A Journey to Golden Bangla

Youth Exchange Program

    

 

     

  

  

   

Last September 17, 2005, a Youth Exchange Participant from the Philippines arrived in Bangladesh to spend three months of exposure in the programs the YMCA of Bangladesh are implementing particularly on promotion of women empowerment through micro-finance and other related programs. In addition to this, she also aims to experience life in Bangladesh together with all the culture, tradition, norms and beliefs that they have. The Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs (APAY) facilitated this Youth Exchange Program through close coordination with the YMCA of the Philippines and the National Council of YMCAs of Bangladesh.  

  

 

  

 

   

   
Ms. Lalaine L. Lumpas, a Project Staff of the YMCA of the Philippines in Special Project Unit works as the lead person on Women Empowerment and Development Program (WEDP) implemented in several areas in the Northern part of Luzon in the Philippines. WEDP is a comprehensive program intervention for the disadvantaged women towards empowerment and development through provision of support services like Micro-Enterprise Lending Project (MELP). This primarily aims to increase the participation of women in the means of production together with the increase of level of awareness through series of capability-building training’s, education discussions, skills enhancement, and gender sensitivity training’s. The same interest encouraged Ms. Lumpas to participate in the Youth Exchange Program and be sent to Bangladesh. Bangladesh is popularly known to have a very good and refined process in the implementation and fast replication of the micro-credit program. The process has been proven effective and was greatly used by almost all the micro-credit institutions in the area and in other Asian countries. The Bangladesh YMCA also promotes the same program through the local YMCAs all over the country. For many years now, they have been successful in carrying out the program in different rural communities with women as their main beneficiaries. They too, believe that through provision of micro-credit project, the women will have a bigger chance of being empowered because they now have contributions in the economic arena which mainly the source of “power” in the household. Her exposure in Bangladesh includes integration in two local YMCAs, Dinajpur and Bogra YMCAs, which are both pioneer in the implementation of the micro-credit program. Since 20th of September, she has started her integration in the Dinajpur YMCA and have seen how they run the community organizing program that they have. Everyday she has community exposure to see how these mohila somite (women groups) are organized and how they perform in the organization. Through her everyday visits, she was able to see the different levels of organizing depending on the capacity of the group and the willingness of the members to participate. In line with the everyday exposure that she has is the in-depth study among women on how the micro-credit program helps them and their family in poverty augmentation. Whether it is really a big help in the upliftment of their economic status or more of a burden to them because they have to payback the money with some interest within a specified date.

   

   

   

    

During weekend holiday (usually Fridays), she spends time doing family visits. In this activity, she was able to have a closer look at how Bangladeshi families spend their day. She was given the opportunity to have a participation in the household chores and time to have conversations with the whole family. Through this, she was able to see how Bangladeshi men and women think about their present condition, how they look at the system that is governing their society, how they follow the tradition and culture that they have, and what are their perspectives in life. Aside from that, she also had the chance to mingle with young people (usually the children or brothers and sisters of the people working in YMCA) and learn how they behave according to the dictate of the society. She also experienced home stay program with a Bangladeshi family for three days which is full of experiences and in-depth family sharing.

In between her exposures to the community, she also visits other non-government organizations working on women development. Like the YMCA, they have a clear-cut vision of uplifting the lives of those who are poorest of the poor, with great needs but least attended communities by the government and do not have enough capacity to provide for the immediate needs of their families. Most of these organizations are also promoting women empowerment through micro-finance programs and almost all of them follow the same policies and procedures of group formation. Others have programs related to youth leadership development and non-formal education in the primary level, scholarships for the tertiary level, while some are conducting skills training such as handicrafts-making whose main targets are also the women, and consciousness-raising about gender and development, and proper health care management.

Other activities involve visit to some tourist spots and historical places in Bangladesh like temples, monuments, churches, lakes and museum. She had a picture of how the people gained their independence and other significant events in the history of Bangladesh.

This youth exchange program of the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs really helps young participants to perform to the best of their ability and make this experience not just a simple visit and opportunity to unwind but more than that, a venue to gain and exchange ideas, and learn and know the essence of life. This program encourages the youth to enhance their leadership potential and be more critical and aware of the people and the society they are in. This opportunity paves way for new experiences that can be very good source of learning and realizations about life.