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Congresswoman Barbara Lee came to lunch in Berkeley on Wednesday and asked 75 women to muscle their support behind issues that affect women and children at home and overseas. 

The guest speaker at the annual fund-raising event for The Zonta Club of Berkeley/North Bay, Lee said the club’s mission was a lot like her own: creating opportunity and justice for everyone. 

Zonta Berkeley/North Bay operates two scholarship funds for students to attend UC Berkeley, one of them capitalized at $56,000 and the other at $25,000. Other scholarships are for the Berkeley YMCA and the TechTrek Science Camp for Girls and the Merritt/Peralta nursing school. 

Lee, an Oakland Democrat, was first elected to Congress in April 1998 to fill the remaining term of Ron Dellums for the district that includes Berkeley. 

Before that she was a state legislator who sponsored 67 bills and resolutions that passed the legislature and were signed by Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican, she noted to Zonta members. 

She is a member of the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services and the House Committee on International Relations. 

Lee is a strong advocate of rights and economic advancement for women and children and people of color both in her district, in the United States and internationally. 

The Mills College graduate, who holds a master’s degree in social welfare from UC Berkeley, said the 58 women in the U.S. Congress are leaders in the gun safety movement. 

She said female legislators took the lead in maintaining that Elian Gonzalez should live with his father, and that his case never should have been politicized. 

She urged women at the Zonta luncheon to write Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., or contact people in North Carolina to pressure the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair to agree to ratify the treaty on the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women. 

She said 165 countries have ratified the treaty, and the United States remains with Iran, Sudan, North Korea and Somalia in not signing. 

Reducing domestic violence is another of her key issues. She said she wrote the Violence Against Women Act in California. 

“Domestic violence in the past was not considered a crime. In terms of the status of women we must make sure we can add resources so law enforcement can do their job properly. Hopefully Zonta will help us lobby on this,” she asked. 

At home in Alameda County, Lee said more than 60 percent of all new AIDS cases in 1998 were African-American and the majority of those were women. 

“We had to declare a state of emergency in Alameda County, Lee said.  

In addressing the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS threat in Africa, Lee said Congressional legislators “put our heads together and we got a bill out of committee and onto the floor for a voice vote.” 

The World Bank AIDS Marshall Plan Act passed earlier this month. It will supply $500 million over a five-year period. Lee’s legislation, the AIDS Marshall Plan for Africa Act, was included in the House bill. 

She said 7.5 million African children, some of whom have AIDS, have been orphaned because their parents have died of AIDS. 

“It’s very important to hear your voices,” she urged Zonta members and guests.