Presentations

On a windy Saturday, March 31, some participants from UN Seminar and Asian Young Women's Leadership Training, presented what they learned from the programs they participated.

Five participants made presentations;  some focused on one or two topics they impressed the most and some talked about general impressions of overall program. Presentations taught us, participants had different impressions and received different messages sometimes through a single program but the common message they received was "Violence can happen to you even today. It is nothing a story happening far away from me."

A presentation by a participant in Asian Young Women's Leadership Training held in Philippines. Hands-on report on Smoky Mountain, Christmas Institutes together with beautiful sea attracts audience.

Audience earnestly listening to the presentation.

Teatime following the presentation. A moment of reunion.

See you again.

A nice photo from the last day of the seminar in NY. Each designed the T-shirts.

At the presentation we had last week, a participant brought it with her and showed us.

We are so happy to hear that everybody learned a lot and some said the seminar certainly was an eye opening experience.

Debriefing

On March 9th, participants of UN Seminar got together for debriefing.

Obviously it was such an eye opening experience for everybody.

To the question about the most impressive event during the seminar, 

many mentioned about sharing their experiences with other participants in discussions.

Visiting organizations such as N. Y. Asian Women's Center and V.O.W. also had strong impacts.

Through their activities and visits, they learned importance of serving to their communities and doing whatever they can do for the communities. 

According to participants, recognizing various forms of violence through the seminar made them more alert to what are happening around them. "Before I went to New York, what I imagined from the word violence were very limited such as sexual, domestic, and physical ones. But now I am aware that there are various forms such as economic violence, mental and emotional," one participant said. The skit played by university student was "so real" and made them realize that they had very similar experiences, another participants stated. "Now I know it is not something that happens to somebody far away but not to me. Some of my friends are likely to be victims and it can happen even to me" was shared conclusion among participants. 

Room sharing with non-Japanese friends also gave them fun and educational experiences, they agreed. Sharing time and listening to histories and experiences of others let them grow significantly.

All were so grateful to attended to the seminar and are willing to recommend this sort of programs to their friends. 

Two-hour debriefing was such a short and fun time of reunion. It was ended with the presentation of the certificate by Ms. Burton-Lewis.

Last Day of the Seminar

We still have a one more day to enjoy NYC but today was the last day of the seminar.

We had a prayer service and any of them from the building was invited to attend the service.
During the prayer service, participants shared their experience and what they have learned from the seminar. It was very good time.

After the prayer service, we had sharing time to express our feelings.
During the seminar, some of the participants felt difficulties of understanding the seminar.
The topic "the violence against the women" is not so normal topic to talk about.
We also had a lot of information and perspective from the seminar and each of us felt differently.
It was a good time to share about what we are feelig about from the seminar.

After the sharing, we learned to use the UN as a tool  and the convention to make change for the issue of the violence against women. We have learned detailed action From Ms. Espranza Brown who are the lobbiest. It was very intersting to hear and encourage us how we can change the issue.

Lunch time, we had Dominican Food!

After Lunch time, we learned the Convention on the Elimiation of Discrimnation against Women (CEDAW). How the convention works and the system of UN works.
Each country disscused how we can act for using the Convention.
Team Japan come up with the following ideas.
1) Promote CEDAW in Japan
2) Lobby Japanese goverment to make new legislation to protect the women's right.

After that,   Amihan, one of the members, talked about her experience as the member of mission intership prgram. The program is about two-year program for young adult and focusing the issue of povertiy in US and other countries.  It was very nice to hear from one of the seminar member.

Afther the presentation from the Amihan, Ms.Vaimoana Litia Makafaufaki Niumeitolu, who is an artist, came and had a art workshop. We painted on T-shirts. The beautiful designs stands for women's voice and power and the women in Liberia who were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.Everyone enjoyed this activity.

As the closing, we share 3 things on this seminar in NY. What we learned, what the most thing touched our heart, and what we are going to do next.

Some got the situation that it is now that women should raise their voice. Some felt this seminar was the great opportunity that she tried to understand the difference of culture, and some want to get more information about women's issue and share that in each community.

After dinner, we gave the message card to Jennifer and Donna who are the organizer of the seminar. They were so happy to received the cards from us. We also played the game "taboo!" It was so fun!!

We learned so much today!!

Today's Summary

  

First, we introduced each country’s holiday at today's meditation.

Then we created the new holiday which we wish it was.

It was really fun.

After that, we had a lecture of “Understanding Violence Against Woman Among South Asian Immigrants” by the staffs of Manavi.

We learned about abuses endured by a woman during woman’s life cycle and Immigrant power and control and so on.

 

We had Indian food for lunch.

It was very delicious!

After the lunch, we learned about Domestic Violence from the skit that was played by SCREAM theater from Rutgers University, NJ. 

After the skit we learned about how we can intervene as a bystander.

SCREAM means…

S Support

C Challenge

R React

E Engage

A Ask for help

M Maintain safety

 

Next, we visited NY Asian Woman’s Center.

This center advocates for the rights of women to govern their own lives, free of abuse. So NYAWC offers many kinds of supportive program for the Asian community in NY. We noticed that they have brochures which were translated  into 5 languages.  

After that, we visited Battered Women’s Resource Center and were invited to participate the meeting of Voice of Women. The group was composed of survivors of DV. 

The member of Voice of Women shared their experiences for us. We are so amazed about their energy and their positive attitude to their lives.

At night, we watched the movie "Pray the Devil Back to Hell"This movie is the extraordinary story of a small band of Liberian women who came together in the midst of a bloody civil war, took of the violent warlords and corrupt Charles Taylor regime, and won a long-awaited peace for their shattered country in 2003.

We could share our own experience of violence against woman a lot. And it is very good for us to exchange our opinions and thoughts.

We had a very fruitful day.

Today's Summary

Today we went to the Church Center for the United Nations for the first time. After listening to the history about the CCUN, we had biblical reflection. We learned the sexism from the Story of Tmar. After that, we went to the meeting room and started discussing about violence. First we all stand up and answered questions related to violence. Then we led to talk about the fact that we also could be violence to other women.



Chapel of CCUN. Each flags show the respect for each religion.

 In the afternoon we did an activity where we read stories about teenagers facing a violent situation. We had a workshop called "In Their Shoes", for using the cards. The workshop is about to understand the situation how we make decisions.

 
 Then we draw pictures about violence we knew around us. We discussed about some of the member's story related to drawing.

Member's drawing

Later in the afternoon, we had a workshop with Project Girl Performance Collective Workshop. We did several activities in group of two. (Following the other person's gesture, talking about a topic in 3 minutes and expressing what you feel about a particular topic)

The Member of Project Girl Performance Collective

  For dinner we went to a Japanese restaurant. During this seminar we get to eat many kinds of food around the world! It is very interesting and fun.

Japanese Restaurant

 Some of the members went to Rockefeller Center and Empire State building.

The view from Rockefeller Center.

 We are not only learned but also got the opportunity to participate in many activities concerning violence so it was really interesting.

 I'm looking forward to participating tomorrow’s seminar too:)

Day 1 "Courage"

We had so looked forward to this day!

At the begging of the 1st day, we introduced our-self by doing fun games.

It made us very relaxed.

After we introduced our self, we had a meditation about what personal courage.

We meditated about the things that we never had the courage to do before.

We had sandwiches for lunch. 

In the afternoon, we had a opening conversation around gender.

We made a poster about where we learn our gender roles.

In the evening, we all had dinner with NY Conference United Methodist Women members

We ate Korean food.  It was great!

All the women were very powerful!!! It's was a great pleasure and honor to have the opportunities to be with them.