This week’s SoroptiVoice blog is the first of a series reporting on the experiences of participants in  Soroptimist International South West Pacific’s Educate, Exchange, Connection programme.  17Soroptimists under the age of 45 took part in an exchange to increase international understanding and promote participation of younger women in the Soroptimist Movement. In this post, we share the reports of the ambassadors whose exchange destination was Malaysia: Philomena Nawara from Papua New Guinea, Hayley Denoual from New Zealand, and Euphemia Harahwa and Supriya Dunham from Australia. 

Philomena P Nawara (SI Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea)

The evening of 4 October 2013 was a true Soroptimist moment; Soroptimist
Sisters came from far and wide and across the vast space of the South West Pacific Federation. It was a joyous occasion where a few SI sisters shared some of their projects in their respective clubs through their presentations.

Image: Philomena (centre) with Rachael Taylor from New Zealand and Karen Chan from SI Penang, Malaysia.

This gave me a real appreciation of what being a Soroptimist represents; it goes beyond borders, beyond traditions and taboos, beyond countries and regions and has a common cause for humanity especially for the women and girls who are disadvantaged in our parts of the world. I am now confident that this is the platform that we all need to have a voice, a voice for all those women and girls who must have more in health, education and a lifetime of fullness and self worth.

Coming all the way from Papua New
Guinea, where the environment is so diverse in terms of culture,
politics and lifestyle, it challenged me greatly to carry that
Soroptimist Voice further to impact more lives within my area
of
influence, a personal journey which I had started some 24 months back
through my membership
and commitment to the Soroptimist Club of Port
Moresby.

I was privileged to be hosted by the SI
Club of Bangsar (SICB). My host Ms
Khoo Suat Pheng opened up her home to me and two other SI
sisters. For three days, it was
full on club project visitations, learning and sharing. Project
visits were to the Orang
Asli in the Janda Baik area where SICB were
instrumental in rehabilitating a Resource Centre for the children.The orphanage homes for young
boys
and girls at Nur-Zahara and the Organic Farms were some of the many
highlights of the visit.

As part of the Project visitation and
as a personal highlight for this exchange program an informal classroom type training was also set up
for Euphemia Harawa, Sothea Chap of SI Cambodia and I by SICB members . It
was full on training
on Train the Trainer Program for HIV & Aids
programs, Personal Safety for Children and Program
Focus Report
writing as well further sessions on SI membership and different
functions of
Soroptimist International from club levels to Regions,
Federation and the International.

Hayley Denoual (SI Wellington, New Zealand)

 

Image: Hayley planting a tree at Benuk Village

My first visit to
Malaysia was overwhelming, with such exotic sights, sounds and
smells. We had such warm hospitality, and enjoyed some exceptional
cultural
experiences.

My
Malaysian hosts
were universally awe-inspiring, and I was honoured to be able
to
visit many of their wonderful projects in local villages, children’s
home and
with refugee education. In the Benuk Village I was even
invited to plant a tree –
which I’m assured will be at least 2
feet high by next May!

Each project I
visited had been carefully designed to suit local needs and
conditions. I think a big part
of their success was the ways clubs
partnered with other local voluntary groups to deliver thoughtful
and sustainable interventions.

I was most
inspired by our talk from Dato’ Anusha (former SI Assistant
Programme Director) about the role of the SI at the UN. This really
helped put the international role of SI in perspective for me, and
make connections between my
local club/region and our UN mandate. I
think the opportunities this presents for us to positively
influence
our world leaders and make a global impact on the lives of women and
girls could be a big
motivation for new and younger members to
engage with SI.

Supriya Dunham (SI Sydney, Australia)

During my trek, I shared the unique
challenged that my club SI Sydney faces being responsible for such a
large area. We struggle with defining our main community. However,
working with SI Penang made me realize that research is a very
important part of projects and all we needed to do was refocus and
research needs in our communities.

My favourite parts of
this experience
were taking part in the hands-on projects namely, yoga with SI
Petaling Jaya,
donating computers to the Ladies Club of Sri Pinang
and dancing with the children at SI Ipoh’s
EduFun Centre. I’ve had
so much shared with me and now it’s my responsibility to pass on
those best practices to my club and region.

Image: Supriya takes part in a "Happy Yoga Kids" session, helping children learn to deal with stress and anger.

From my experience, I think that the older clubs need to be reminded that much younger clubs are doing amazing things. Sometimes, in our
legacy, we become stagnant and stale. Being reminded of that newness will help spark fresh
ideas in clubs that might be struggling with innovation. Allowing new members to take the lead, keeping
up with technology and focusing on the bigger picture will help us with extension and retention.

Growth in membership will only come when club members are proud to
invite their friends to business meetings. I know that this experience has strengthened my
bond with clubs abroad. I fully intend on supporting a friendship link with SI Ipoh to keep track of
their EduFun Centre and SI Auckland since Belinda and I became so close. I’m hopeful the friendship link
with SI Ipoh will help re-energise our members with exposure to a younger, more rigorous
club.

 

Image: Supriya at SI Ipoh’s EduFun Centre

Euphemia Harahwa

(SI Brighton and Southern Districts Inc, Australia)

During my visit to Malaysia, SI Clubs
of Bangsar and Seremban hosted me and I visited their projects
which
included learning centres, Organic Farm, Orphanage homes for girls &
boys, including
sightseeing of Old Royal Palaces, Negeri Museum,
health clinics and meeting the Director of National
Population and
Family Development Board of Negeri, Seremban.

Other projects including personal safety for children (SI Bangsar) and disadvantaged Women project which helps to set women for
life (SI Seremban) clubs addressed the day-to-day issues of their community/country. Sharing our
club/region projects highlighted the different focus in projects for each country.

Image: Euphemia visits Kuala Pilah womens’ health clinic with SI Seremban President and club member

This
experience for me highlighted the importance and need to focus on day-to-day issues affecting the
communities. By addressing day-to-day issues will allow better programs that serve the community hence
increase membership for clubs. One way to strengthen connections would be clubs supporting
projects of other clubs/regions/countries and hopefully this will also build stronger
friendship links within the movement.

Download all of the full reports from the EEC Ambassadors here