One Step for Us, Girls and Women

In Myanmar (Burma) where I was born and raised up, traditional culture supports gender stereotypes and a belief that education is less crucial for girls than for boys, especially in times of hardship. Subsequently, girls often get less education than boys in their adulthood, resulting in a lack of opportunity for gaining well-paid jobs. Girls are instead required to help with farming and house-keeping. In these days of economic hardship, every household member needs to earn an income, so girls are forced to leave the household to find jobs even though they do not have enough skills. Most urban poor women do not know how to find jobs, how to prepare Curriculum Vitae, or how to set up a business. Job opportunities are very scarce and most industries and factories only recruit the young women who have skills, business knowledge, and good health. These girls with no formal education mostly find work in the industries and factories owned by Chinese businesses and government businessmen. These industries cannot offer enough job opportunities to all the unemployed girls and pay wages that are too low to support a family in Rangoon, which has a high cost of living compared to other cities. Food and housing are particularly expensive in Rangoon. Therefore, some girls who cannot earn enough money living Rangoon become sex workers to earn extra income. Most are not fully aware of health risks associated with sex work or ways to protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases. An increasing number of women are becoming infected with HIV. These female sex workers are spreading the disease because they lack formal employment, as well as sex education and positive living education. There are also many psychological impacts for the women, such as low morale, depression, anxiety, and suicide because of their status within the society. In the strict Burmese Buddhist society, these women are unvalued and looked down on by the society. Even though their families are struggling to survive, they do not want their daughters to become bar girls or sex workers. Therefore, once girls become sex workers they are no longer accepted by the society and cannot find jobs or opportunities to that would allow them to quit their illegal profession. This means that girls and women who want to quit their professions of sex work cannot survive in the formal economy.

Kyauk Tann Township in suburb Yangon is the population of low socio economic status and community of urban slum people. Many of the young girl students who are attending at the Zabu Oak Shaung free nunnery school (My articles about Zabu Oak Shaung’s education program can be read on A Remarkable Woman Who Made Her Dreams Do Come True.) are facing a thread for the continuation of their education at every new academic year. Their parents cannot guarantee them to be able to complete a highest decent education: high school graduation or a bachelor degree. Like most the welfare children in the downtown and privileged areas of Yangon, they cannot have a chance to enjoy other co-extracurricular and life skills programs such as computer, internet and language trainings.

By providing vocational and personal development training in their summer holiday to a number of potential young girl students from the Zabu Oak Shaung nunnery school and empowering them to develop their business, entrepreneurial mindset and confidence, the selected girls will be trained sewing and personal development skills at the end of the project. “One Step For Girls” is a vocational and personal development training program in summer holidays for economically vulnerablgirls from the Zabu Oak Shaung, initiated and implemented by Metta Moe Myanmar, the local civil society organization I and my friends founded in May 2009.

As the next phase, we will find a potential market for the garments made by the girls and empower them to set up small business at their home or the nunnery school. The girls, their family, the nunnery school and the community are aimed to benefit from those activities and impact. For a sustainability purpose, these girls must also cascade their knowledge and skills to another group of girls at the next summer holiday. Our Metta Moe team, the nunnery school and the girls themselves must find a potential funding source for the marketing, setting up small businesses and future training delivery phases.

The project idea came from the preliminary discussion with the Myaing Tharyar ward (1) community where the nunnery school is situated and the Zabu Oak Shaung. They will contribute five sewing machines, a space, food in training days and other helps in need. Our Metta Moe will contribute Personal Development Training and Sharing Circle facilitators.

The integration of vocational skills and personal development training is a more powerful approach to empowerment rather than just mediocre economic empowering to girls and women. Ma Hnin Si is the one of the most inspiring women I have ever met in my life. At her young age, her husband then passed away with AIDS and she was also diagnosed with HIV. At that time, she was very vulnerable in terms of health, economic and social aspects. Both her family and parents-in-law did not give her a hand. Instead of that, they neglected and discriminated her. She was really in a deep dark ravine. She was even sent to a mental health hospital as an insane person. When she joined our organization’s psychosocial support program two years ago, she was one of the team leaders in her organization. Her leadership and interpersonal skills is far beyond her life and experiences. She was sharing her story as a lesson learning and ideal example to her peers and fellows with a thoughtful and reflective insight. It is remarkable that she is a motivated entrepreneur and business woman throughout her life, both in difficult and trouble-free situations. It is like there is none sort of business she hasn’t done, from small restaurant owner and selling flowers at a pagoda to seasonal agriculture business and making and selling garments and hand-made accessories. She can even support her family who once treated her badly. That makes her feel delight, sense of capability and personal confident. Last year, she got married for second time. She loves her new husband so much and feels like he is everything for her. But after few months, she realized the bitterness from that marriage. She found her husband is a bad guy. He abused her both physically and mentally on a daily basis. He is very uncooperative and seriously criticizes and blames whatever she does. He restricts her rights. He makes shameful things in her social life. He meaninglessly and excessively squanders all the money she makes. Every fruitful and peaceful mechanism of her life broke down since then. She has been in severe depression and cannot think of for her current and future.

Action for Public (My article about Action for Public can be read on Action for Public, Action for Women.) is a women empowerment organization founded by a high-visionary young woman who is also a Fulbright MPA scholar. We, both AFP and MMM, believe that multidisciplinary approach is the most effective empowerment evolution for girls and women in vulnerable circumstances. At AFP, the primary program is vocational training and income generation programs. At the same time, Ma Kyi Pyar, the founder and program-director of AFP, organizes occasionally leadership, personal development, problem solving and life skills training programs for her beautiful women. In summer holidays, language teaching, story telling and other fun and co-extracurricular activities are arranged by the support of partnered organizations for effected and infected children of those women. Ma Kyi Pyar keeps her organization’s atmosphere in a family setting with good discipline rather than a hierarchical NGO structure. By this way, women feel they are very trustworthy, reliable and supportive each other. She also organizes fun activities such as karaoke and going to pagoda and other fun places for women and she is also an active participant in those leisure activities. By this way, her members feel her genuine support and it is also a role model for humble and charismatic leadership. In collaboration with Metta Moe, AFP has been providing psychosocial support training and service program to its women. Now, Ma Hnin Si is in struggling circumstance but thanks to that awesome program, she is having a helpful support for her mental deterioration. Her counselor genuinely listens and shows empathy to her. She challenges and shapes her thoughts. They together find solutions and develop coping mechanism. Ma Hnin Si feels she is now in the right track to recovery.

If I, Ma Kyi Pyar and Daw Wi Mala Sari who is the principal nun of Zabu Oak Shaung are asked, as a grassroots young woman leader, what motivates us and why we are doing what we are doing, our answers will not be different. “We believe that we, women, can do it.” “We believe that Girls effect will change the world.” “Some changes cannot wait the regime or policy change, we must create our future.” “Traditionally untapped potential of our girls and women must be solution-oriented at our time.”

World Pulse’s Voices of Our Future program

In the VOF (Voices of Our Future) program, I gained the skills and knowledge I need to promote my voice and vision on the ground and to a global audience. I feel I become a loudspeaker, bringing attention to those that are voiceless, and telling the stories that our world needs to hear. During those five-months, my role was to learn report, collaborate, connect and share. I was asked to complete four writing assignments, attend question and answer sessions with our program partners, and work with my Editorial Midwife and Empowerment Mentor.

I served as an on-the-ground source for PulseWire, our community newswire and social networking site. I was encouraged and supported to model World Pulse values, demonstrate online community support, and teach others about citizen journalism and the power of social media. World Pulse has created a network for women, a platform for change, and a sanctuary for those who have been silent.

Empowering Mentors and Editorial Midwives are what set this online program apart. World Pulse recognizes that many Correspondents overcome significant hurdles to participate in this program: we may face long walks to internet cafes, power outages, political instability and curfews, personal intimidation for wanting to participate in a global community of women, writing in a second or third language, and even learning how to be a part of an online social community for the first time. All of these can be daunting and get in the way of completing this program. To address these issues, each Correspondent was assigned, one-on-one, an Empowerment Mentor and an Editorial Midwife. These professional women supported us on our journey for the five months.

The format for the monthly learning modules is designed to create an environment that is safe, collaborative, and challenging to maximize learning. The curriculum covers basic journalistic principles, how to write a profile, a feature story, a frontline journal and an Op-Ed, using social media to amplify our voice, and learning how to train others in Web 2.0 and citizen journalism. Additionally, Amy Lombardo, a 2009 Empowerment Mentor and founder of True Nature Wellness, has generously donated her time to create five, short wellness videos to help us manage stress and busy lives.

Through our Voices, we are able to create a New World.
With Courage we create Possibility.
With Beauty we Innovate the world.
Through Connections, we Transform our world.

Hence, why don’t I share this information about fabulous opportunity to my like-minded fellow sisters and why don’t you grab the golden opportunities?

SHE Also Wants and Deserves Decent Work

IWD logo

“He’s a guy with decent job.” “He has the perfect credentials for the job.” “Professionalism” and “Decent Work” are some of the greatest attributes a man can have. Both men and women in my country, and in many other places in the world, have come to accept that, when it comes to having a rewarding career, the quality of masculinity is all-important. But are men the only creatures who are competent? What about their counterpart, WOMEN?

Why are we affected by gender from the moment we are born? Both women and men across the globe work very hard. Women hold up half the sky. Men’s work, however, is always perceived as more notable than women’s work. Throughout history, the work that women do has often not even been seen as “work.” In fact, the role of women in all aspects of society remains unappreciated. Even in this 21st century, in some conservative societies, “women with decent work” is uncommon notion. We are half the world’s population, yet we do two-thirds of the world’s work – thus you can’t say that SHE doesn’t work hard. Yet women earn one-tenth of the world’s wages, and own less than one per cent of the world’s wealth. We, women, are among the poorest of the poor.

If women work so hard, why do they get very little income? Obviously, much of women’s work like family and community work is unpaid. Yet even when women hold paying jobs, their salaries are often lower than men’s. This happens in developed, industrialized countries, too. What are the reasons behind this injustice?

In Burma where I was born and have grown up, traditional culture supports gender stereotypes and a belief that education is less crucial for girls than for boys, especially in times of hardship. Subsequently, women often get less education than men, resulting in a lack of opportunity for gaining well-paid jobs. Even when we have the same education and competencies as our male rivals, women are still paid less because men are regarded as the breadwinners. Additionally, as a result of having unequal opportunity, fewer women participate in workers unions or other associations that promote worker rights. As long as we can’t acquire equal access to education, REAL change will elude us.

Another reason why women are left far behind men is because tasks that girls are traditionally taught, such as cooking and sewing, are rewarded less than the type of work that boys are trained to do, like building and working with machines. Also, despite the fact that women are able to perform jobs that were traditionally dominated by men, women are still viewed as weaker. The fact is, some women are physically stronger than some men, and some males are more caring than their feminine counterparts. It’s clear that differences in capabilities are more likely due to a person’s individual qualities rather than their sex. Thus, despite traditional views, men and women can clearly do similar work and should be provided an equal access to training.

Some women have broken through these barriers and made great progress, becoming scientists and space pioneers. Even so, the attention paid to women in science and the world of technology is often dimmer than the coverage of men’s contributions. I have personally felt this bias when, after spending five years in the university specializing in IT, the alumni still considers technology professions to be reserved for men.

2011 is the time for a wake-up call. March 8th is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. It’s time to reflect on the historic struggles and achievements of women. The future of our women and girls requires us to listen to their previously unheard voices and to help them tap into sources of wealth, such as education, training and equal access to jobs that pay well.

This year the UN’s IWD theme is “Equal access to education, training, science and technology: Pathway to decent work” This affirms the importance of the idea that “HE is not the only one who wants and deserves a decent work.” We must use this opportunity to promote the notion that both sexes can walk together on the same pathway to a better quality of life.

This article is part of a writing assignment for Voices of Our Future, which is providing rigorous web 2.0 and new media training for 30 emerging women leaders. We are speaking out for social change from some of the most unheard regions of the world.

At The Same Developmental Milestone

“Why it takes longer at MY DAUGHTER’S turn?” I could see a panel of faculties sitting on the stage. I could observe their facial expression from this distance. I couldn’t examine her countenance who’s just giving me her back. I couldn’t hear what they are keenly saying.

Feeling hot and soaking in sweat for seemingly very long moment, I consciously noticed she was coming down to me. When she said “The professors would like to talk with you”, my excitement moved to higher degree. I myself witnessed all of the other students smoothly passed their entry interview in a snap of fingers. What’s wrong with her?

His first comment made me wonder. “What a brave daughter you gave birth”!

He opened the conversation.

“Her matriculation score cannot guarantee to qualify what she applied to specialize. We suggested her to apply for other majors. She replied “NO”. She said that’s definitely what she wants to pursue. She has no reason to study what she is reluctant. Unless she has a chance to study in accordance with her desire, she would go to other apt institution for her plan B.”

I have reached to the clear understanding. When he paused incessant talking, it’s difficult to capture with words how and how much I adored my little daughter. What a remarkable attempt my daughter is doing.

Without hesitation, I just said I would admire whatever she chooses. He asked again the child. She was still persistent. I concluded remaining unchanged. He seemed so frustrated and ended with saying to wait for a week for the result.

Everybody noted what she did was so marvel. In this corrupted country, they are always seeking the victims. Without specifying any baseline, they used to say talented youths they would not qualify with their marks. Just give up the hopes or just bribe a huge sum.

Along with her admission to school without any bribe but with strong voice, her story appeared in the homepage of students’ blog as a byword for fighting against corruption.

I always thought my youngest sister is slow and shy unlike the elder twos. At a point, I learnt she’s also my proud of one. Unless she made such a bold appeal, I wouldn’t have a daughter who’s a female student in Myanmar Maritime University. And I would still probably be an unaware mother.

Action for Public, Action for Women

AFP

AFP (Action for Public) is an organization supporting PLHA (People Living with HIV/AIDS) women, their family members, children and youths with vocational and capacity building trainings and income generation programs.

AFP was founded by three socially-minded Community Development and Civic Empowerment Program graduates from Chin Mai University in January 2008.

The vision of AFP is to eliminate poverty among women and youths from grassroots level community and to mobilize their knowledge and opportunities.

The missions are to upgrade the capabilities of women offering knowledge and skill trainings, to sustain better income for women creating job opportunities and to empower women and youths by capacity building trainings.

The target beneficiaries of AFP are PLHA women living in Yangon Division, their children and other PLHA children and youths from rural areas.

The accomplishments of AFP in 2010 were providing sewing training for PLHA women in Yangon Division, setting up income generation programs for their income engaging between the garment industry and their products, supporting micro finance program for those women to be able to develop their small social businesses, conducting youth empowerment trainings and other support trainings for their family members and children for the sake of their educational and social well-being.

Purchasing hand-made accessories and clothes made by the women, donating medicines and in-kind or cash for those needy women and children and volunteering as a teacher or trainer in the training and educational programs for the children and PLHAs are the ways to support AFP.

Any individuals or group who are interested to encourage or observe PLHA women who are walking their lives bravely for their children and themselves without letting any defeatism and the social activists who are devoting in helping those people with hopes, actions and love are always welcomed to AFP.

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Although we did not know each other, I had been familiar with the honor of Ma Kyi Pyar, the founder of AFP via one of my close friends and my Facebook. At the end of 2010, even till the time I received the name list of participants who would attend our one of our team’s trainings from her organization, I had not met her. And then we came across each other at a café shop and my friend introduced me and her. During the training days, although she was not the trainee, she came and joined us very often observing and encouraging her women. We of course talked about our experiences, our passions, and gender and women empowerment, our respective organizations, our works and civil society in Myanmar and the future and we became friends. After working with her amazing women, I had a lot to share.

Sometimes, some organizations ask me to write about theirs. Sometimes, I asked the founders and organizers letting me to blog about their story. I requested Ma Kyi Pyar to let me write about her wonder AFP here, in WorldPulse and she kindly allowed me.

At the moment, our organization is working with PLHA women form AFP in a seven-month-long program focusing on their emotional well-being. What I am achieving from them is beyond my hope. Experiences! Inspiring stories! The strength of female! Love! I have a lot of messages in my heart to be heard around the world. All those could not reached to my finger tips.

Today, I found the brochure of AFP from a pile of papers on my table. Now, Nothing can stop me! I wrote this piece to honor the women I am working now together, AFP and Ma Kyi Pyar from the bottom of my heart.

I am going to write more about my experiences working with them and other impressive organizations from my community.

It’s my pleasure to ask any questions and to receive any comments and suggestions for the development of my personal, my community, my country and the people I am helping.

The Red Tent in my Country

the red tents

After I had read my VOF fellow correspondent sister Nilima’s “The Red Tent” of module 2 assignment, I remained with many questions to my mom. To be honest, I hadn’t faced the discrimination and challenges which she and her fellow Nepali girls suffered in their menstruation period. Regarding that monthly bleeding, our girlhood experiences are quite different. I think it can be because I was born and brought up in the biggest city of my country or I am a human from 21st century. So I wonder the experiences of girls from rural areas and from my mom and grandma’s age.

In this case, the girls and women from Myanmar are very lucky. In my mom’s time also, they did not face any discrimination and barriers regarding the menstruation. In our tradition, we call it “ Yarthi Lar” or “Damatar Lar” which means “monthly phenomenon” or “natural phenomenon”. So, obviously, we regard it as a natural physical phenomenon. I love the way we present the term so much.

I shouldn’t say we are not absolutely discriminated for our monthly cycle. At the time of my mother, there used to be some small limitations for girls who are in rag. “We are not allowed to go the shrine and we cannot live very close to men and if we are young girls we should not live closely to our fathers, brothers and uncles” my mom said. Apart from that, we don’t have big challenges. We go to school regularly and we can run our daily routine as normal. Although the quality is bad, we have separate rest rooms for man and woman almost everywhere. When I joined my swimming class, we, girls, could have a leave during the course for the period of menstruation.

It happened to me when I was in my Grade 6, at the age of 11. It was at a night where my cousins from our extended family were chatting and playing. Before that time, my mom had not talked and taught to me about the case. I, however, was enough fortunate. At that night, while playing, I felt strange inside my underwear so I went to the rest room and checked what it is. I saw blood in and I was suspicious if it is because I had heard about if from my elder cousins. At once, I talked my happening to them and they confirmed it. My cousins helped me a lot how to face it, how to keep myself clean, how to behave and pass it. That was the exciting experience for me and also unwanted thing for me. I hate the pain in those days. It was very unused to for me. Thanks to my sister’s support, I became familiar with it and cay stay comfortably. Later, I asked to my friends at schools and shared our stories and learned from and teach each other.

Although, we do not talk about it openly in school or in family, we cascade the knowledge about the menstruation among sisters and peers. Mothers also lecture to their daughters. I have witnessed some of my friends’ fathers concern about their daughters’ menstruation health. Of course, as a country which used only 2% of GDP for health and education, we do not have any educational and awareness program for such a case. Traditionally, we care for ourselves. In the past, although women used clothes during the period they keep in clean washing and ironing. My mom said so. Today, even in rural, most of the women use sanitary pads. We can buy it even in public.

So, our situation is neither too good nor too bad. Myanmar women are pretty lucky for that case, anyway. I wonder what about in other community