The Professional Organization for Women in Antigua/Barbuda is committed to enhancing the empowerment of women, and by extension the community, to effect constructive change by promoting excellence in all aspects of life. This is our mission, and it aligns nicely with the theme selected by the Directorate of Gender Affairs for this year’s International Women’s Day.

Like POWA’s mission statement, the theme selected by Gender Affairs acknowledges the importance of community to the quality of life. It acknowledges that the communities in which we live as women impact our lives and that our experiences, in turn, help to determine the quality of life in our various communities. When women make progress the entire community progresses. By improving the quality of life for the women in our country, Antigua & Barbuda will improve the overall quality of life at the community level and ultimately at the national level.

The women of POWA sent their audience home with a good buzz after deep belly laughs over the weekend. It was year five of their annual programme, and they once again tickled the funny bone and engaged in reminiscences, which played well to the crowd at the Cathedral Cultural Centre. Like Joan Underwood said during her presentation, 'Out of the Mouths of Babes', the Professional Organization for Women in Antigua and Barbuda knows its demographic; knows that when it cracks out musings on old-time school days and pokes fun at time-worn Antiguanisms, it'll strike a familiar and funny note. It doesn't have to be flawless and isn't always so, but it works.