Zonta International is a global organization that works towards building a better world for women and girls. Their vision is to create a world where women’s rights are recognized as human rights and every woman is able to achieve her full potential. They advocate for equality, education, and an end to child marriage and gender-based violence12. They have been working towards this goal for more than 100 years3.

A Brief Club History: Our Club, the Zonta Club of Oamaru was inaugurated in 2006, making it the youngest Zonta Club in New Zealand. The Club was chartered on January 16th 2008. It took almost three years of committed work by a small group of dedicated women to gather

the numbers to be able to charter as an official Zonta Club here in Oamaru. Twice we almost had the correct numbers, and then people left as they moved out of the district for other jobs. We were very lucky in having two SOM support clubs who mentored and supported us right from the beginning. Lynette Grave and Janya Lobb (Dunedin Metropolitan Club and Timaru Zonta respectively) came to every meeting for all that time and long after we had chartered, well supported by other members of their corresponding clubs for the long car journeys!