Pip’s Poster Power

Royal New Zealand Navy Lieutenant Commander Pip Gibbons was one of four UN peacekeepers featured on a poster to promote the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers on May 29. Lt Cdr Gibbons recently served as an UN Military Observer in Timor Leste. In Timor she lead a UN team that liaised with a range of people including local village chiefs, government ministers, other UN units, non government organisations and local police personnel. “It was great working with defence force personnel from other countries and also being a role model for the local women, especially when they saw me interacting with senior members of their community,” Gibbons said. The UN site describes this year’s theme: “Female peacekeepers act as role models in the local environment, inspiring, by their very example, women and girls in the often male-dominated societies where they serve. Demonstrating to these women and girls that they can do anything — in the realm of politics, security, law and order, medicine, journalism and beyond — the female blue helmets truly embody the concept, ‘Power to Empower.'”