Women Leadership Beyond Boundaries Workshop

Why do we do this workshop and how we planned?

      Our group (3) planned to do ''Women Leadership beyond boundaries workshop'' for one week project of Global Citizenship Course. We found that from our group idea which we would like to do for awareness of leadership intelligences that are not aware of their inner skills themselves, to act in their society in their future of life and we would like to apply the resources what we have and to act for social change activities as we are citizenship. 

    Mostly we young women are in Myanmar, according to our norms and traditional cultures, we are too shy to speak out what we have and how we feel and also we are not confidence what to do so even we have ideas. Thus, we aimed to do this project's workshop to aware of their knowledge and skills what they have and what is we called that sorts of skills, how we can act in which kind of tools. 

    We planned to do three hour workshop in the University Compound for University students as outdoor activities workshop. Because of the weather situation, it was rained and that we changed to do in the Building area. 

       

What are challenges?

We faced challenges to do workshop as we could not directly contact to the participants, we could only contact to the principal that we were not know more about participants level and knowledge what they have. And also we used many tools to share to the participants and we need more time to do workshop. And, we also faced for a place, according to the weather condition; we could do the workshop at library balcony compound. And, we had a challenges to adjust our project budgeted funds. 

What are our new insights?

We got as personal new insights such as facilitating skills, team work, building group dynamic, more confidence, and also knowing how to overcome the situation of participants to make more comfortable to participate and speak out in the workshop conversations.

We also got new insights as a social change maker, we received the participants aware of their inner leadership skills and they will apply back in their society, at least they will act in their family as their leadership roles. 

Did we get our learning goal/aim?

We got 18 participants, their interests, more confidence to speak out themselves from nervous and shyness, changed a bit more of their mind-sets and they willing to learn more about leadership intelligences and tools.     

Group (3) Global Citizenship Course

Women Leadership beyond Boundaries Workshop 

There and Back again

When we first arrived and were presented with the course, we were told the Full Flame project marked the ending of the course. At first, I thought it so far in the future that there was no point in worrying about it, then we starting thinking about what we were going to do and what issues we wanted to work with, then finally, the time arrived for us to work on our projects, and we did, and now it’s done.

The Full Flame project is over and with it so is this course. Having arrived at the end after so long, I find myself thinking back on these months and wonder where all that time went. It seems almost impossible that four months can go by so quickly. I remember so vividly, meeting the Danish participants for the first time in Copenhagen, saying goodbye to my parents, the flight to Myanmar, arriving in the blazing sun with heavy backpacks and going to the Global Platform for the first time, our home for several months, and meeting the other participants and the trainers.

It feels so weird, thinking that in less than a week I will be back in Denmark with my family and friends. I’ve of course missed them and I long to see them again, but I feel like I’ve been here so long, it’s become a second home for me. After a while, you just see things as everyday experiences. Going to class and sitting on the floor, going out to buy fruit and snacks, having to share a room. I guess there are things you get used to, but honestly, I’m really looking forward to have my own room and be able to drink tap water again. It’s small things, but there are things I miss, that I didn’t expect and I think, that once I’m back in Denmark, there will be plenty of things from Myanmar I’ll miss too. I’m sure I will come to miss this country and its people, and, one day, I think I want to come back.

Doing this course has been an experience I, personally, very much needed. After finishing school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I’m still not quite sure, but I’ve gotten some ideas and the motivation to do other things. Therefore, even though I don’t know where I’m going, I have gotten the courage to continue on my path and see where it leads me

-Emil

Every individual for environmental consciousness

Human activities are causing many kinds of environmental pollutions for which public awareness is necessary. The Active co-operation of every one, at every level of social organizations is needed for issues concerning environment. Over exploitation of natural resources is a basic concern for everybody. Therefore, we should accept the family planning schemes this will not only reduce the population but also solve the problems of food and rehabilitation.

There must be planning about the effects and control measures of environmental pollution. Govt. should initiate and help by awareness campaigns to save environment.

After the scientific and industrial revolution in the recent past, there has been immense impact of man on his environment and balance of the ecosystem as a whole/the environment.

Industrialization , urbanisation, deforestation , use of insecticides, pesticides, improper use of fertilizers and chemicals in environment are some contributing factors which challenged the life of man, animals specially birds and other organisms.

There must be planning about the effects and control measures of environmental pollution. Govt. should initiate and help by awareness campaigns to save environment.

There should be the integral part of our educational programmes. Like, we should discourage to use fuel vehicles, until it is not necessary, over use of water, for cleaning and other purposes should be decreased. Rain water harvesting is another example for using the rain water instead flowing out.

Any government at its own level cannot achieve the goals of sustainable development until the public has a participatory role in it. It is only possible only when public aware about the ecological and environmental issues. For example ban the littering of polythene cannot be successful until the public understands the environmental implications of the same.

Public should understand about the fact that if we degrading our environment, we are harming ourselves. This is the duty of educated people to educate the others about the adverse effect on environment. Government alone cannot do anything until unless every citizen is aware of the environmental pollution & their effects.

Everyone needs to make aware and motivate each and every individual for environmental consciousness.

The day before the day..

Four challenging, experimental but good, fantastic and educational months are slowly coming to an end. Today, its 105 days since we left our homes and we only have two days left of this course.

The feeling is a bit surrealistic. Looking back at four month reflecting on everything we have learned, experienced and felt is so overwhelming and it feels like we’ve been living here for years. Time has been running so fast. I clearly remember two months ago, being halfway through the course, thinking we had a lot of time left! And now we are here, the day before our last day.

Keeping focus these last days can be a bit of a challenge. We are so close to the ending and it’s easy to sense that everyone is ready to go home or move on. Mentally, I think we are all almost home. We talk a lot about the things that we miss and looking forward to have or see like food, friends, surroundings and most of all; hugging our families and friends in the airport. We are ready to go home.

Still, it’s a mixed feeling that we only have two days left. Even though we’re looking forward going home, we’re also sad that it’s the end and I don’t think that anyone is ready for the “big goodbye” yet. I think its strange ending a part of your life that you know you never will experience again and saying goodbye to some people you may never see again when you’ve been living together.

It has been some amazing months here. Experiencing a lot, building new friendship cross countries, learning by each other and just living in this very exciting and lovely country.  

Safety Walk

After the 2010 election in Myanmar, the country has opened up to the outside world. Even though Myanmar is developing a lot these years and moving towards democracy there is still some negative sides to the story.

This Tuesday we were invited to do a safety-walk in the rural areas of Yangon together with

Action Aid’s women rights team. A safety walk is a walk in a specific area with the purpose of mapping the safe and unsafe streets for women. We went to Hlaing Tha Yar Township which is one out of seven areas where Action Aid conduct these safety-walks. In this area there is a lot of big factories employing mostly women migrant workers who come to Yangon in the hope of a better life. But the reality for these women are tougher than one would believe.

One of the biggest problems for the women in the area is transportation from the factory to home. When they get off from work it is usually dark outside and because of the lack of streetlights it is unsafe for them to walk on the streets. Besides fast moving traffic, no sidewalk and holes in the road, the possibility of harassment or in worst cases rape is very high and part of everyday life. A new factory law in Myanmar have implemented that the minimum wage should be 3600 kyat, the same as 3 $ a day. This means that instead giving all the workers more money, the factories have fired a lot of workers and thereby the remaining workers got a much bigger workload. This means that the women have to work around two hours of overtime every day, getting home even later in the evening and therefore facing bigger risks.

The factory law also states that the factories have to provide transportation for the women, but the truck only picks up the women going home from work once a day. Meaning that the women working overtime don’t have the possibility to go with a truck and have to walk or take a bus and again facing an even bigger risk than they already do.

If the women are one of the lucky who gets a seat in truck, it is very crowded and trucks usually drive insane. But that’s not all. There has been cases where the last woman have been raped by the truck driver.

When they get home to their bungalows or hostels they still don’t feel safe. The bungalows are easy accessible and intruders are not fare away. So where are the women safe?

This is the story of the negative side of democracy and opening a country up to the outside world, to big international companies who do not take the necessary responsibility of their workers.

The safety-walk made a big impression on all of us and made us think about how the companies take advantage of the marginalized and vulnerable women who don’t have any other possibilities. Therefore it is important to take action and help the women in this extreme tough and unfair situation, as Action Aid does with the Safety-Walks as a part of their new Safe City Campaign.

FULL FLAME: HOW WAS IT?

The past 2 weeks we have been working on our final project at the global citizensship course. The name of the project is full flame and it is our chance to create social change i society! 

We were a part of a group working with the terms governance and furthermore good governance, as we thought this was the right time having the latest election in mind and not to forget the very beginning of a democracy. 

To introduce the thoughts about how to do good governance we created a fun and educational boardgame, targeting the youth of Myanmar. 

But how is it to create social change in Myanmar? 

In one word Challenging. 

First of all having to find an achievable aim. As there a so many important issues to work With here in Myanmar, it was difficult making  something that was realistic but still reaching out to a bigger audience. 

And With that comes a new question: how do you find your audience? 

Of course it was easier to find the active supporters because of our network here at global platform, but finding and involving the less political and activistic youth was a Challenge.

That ment that our product was very much suited for the political and activistic youth, which worked out really well in the end! 

Overall there has been a lot of factors that we had to have in mind during the full flame because of the situation in the country, but luckely we have good local friends helping us understand the culture and the norms.

It has been really exciting and fun to be able to do something actively our selves after spending time in the classroom seeing other people do social change. Now we were the ones acting out, and setting our mark on this course.

The end of GCC and goodbye to Myanmar!

The Global Citizen course has almost come to and end. And in four days we will be on the flight back to Copenhagen. It is such a strange feeling having to say goodbye to Myanmar. Before I came here i couldn't imagine that i would feel this belongingship to a country after staying there for four months.

Experiencing a culture so different from what I am used to was in the beginning very exciting but also overwhelming. Eventhough Myanmar is different from Denmark in so many ways, i feel this connection to the country. I don't feel like a tourist when i walk around the streets anymore. I feel kind of at home. So eventhough i am looking forward to go back to Denmark I will definetely feel sad about leaving Myanmar.

If I think about what I have learned from the last four months, the biggest lesson has been understanding the cutural differences. Spending so much time here and really getting to know Myanmar has changed my perspective a bit. I am not looking at my own country in the same way as before i came here. On one hand i feel a lot more thankful for being born in Denmark. But i also feel that some people in Denmark could learn a lot from the burmese. About being more open to strangers, and about kindness and sharing.

In four days i will not only have to say goodbye to Myanmar. I also have to say goodbye to the people i have spend every single day with over the last four months. It is an intense experience going to another country with people you don't know and spend all your time with them. Sleeping in the same room, spending your sparetime together, go travelling together. You get to know eachother in a speciel way, which i think is very unique. It makes you develop!  

Frederikke