LETTER TO OUR READERS

Dear Friends,

       So THIS is what it's like to type with your elbows extended as far as you need them! We'd always wondered, back there in our old office where space was so rationed that we had to keep our elbows in so that we didn't poke each other in the ribs.

       We're now at Via San Saba, where we can actually have such luxuries as SEPARATE ROOMS!! This hails from the Publications Office, which is now quite distinct from the Documentation Center or the Administration Room... Ah, the glory of space!

        Now, of course, we've started thinking more expansively. Our aim has always been to keep you in touch with what resources are available on women's activities, particularly in the third world. As a result, we've been very privileged to have access to a wide range of marvellous publications: exciting new books and journals, illustrations, poems and stories telling of varied experiences from all over the world.

        We often think that we'd like to share with you more fully the thrill of looking at the material being generated by women in Asia, Latin America, Africa... indeed, all over the globe. Our own descriptions can hardly convey the flavour, the wit, the insights, the sheer beauty of much of the work.

        So, with this issue of Women in Action, we start a new experiment. We include extracts from the publications that we list. These are being presented in italicized type, laid out slightly differently from the rest of the text. Our selection is based mainly on what has come in during the period under review.

         This month, we include several poems, a timetable of one woman's day in Sri Lanka, a brief summary of the working experiences of a Peruvian woman and a couple of maps which tell a little about women's experiences in different parts of the globe.

          We hope that these inclusions will please and interest you and look forward to your responses, criticisms, suggestions.

          Finally, our newest publication. Till They Have Faces: Women as Consumers has just come off the press. This book, produced together with the International Organization of Consumers Unions, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific is an attempt to open up discussion on this important area of women's lives. You will receive your copy soon.

           In closing, let us repeat our invitation to drop by our new offices at Via San Saba, 5. We hope that this finds you in as good spirits as it leaves us.