2021 Lukluk (VSA) - Magazine - Page 24
Lydia Sijp and Jeanette Daysh outside the new CICSO office
Changes from the Shed
From old shed to state-of-the-art
centre for democratic engagement.
That’s been the recent journey
for Cook Islands Civic Society
Organisations Inc (CICSO) - an
umbrella group for more than
120 Cook Island non-government
organisations and community
groups.
VSA for our own office space and
because of COVID it’s taken two
years to get Jeanette here so we’re
very thankful that she’s here now.”
For Lydia Sijp, the General
Secretary of CICSO, the building
represents a milestone. “We’ve all
been operating from our mobiles,
This isn’t Lydia’s first project. She’s
been working to build civil society
and democratic engagement in the
Cook Islands for nearly thirty years
including working to establish
and grow the National Olympic
Committee, holding office in the
National Council of Women, and
the Cook Islands Family Welfare
from our cars from our (nonCICSO) offices you know so we sat
down to develop our application for
Association. These are all sectors
she remains closely connected
with in her current work.
24