Younger women urged to fill South Australian volunteer roles as their older sisters step down -

Younger women urged to fill South Australian volunteer roles as their older sisters step down

Tuesday, October 30th, 2012

Church groups need to recruit young women to perform voluntary work traditionally done by older women, leaders say.

Lutheran Women SA president Joan Zilm said older women performed crucial everyday tasks in congregations and women’s groups contributed significantly to congregation and district budgets.

“If women weren’t there to do those things I wouldn’t say the congregations would collapse, although it could in some cases, but you certainly wouldn’t have the camaraderie … and many congregations wouldn’t be able to have some of the luxuries that they have because of a lack of funds,” Ms Zilm said.

Former Catholic Women’s League state president Pauline Victory said league members regularly spoke out on issues such as the rights of women and children.

“We’ve been at the front of lots of issues and other pretty powerful things, so it’s not all about making tea and coffee,” she said.

Ms Victory said members regularly met with high school-aged females and she hoped this association would lead to younger people joining the group later in life. Continue reading