It is not every day that Weyburn residents are invited to speak in other countries but for one, she has done so before.

"I was part of a mission that went from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, as in the past I've worked on a program in the Ukraine that was an economic program with a gender lens," explains Debra Button, Former Mayor of Weyburn, 2006-2016.

"They've changed the program, mine was wrapped up and I'm no longer elected but I was pretty pleased to be invited back to be one of their keynotes in the Ukraine."

Button went to three events where she spoke at two of them.

"The one was the first Ukrainian women's conference. and it was very well done, a huge attendance and I delivered a keynote on the second day of that."

"The second event that I attended was the International Mayors Summit and I delivered a keynote that day as well."

They asked Button to speak on innovation at the IMS and she spoke on the innovation to bring Gender Equality to the Council chambers.

"That's something I have spoken very fondly of about in the past and continue to move that forward."

Button also took some personal time on the trip to visit Poland including Warsaw and Auschwitz at Birkenau.

At the International Mayors Summit, there were Mayors from around the World.

The Prince of The Netherlands was there and gave an interview to the Mayors.

"Very good, well spoken, well thought out and I quite enjoyed that," said Button.

Button was also able to meet the Prime Minister of Ukraine and sat next to him at the summit.

There were different innovations talked about and shown at the Summit.

"The biggest innovation was this little robot. Her name was Kiki."

"She is quite smart and full of feelings actually which was kind of odd. She was a girl and she would scan your face and she remembered who I was. She was quite neat."

"She almost seemed to have emotions."

This was the second annual International Mayors Summit and the first Ukrainian women's summit.

Button said that the best thing for her to see was how far gender equality has moved forward over the past seven years.

"I could see that the work is continuing and it will continue to be ongoing as they move forward and their country starts to expand."

Button was not near the conflict region of the Crimea Peninsula and so there were no signs of the fighting that has been ongoing since 2014, however, there were signs of the effects of war on the country.

"The economic conditions have changed. From my first year, I went seven years ago it was one Canadian dollar equalled one of their hryvnia dollars and now it's 1-22 so you can certainly tell the economy has taken a little bit of a punch there."

"Some of the street vendors I have met over the years have told me its really slow there and they are struggling but Kiev looks like a normal North American city and the restaurants are filled and its bustling but you get out of there a little bit and you can see the difference," said Button.

"I find the people of Ukraine so much like the people of Saskatchewan. I don't know if its the geography, but they're a wonderful people who work hard, enjoy their family and are very welcoming."

Button said the love the people of Ukraine have for their country is the same that we do here.

Debra Button at First Women's Congress, Ukraine, photo by FCM staff, submitted by Debra Button