Student Empowerment For Transformation (SET) Program

 

The WSCF Asia-Pacific region conducted the first Student Empowerment for Transformation (SET) programme in Sri Lanka last September. SET is the critical an­nual formation programme, formerly known as Human Resources Development (HRD). This change in nomenclature reflects a shift in the emphasis of the programme, keeping in line with the new socio-political trends and ecological issues worldwide. SET intends to bring about the empowerment of young leadership in the region where, tradi­tionally, the youth and women have been kept at the sidelines. The programme will continuously question the meaning of leadership and the models of leadership that have often been daubed with male orienta­tion and perspective.

In keeping with the winds of change, it was timely that, together with the Regional Women's Committee, SET '92 focused on women and men partnership with the theme, A new partnership towards a new humanity and creation. This recognized the region's commitment and solidarity to the ongoing struggles for genuine partnership of women and men in the region.

SET '92 tackled a whole range of issues related to patriarchy and women's oppres­sion, the history of the women's movement, sexuality, marriage, culture, rediscovering the Bible and developing an inclusive theol­ogy, and alternative methodologies for un­derstanding social reality.

A tentative programme plan initially drawn up by the regional women's commit­tee was worked on by a group of men and women forming the planning committee of SET '92. This planning committee included other participants of SET '92 in the later part of the program.

In the background of questioning the-patriarchy structure where men and women are made victims and women resisting and challenging the behavior and attitudes of men, more sensitive issues such as sexuality and sexual harassment were discussed and tackled in smaller and bigger groups. This has certainly brought about a mixed variety of tense dynamics at times.

 

Exposures

From the 6th to 9th, the participants divided themselves into five groups and went to different parts of Sri Lanka to gain an exposure to various socio-economic and political contexts. The exposures provided an insight to the living experience of women and men in different living conditions in Sri Lanka. They focused on the following areas and concerns:

>         Vavuniya, a district bordering the north­ern province of Sri Lanka affected by the on-going war between the government and the Tamil militants;

>         Living conditions of Kalpitiya, a fishing village in the north-western coastal belt of Sri Lanka where the villagers are caught in a battle of life and death due to poverty and the on-giving civil war;

>         Tea plantation and the Indian-Tamil labor community in the hill country in Sri Lanka, their socio-economic frustrations and the condition of women;

>         International capital investments in the Monargala district where foreign com­panies with the collaboration of the government have robbed the land and the water rights of the farmers; and

>         Export garment industry in the export promotion zones and women workers, their working and living conditions.

 

The participants were given guidelines to facilitate their understanding of local realities relating to the theme of the programme. On the 10th, the groups shared their experience and insights as to what they had experienced over the four days of living in different social environments in Sri Lanka.

 

National Reports

The participants shared the life of their national SCMs in an attempt to understand, criticize and learn about the different SCMs, their structures, organizations, decision-making processes, relations between men and women, students and senior friends. Time was also spent on the critique and review of how patriarchy works within the SCM and the society in which it survives. The sessions provided an opportunity for the participants coming from different movement cultures to engage in a dialogue as to what the ideal SCM structures should be, what values and attitudes should prevail for the SCMs to be a community of equal discipleship of women and men.

 

Inputs

Instead of the usual one-way input ses­sion, this year's SET programme gave the space of speakers to facilitate a list of ques­tions raised either by the participants or the speaker for group discussion. At some ses­sions, participants and speakers were engaged in lively and dynamic discussions that went far beyond the stipulated time.

Sunila Abeyesekera led the first two in­puts of the SET programme by giving a definition on patriarchy, its implications on the lives of the people and the history of women's movement. In the first session, be­sides giving the definition of patriarchy she traced the role of women played in the major stages of the society, using Fredric Engels' book. The Origins of the Family, Private Proper­ty and the State. From barbarism, hunting and gathering, social relations developed to feudalism and capitalism, introducing the concepts of production, reproduction, property and paternity, all to the disad­vantage of women. The family as an institution also undergoes many changes.

Family relationships, if based on Engels' analysis, said Sunila, may not necessarily be monogamous in the different stages of society. She added that the question of mar­riage as monogamous and heterosexual is questioned today.

In the second input, Sunila pointed out that since 1848, a significant aspect of the women's movement was that the women's struggles were focused not for themselves but for all humanity. She said that there is a need to research on the historic roles played by women in our society and to identify women who created history.

In the input on geo-politics. Dr. Bert Gajameragedara stated that the Asia Pacific is part of the world system, separated geographically, but not in terms of economics, politics, sociology and ideologies. He cited the end of the Cold War, the re-unification of Germany and the demise of the Soviet Union as some of the major events that have re-shaped the world system. This has in turn affected the relation­ships of the US and Soviet Union with Japan, China and India in the Asia-Pacific region. A multi-polar system has arisen where power in the world is now shared with several countries.

According to Dr. Gajameragedara, the development strategy had to be defined con­ceptually in the global context since there is the continuous transfer of resources from the Third World countries to the developed countries in terms of trade and loans from the International Monetary Fund/World Bank. The military conflicts and the mag­nitude of the religious problems in the world, he said, are a manifestation of the struggle for a new world order. Dr. Gajameragedra predicted that the future shaping of the global policies would largely depend on the socio-economic and political developments in the Asia-Pacific region.

Gabriele Dietrich conducted the session on Women, Development and Ecology where she explored the institutions and ideologies that perpetuate patriarchy. She also touched on the concepts of develop­ment, ecology, and the nexus between colonialism, militarisms, and science and technology. All these she felt, has sub­jugated women, nature and the indigenous people. She proposed the alternative vision to be feminist ecological vision of develop­ment: A production of life that opposes production and accumulation of profit. This alternative vision will place the basic sur­vival rights as the top priority. Gabriele also stressed the importance of resources being regenerated and shared rather than being privatized. She then raised the question of the kind of relationship that SCMs have with the other mass organizations such as the ecological movements, unions in unor­ganized sector and women's movements.

La Rainne Abad-Sarmiento conducted the sessions on sexuality. She focused on our understanding of the human reproduc­tive cycles, and the economics and politics of sexual relationship in relation to the power relations in gender relationship, oppressive cultural practices, concept of pleasure from sexual act, masturbation, sexual fulfillment and virginity. Participants were also divided into small groups, discussing this topic that included issues such as homosexuality, abortion versus pro-life, and use of con­traceptives (reproduction rights).

 

Bible Study Sessions

Cora Tabing-Reyes led a series of' Bible study sessions through a participatory process using creative graphics and drama. Participants were divided into three or four groups and within the small group, par­ticipants would read the story chosen, dramatize the story and reflect on the text with regards to their own context. Presenta­tion of the group discussion would then be shared in the big group, either in graphics or drama.

She took those passages from the Bible that highlighted the survival of women in the oppressive cultural, social, economic and political conditions; of men and women being victims of the patriarchy system.

And all these oppressive structures are still in operation today. Biblical texts taken for dis­cussion included Genesis 1 and 1, Luke 13:10-17, Joel 1 and 2, Acts 2:17-21.

Participants were also led to explore the role of man/woman, man and woman partnership, hindrances to partnership and their reflections on their own character, situation in one's society, one's attitude towards self, attitude towards the characters from the story, own aspirations and visioning of a new humanity.

 

Women and Men Caucuses

The joint and separate caucuses of women and men held throughout the programme was an attempt to re-discover the personalities of the individuals as women and men. These sessions provided space for participants to share their life ex­perience as women and men with a view of understanding, learning from and affirming each other's values as human persons to live in the image of God. During the caucuses, the participants also attempted to analyze and understand how the social, cultural and economic values and attitudes which has contributed to form the personalities of women and men have resulted in them being victims of patriarchal social structures within the Asia-Pacific society. One of the issues, which was dominant in the dialogue both in the separate and joint caucuses among the participants was sexual harass­ment. The women in particular addressed the issue very strongly sharing their painful experiences of being victims of sexual harassment in their life.

 

Workshops

The workshops which began on the 26th was an attempt to synthesize all the discus­sions, and sessions which participants had experienced so far and to bring out their visions and hopes to give future direction to both their lives as well as the life of the SCM and WSCF. The questions which were ad­dressed during the workshops had the fol­lowing focii:

·         What are the values, lifestyles and forms of behavior that should guide our personal and movement life and what should be our faith perspective in search of a more humane movement?

·         What should be the future direction for SCM/WSCF in their work, structure?

 

At the end of the workshops the par­ticipants shared the following responses:

·         As new goals for the women's programme in SCMs as well as the region:

>         networks, learn and share with other women's organizations;

>         organize and promote women's commit­tees or desks at national level;

>         organize women's and men's separate and joint caucuses with a view to promote re-education, understanding and unity among and between men and women;

>         address issues of social concerns from women's and men's perspectives, and

>         campaign for change in structural at­titudes within the movement.

·   Suggestions to promote a community of partnership within SCM/WSCF structures:

>    use inclusive language in programmes, meetings and publications and circulars;

>    ensure balance of gender representation among participants as well as resource people when organizing programmes and meetings;

>    promote participatory decision-making by providing students, women and those backward due to language barriers suffi­cient space to express their views and contributions; and

>    senior friends to play a role of par­ticipatory resource persons and not as dominators over students.

·   As recommendations for future direction for the work of the SCM/WSCF at local, nation­al, regional and inter-regional level, the workshop groups proposed the following for discussion:

> that SCMs ensure, in decision-making and initiatives, both students and the senior friends who have a role to play.

This role should be to support and facilitate the students' interests and ac­tions;

>   at regional level, the concept of development in the Asia-Pacific be addressed as priority. The analysis of development should include the women's economic position, sex-tourism, ecology, privatiza­tion, exploitation of labor and alterna­tive models and attitudes for development;

>   at the national and regional level, the WSCF to address issues of ecology in particular reference to learning from in­digenous people, their culture and their link with nature;

>   at regional and national level, the WSCF to address militarization as priority con­cern in view of defense expenditure in the region and the increasing militariza­tion of people; and

·   that the WSCF, in view of the 1995 centen­nial celebrations to:

>   affirm the role of students as individuals and movement,

>   identify with the struggles of youth and students with the state oppression, right for knowledge and qualitative educa­tion,

>   question whether it is appropriate to celebrate when we have such desperate situations facing youth and students in our countries, and

>   use the funds to celebrate the social and political commitment of SCM in today's context.

 

Evaluation

A weekly evaluation was carried out during the whole programme on the con­tents, processes, the atmosphere and the dynamics. These weekly evaluations has al­lowed the planning and host committees together with the participants to communi­cate with each other on whatever matters arising in the particular week instead of waiting for the final evaluation held at the end of the programme.

 

For the final evaluation, the participants assessed the programme as follows:

·       use of patriarchy as a tool of analysis is not clear;

·       more reading material, in relation to inputs, is needed;

·       to aid the national reports session, some participants felt that they should first be equipped with a few tools of analysis.

·       women participants felt that their caucuses were good as the women were open, sensi­tive and honest with each other. The men felt that their caucuses, at times, were a repetition of topics held in big discussions. More sharing experiences are also needed in the male caucuses. The participants felt that the flow of the two caucuses were held at two different levels which, in turn, created some problems in communication during the joint caucuses;

·       participants liked the Bible study sessions which were done in creative and challeng­ing ways. Some felt that there should be more situations from the Bible on the area of partnership;

·       breaking into small groups was helpful for participants to express themselves freely.

·       some participants suggested to include a skill training workshop on moderating group dynamics in future SET Programs.

 

Reported by Tsui Ling and Harsha Basnayake