Curaçao, March 6, 2005  

 

Press Release

With pictures

 

 

Successful conference About Women and Money

 

Willemstad -  “Women need to constantly update and inform themselves and should not assume that they are all set just because their current situation is good”. That is one of the advises that came out of the successful conference “About Women and Money” which took place in the conference room of the Holiday Beach Hotel & Casino last weekend in Curaçao.

 

The conference was centered on the excellent presentations of the four speakers, keynote speaker Dr. Daisy Ríos, from Philadelphia, from Curaçao Commissioner Emily de Jong Elhage, president of the Bonaire Bankers Association Orphaline Saleh MBA, and the financial executive of ELMAR in Aruba Mrs. Gloria Croes. Each of the four speakers provided the participants with their own respective financial messages based on their own professional fields, tackling the different aspects that are related to women and money. The speakers all had a very dynamic way of getting their messages across and their messages seemed to have a great impact on the participants. All the participants received several specific tips and were advised on how to work on their individual situations and also on the general situation for financial stability of women.

 

The opening ceremony of the conference on Friday March 4, was by the Minister of Finance of the Netherlands Antilles Drs. Ersilia de Lannooy, who recognized the need and the importance to give attention to the topic of women and money.

“Both men and women believe they are receiving what they are supposed to receive from work. Even though there has indeed been a lot of progress, we still need to acknowledge that financial gender equality has yet to be attained. There is still no community where women enjoy the same opportunities as men,” said Minister De Lannooy.

 

She also gave a detailed illustration of issues of concern that need to keep getting attention to when it comes to financial stability of women. Minister De Lannooy lit a candle as a symbolic act of clarity for the participants at the conference About Women and Money.

 

Psychologist Dr. Ríos guided the participants during her presentation and her mini-workshop for them to see how they are programmed when it comes to money and how they can change unfavorable attitudes and acts that are money related. According to Dr. Ríos, you should check all the messages a person has been getting from the moment of birth and analyze them, to be able to take the right decisions when it comes to financial stability of women. Especially fear and insecurity based on cultural and gender messages influences a woman’s personal decision of being prosperous or not.

 

For example there are women who believe they have made it and that they are safe but who all of a sudden find themselves confronted with drastic changes, such as divorce, accident or illness that leaves them disabled, the shutting down of the organization where they work or downsizing, which can all impact a life tremendously if you have not taken precautions, and which can completely isolate someone in every sense. “The problem and the relationship with money is not just for the one who does not have it, but it is the same for women who do have money and women need to function with conscience towards this and should not trust that everything is already set and great. There are many women who found themselves with very unpleasant surprises because they had positioned themselves in such way that they create booby traps for themselves” as Dr. Ríos explained.

 

Commissioner Emily de Jong Elhage showed that not all problems are bad. She showed that she succeeded to make it in the world of ‘real estate’ because she worked and showed up with confidence in herself while delivering great work and results. She focused on five items that each woman should follow if she wants to stabilize herself financially: determine your destination, plan the steps you want to take, decide how you want to take these steps, move in the right direction and continue your development and adjust on the way what needs to be adjusted.

 

Orphaline Saleh MBA in her turn encouraged the participants to look for advice and financial support to translate or rather convert what they are worth into money. Especially banks believe in the economic value of a person and they would like to get women as clients to help them expand their financial horizon as well. Finally, Mrs. Saleh illustrated the importance of realizing that a woman has her personal financial situation and development in her own hands.

 

Gloria Croes finally showed that what she illustrated about the situation in our local community also applies to developed countries like the United States of America, where to this day there has never been a female president, female artists in Hollywood get paid less then their male colleagues and the amount of women in top positions where they could earn a lot of money is in no comparison to that of men. Mrs. Croes gave examples to show how women can unite to break through the barriers that still exist, which is the reason why women still earn less then men, that women need to believe more in themselves and in their own abilities. Only then, those who want can realize their dreams just like any man with the same level of education and with the same abilities.

 

Every speaker emphasized the need for women to continue educating and developing themselves and to make use of the opportunities they get to keep learning, so that they can help themselves not only in money aspects but also in every possible aspect.

 

About Women and Money was held in a very highly professional and suitable venue, which is the conference room of the Holiday Beach Hotel & Casino. The venue team headed by Thalia Wawoe and Indira Fraai took care of every single organizational detail and excelled with professionalism.

 

The next annual conference in the cycle of  “About Women and .......” will again take place in the Conference Room of the Holiday Beach Hotel & Casino in Curaçao on March 3 and 4, 2006.

 

The pictures show moments during the two-day 2005 Conference About Women and Money in the Holiday Beach Hotel & Casino Conference Room in Curaçao.