Today was jam-packed with motivating addresses and discussions about women throughout and outside the region who have run or thought about running for public office. You could not come away without being inspired and loaded for bear in the political arena. Following the keynote address in the morning, there were many useful seminars for women who aspire to getting into leadership positions in government, developing favorable trade policies and legislation to protect and promote women’s health and human rights. A lively discussion ensued about crafting and advancing legislation that touches all the critical bases and tries to reach consensus, while knowing that, in the ‘REAL” world we must work toward applying cooperation and support between countries and understanding Society’s ‘outcasts’ also the understanding that all countries are not like and societies, culture and progress is not uniform.

The afternoon was filled with workshops mainly focused on political campaign and leadership training. By the end of the day, we had more candidates ready to run for office than we ever anticipated.

The BEST, however came with the Plenary discussion led by Heidemarie Martha Stefanyshyn-Piper, an American Astronaut of Ukrainian background who adopted the young Rising Voices girls as her own from the beginning by sharing her background, ambitions and the challenges she faced as well as the opportunities she was able to take advantage of throughout her career. The finale was a panel discussion of Heidi with a representative group of the Rising Voices girls from Ukraine who discussed their hopes, dreams and challenges for the future. As Heidi pointed out these young women were poised and ready for leadership in spite of the challenges they face. One young girl pointed out that her hope for the future was that mothers from her country of Ukraine could live at home with their children rather than having to go to places like Italy to work and earn a livelihood for their families. We all agreed that we need to work together to help that happen. The biggest challenge for the future we agreed was the plight of women from Belarus who continue to face a dictatorship that inhibits the progress of women.

The evening took us to Victor Pinchuk and Elena Franchuk’s (our Summit benefactors) art gallery, The Pinchuk ArtCenter, for a reception followed by a farewell dinner. We are all sad to leave but hold high hopes for the future hopes and dreams of all the women who attended. We are determined to stay connected and to continue the progress that women have made in Eurasia and continue to move forward.

We cannot end without acknowledging that Jill Dougherty of CNN, our Summit moderator, is the best of all international journalists for her dedication, boundless energy and talented reporting of the circumstances that surround our global gathering.