Burmese Women Day
(June 19th 2011)
Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday is not only the occasion to pay great hommage to the Lady, but also the time to celebrate Burmese women across the world. To this regard, FED organized a special event on June the 19th, celebrating with children dancing, singing and speeches. WEDA members actively took part in the festivities and provided burmese tea and snacks to everyone.
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| The audience |
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| Celebrating Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday |
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| Ma Po Po's speech on the Lady's life and actions |
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| Ma Wai Phyo talking about WEDA |
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| Burmese singing |
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| Dancing |
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| WEDA's women |
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International Women Day
(March 8th 2011)
On Tuesday March the 8th , the Women Education and Development Association arranged a three hours event to celebrate International Women Day. Despite heavy rains threatening to ruin the festivity, everyone gathered for the occasion. Women and men from Burmese migrant communities in the surrounding area, as well as International volunteers came to enjoy the festivities. They were welcomed with Burmese traditional noodle meal, and many activities to cheer them up.
Ma Wai Phyo, WEDA's coordinator opened the ceremony with a presentation of WEDA's functioning and activities. The chosen theme for this year IWD was “Increase Women's Participation in Community Development Activities”. Indeed her opening speech stressed on the importance of active participation of Burmese migrant women in the communities, to improve their living conditions and increase their rights' awareness. Following the speech, came a rapid history of International Women Day which described one century of women's struggle to have their rights recognized and their voices heard.
Traditional Burmese dancing were performed by young girls of the Youth Outreach school. Then, a member of FED's Health Team and Ma Wai Phyo launched a quiz on human rights. The aim was to cover different areas of human rights such as labor rights, women's rights, health's rights and child's rights to check on burmese migrants' knowledge. The activity proved to be a great success, as winners received diverse gifts. It was also a great opportunity to explain more in depths some unclear but crucial information to the migrant workers public.
During the last part of the festivities, a french volunteer presented a slideshow of WEDA's activities, aiming at encouraging more women to participate in the vocational skill trainings. She also presented a short video of women's community development activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Burmese women were really interested in comparing their lives with other women of the developing world, while they learned a lot on what community development participation could mean elsewhere. To close the celebration, a migrant Burmese women, Ma Mi Thu gave a short but moving speech, explaining how her life has greatly improved since she has been more deeply involved in the community's activities.
WEDA's members were all proud to have so many guests attending the festivities! They are really thankful to all the people who came and brought positive energy to make this event work. THANK YOU!
AWwwwwwwwwww what a great event!!! I like the idea of showing the women other activities in the Cong - it is so important for women across the world to realise that they are not alone and that there are also many other women experiencing hardships and rights abuses just like them. Women UNITE!!!
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