Tibetan Women’s Leadership Program
New Delhi, India
December 26, 2008
"Women are now in a strong position to lead with great wisdom and courage." H.H the Dalai Lama; April 16, 2004, University of California
In most areas of the world, a cloak of invisibility has shaded the achievements of many women. Most Tibetan women find themselves under this cloak struggling to become visible. To address this need, the Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA) is organizing its Fourth Annual Tibetan Women’s Leadership Program in New Delhi, 26-30 December 2008. The twenty-five Tibetan participants will come from all over India to attend the workshop.
2009 will mark the 50th anniversary of National Tibetan Women’s Uprising Day in 1959, Lhasa, Tibet and the 25th anniversary of Tibetan Women Association’s reinstatement in 1984, India. Complying with TWA’s primary goal of empowering Tibetan women in exile, TWA has over the years organized ‘Leadership Training’ for college girls who will become some of the future leaders of Tibet and will carry forward the Tibetan freedom struggle.
The fourth annual Tibetan Women’s Leadership Program aims to foster leadership skills among Tibetan women and over five days of activities we aim to create a space for self-expression, reflection and creativity in which to explore different aspects of leadership. The program will inspire participants, increase their awareness of and confidence in their own leadership skills, and encourage them to use these skills in their lives and communities. The activities will be highly interactive such as role-play, participatory workshops, group discussions and documentary projections. In this program we have focused on the core topics of leadership skills and have hired three professional trainers from MMM Training Solutions, based in Chennai. This is a unique opportunity for young Tibetan women to practice and hone their leadership skills.
With this training, we aspire to give the young participants a unique opportunity to stand on the threshold of the creative process of building leadership skills and give them the courage to reach for higher levels of achievement thus treading the path of effective change. We trust that this training will be a new milestone of inspiration for them to contribute constructively to the Tibetan freedom struggle. TWLP aims to empower Tibetan women on the leadership front to ensure a more potent Tibetan society.
Tibetan Women's Association (TWA) has 49 regional chapters and over 15, 000 members outside Tibet. Today, TWA is the second largest Tibetan NGO and the only women's NGO in our exile that advocates human rights for Tibetan women in Tibet and empowerment of Tibetan women in exile, particularly the new refugee women from Tibet.