Social reformer US Congresswoman the Hon. Maxine Waters is the guest speaker at a gala evening fundraiser for the Women's Resource Centre.

Congresswoman Waters has been a champion of the needy, the young and the elderly since being elected to the House of Representatives in November 1990 securing 80 percent of the vote.

She was re-elected by a greater margin in 1992, as part of the Clinton Administration, in California's 35th District which includes the South Central Los Angeles, Inglewood, Hawthorne and Gardena.

A long-time fighter for new federal budget priorities, Mrs. Waters has championed legislation to transfer money from the Defence Department to meet human needs and has called for defence industries to be converted to peacetime production to protect jobs.

She opposed the Gulf War and, for the past 10 years, has been a leader in the movement to end apartheid and assure a one-person, one-vote democracy in South Africa.

She is also a key figure in congressional efforts to restore power to Haiti's democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In her biography it states: "Representative Waters was among the first leaders in the African American Community to address the HIV/AIDS crisis.

"She was instrumental in the establishment of the Minority AIDS Foundation.

She organised the first Congressional Black Caucus hearing on AIDS in the African American Community.'' Mrs. Waters was an early supporter of President Bill Clinton and co-chaired the Clinton For President Campaign. She played a leading role in Rev. Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 campaigns for the presidency.

She is a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the Small Business Committee and the Democratic Caucus Organisation for Study and Review. Mrs.

Waters was first elected to public office in 1976 when she won a seat in the California State Assembly. During her 14 years in the state legislature she became the first woman to be elected chair of the powerful Democratic Caucus.

She also created the nation's first statewide Child Abuse Prevention Training Programme, gained passage of a law to prevent strip searches for non-violent misdemeanours and legislation to help prevent toxic chemical catastrophes.

During her first term in Congress, Mrs. Waters helped to provide loans for cities, cheap housing for the young and old, and secured $3 million for community-based economic development at the civil disturbance in South Central LA.

She was born on August 15, 1938, in St. Louis. A mother-of-two, she is married to Sidney Williams, former player with the Cleveland Browns and the Washington Redskins.

The fundraising evening is at the Sonesta Beach Hotel and Spa on Saturday.

US Congresswoman the Hon. Maxine Waters.