Women Training Camp marked another milestone!

UPDATE: Women hold half the sky!

The Asian Students Association (ASA) together with Malaysian Youth and Students Democratic Movement (DEMA) held the South East Asia Women Training Camp at New Era College, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from March 27 to April 2, 2005. Attended by 25 participants (15 local and 10 foreign), the women training camp was warmly hosted by the 14 local young and lively volunteers.

The training camp was successfully come out with the Solidarity Network for Young Women (Solidarity NOW!). It's a significant event for both the ASA and the DEMA because it began the international liason inside Malaysia especially for the youth and student groups in Malaysia. As a movement building organization, the ASA always bear the organizing work in the first priority.

For the participants, the camp not only provide them with the current analysis of the situation in the region, also the criticism to the globalization. The program in the camp are useful for theparticipants to build up their capacity in their organizing works. It empower the participants with all kind of skills to organize, campaign and initiate project.

There were participants from Cambodia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Aceh and Hong Kong. They were invited to address their concerns and exchange among the participants. With the conflict situation in the region, many of the women are the victims of the war and domestic violence. The local participants also benefit from the experiences that shared by the foreign participants.

With the national religious of Malaysia is Islam, there are many Muslim women participate in the training camp as well. There were several insight and exchange among the participants especially on the patriachal and male dominated religious community. It's a positive starting point for the participants to understand more about the religious perspective on the women.

Finally, with the Solidarity NOW! and the inputs from different resource persons, all the participants also agreed to work on the WTO issues. Due to many of the participants are not familiar to the WTO, the awareness building campaign will be carried out in different countries. At the same time, the ASA will also coordinate with the Solidarity NOW! in the mobilization of the women to the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong end of 2005.

It's a successful one. The seeds of the movement been plant in the region. Nurturing will be our common responsibility!