WINNIPEG (Staff) – Manitoba Women’s Institute members plan to keep their fingers on the pulse of health-care reform in rural areas.
Barbara Stienwandt, incoming president of the group, said women have to learn what’s happening locally with health care and make sure new regional health associations act in the best interests of their communities.
“There’s a sense of urgency, I think, for members to become actively involved,” she said.
Stienwandt said the motion to get involved in health-care reform made last week at the group’s annual meeting is fitting: “After all, the women’s institute movement in Canada got off the ground on a health issue.”
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The first WI group met in Ontario in the late 1800s to educate women about the dangers of unpasteurized milk.
Discussions under way
One local chapter of the institute is already leading health-care discussions in its community.
Murielle Bugera of St. Pierre, Man., told the meeting the Crow Wing Trail Farm Women’s Group was instrumental in forming a community health council.
“The community is supposed to be involved in health reform, it’s supposed to come from the grassroots,” she explained, adding the group will soon meet with the chair of the regional health association.
Assurance of hospital wanted
Bugera said several institute members also rallied about 600 people from the area to press health minister Jim McCrae to make sure long-standing plans for a new hospital went ahead before the reform process kicked in.
“Women’s Institute is a perfect group to have behind us because they have been involved with health for so long,” Bugera said.
Stienwandt said this year’s annual meeting of MWI was one of the most positive in recent years.
“We’re sensing a feeling of optimism,” she said. “An organization as old as this one has gone through a lot.”
She said changes to membership rules mean women who can’t always attend monthly local meetings can participate as individual members and have the right to vote and hold office. These changes take some getting used to, she said, adding the group now wants to broaden its membership from about 850.
“I think now we need to be turning our focus to let women in the province know that there is an option for membership in the Women’s Institute,” Stienwandt said. “We have to get the word out and also really start promoting our organization.”
One new idea the group is exploring is creating a home page on the internet’s worldwide web.
