to peacebuilding.
There is something almost impossible to explain about the Dances of Universal Peace until you have experienced them. They are not performances, and there is no audience. We stand in a circle, move together, sing sacred phrases from different spiritual traditions, and allow the music and movement to connect us. The simplicity is part of the magic.
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- By Oltean Annamaria, Transylvania, Romania
While organizing the ICUUW video library, I had the chance to go through the different videos and discover more about the work that ICUUW has been doing around the world. There are so many different topics, projects, events and stories in the library that it is impossible to choose only a few videos and say that these are the ones everyone should watch. Instead, I started thinking about the library from the perspective of someone who is discovering ICUUW for the first time. If I were a new visitor, which videos or topics would help me understand who ICUUW is, what we do and what kind of issues we work on?
Who we Are
The first video I would recommend is, naturally, Who We Are. I think it is a great starting point because it gives you an introduction to ICUUW and presents the organization in a very visual and interesting way. Before discovering all the different projects and activities, I think it is important to understand who is behind them, what ICUUW represents and what brings all of these different people and initiatives together. The video gives you a nice overview of the organization and, for someone who has never heard about ICUUW before, it is an easy way to start learning about who we are.
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- By ICUUW Staff
In ICUUW, we’ve been concerned with women’s mental health for some time. Depression, anxiety, and panic attacks are still often unspoken concerns, despite significantly impacting our overall well-being. These conditions are not gender-specific; they are global public health issues and the WHO has noted that globally, over 1 billion people are living with mental health conditions. Research has shown that women experience depression and anxiety at twice the rate of men. Every day, millions of women navigate stress, anxiety, grief, and trauma alone and in silence--without much support at home or outside, despite available resources. The situation is even more serious in remote and underserved communities, where professional services are scarce or carry significant social and cultural stigma.
In July 2021, we hosted an international roundtable of U*U women leaders discussing the losses and traumas generated by the COVID pandemic, offering coping and healing strategies for individuals and communities alike. Panelists included members from the Philippines, Romania, India and USA. This roundtable was taped and made available on our YouTube channel with the title Healing from Trauma across Cultures. Even five years after COVID, the strategies for coping are still good reminders.
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- By Karen Kortsch, USA, and Adél Nagy, Transylvania, Romania - co-chairs Programs & Partnerships Committee
From its early beginnings, ICUUW has been supported by members of the European Unitarian Universalists. Recently, the two organizations partnered to donate a printer to KAMEA, a women’s business organization in Kasese, Uganda that facilitates group savings, micro lending and other activities that support women’s small enterprises and startups. In its recent committee meeting, the Programs & Partnerships Committee decided to develop closer relations with the women in KAMEA.
We have women entrepreneurs in our organization located in different countries, and we know how important leadership is to help women achieve their goals. We’ve dreamed about providing online leadership training since UNOSZ and ICUUW collaborated on leadership training in Transylvania about 12 years ago and with Seng Kynthei in India shortly after. In 2022 we provided leadership training to women entrepreneurs in Bolivia.
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- By Gail Sandlin, USA, CSW71 task force of the ICUUW Advocacy Committee
It’s never too early to look ahead to March in New York City! The 71st Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW71) will once again call the world together to accelerate gender equality and empower women and girls. Grounded in the 2030 Agenda, the UN blueprint designed to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure peace by 2030, this CSW gathering centers on driving progress across its five core dimensions: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership. By positioning women as architects of global solutions, CSW71 demonstrates how gender equality reinforces each pillar to build resilient, flourishing communities worldwide. At its core, this gathering seeks to elevate women and girls as the catalyst for sustainable development, moving it beyond an abstract policy goal to a living practice, proving that long-term social, economic, and environmental progress is only achievable when women are engaged.
ICUUW will be there, grounding these global challenges in the lived experiences of women from Kosovo to Kenya, and communities across the globe. Together, these efforts reflect a central truth: women are far more than victims of crisis. They are leaders, knowledge-holders, peacebuilders, innovators, and architects of practical solutions. In the coming months, we will have more detailed information about our own ICUUW events at CSW71.
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- By Beth O'Connell, USA, ICUUW UN Advocacy Cmte
At UN headquarters, four of six candidates for Secretary General on the stage were women. I attended that recent candidate forum and listened to the women give smart and thoughtful answers to the questions. And I wondered: Could it be possible, after 80 years, for a woman to be elected to head this global organization?
There's been a definite push to choose a woman for the next Secretary General starting January 2027 as current SG Antonio Guterres finishes his second five-year term. Also, if regional tradition is followed, the next SG should come from Latin America or the Caribbean.
The only thing is the nominee is chosen by the Security Council with all the five veto-power countries – France, Russia, China, Britain and the United States – having to agree. Then the nominee is presented to the General Assembly for a vote.
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- By Gabor Kiss, USA
Here are three simple, yet important, email hygiene habits that you might consider to protect yourself and to avoid inconveniencing others.
Examine links in an email before you click them
Emails often contain links which you can click to go to a website, fill out a form, etc. It’s dangerous to click the link without knowing where it will send you. Sometimes the link simply says “click here” and sometimes it looks like an actual URL. There are two ways to examine the link before you click. One is to hover over it, and look at the lower left corner of your browser for the actual URL. It may be small and hard to read. A better way is to right-click the link and select “copy link address”, then paste the link into Notepad or another text editor, to examine it at your leisure.
If you are not satisfied that the link goes to where it claims to go, then don’t click the link.
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- By Rev Erika Orbán, Hungary
My parents were very careful about spending money. Yet, I never felt that we were poor—even though I often heard the word used at home. Today, as an adult, I understand why: through a proper alignment of values, a clear sense of priorities, and character built on self-discipline, our family’s inner compass ensured we had everything we truly needed.
As I write these lines, I do not know who will read them. I might not know you, the reader, personally. I might not know where you live, what you do, or what joys and hardships you are facing. Perhaps you belong to a Unitarian or Unitarian Universalist community, and perhaps we share similar views on humanity, God, the world, and our religious worldview. Perhaps... What is highly likely, however, is that you also earn your money through hard work and effort, and that you also think carefully about how you spend it.
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- By Tina Huesing
Over 40 members and friends from Bolivia, Canada, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Kenya, Romania and USA joined us for our annual members meeting.
Dear ICUUW Members and Friends,
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this year's Annual Member Meeting. It was wonderful to come together to reflect on our accomplishments, celebrate our community, and look ahead to the opportunities before us.
If you were not able to join us, please enjoy the recording of the meeting.
Hearing updates about the work ICUUW does in its committees and projects filled us with a deep sense of pride and optimism. At a time when our world is experiencing so much conflict, division, and uncertainty, ICUUW offers a welcoming community where we can come together, support one another, and take meaningful action to address some of the world's most pressing challenges. Our shared commitment to creating a safer, more just, and more equitable world, especially for women and children is what makes ICUUW truly unique.
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- By Pooja Banerjee, India/USA
I am excited to share our Summer 2026 newsletter with you, along with highlights and updates from an eventful first quarter! ICUUW has always been a space where we come together to advance women’s leadership and self-determination. If we are to truly achieve this goal, we must also bring more men into the conversation. Advancing gender equality requires all genders to work together, walking hand in hand to challenge and end discrimination in all its forms.