In partnership with U.S Embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan, Wedu implements the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Generation Workshop: Advancing Gender Equality from 7-11 October 2019. Bringing together 50 emerging leaders from all the eleven YSEALI member countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar,...
NEW YORK CITY, NY– September 24, 2014 – Wedu excitedly announced its commitment to be part of a movement to create global change. As part of the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), Wedu commits to unlocking the leadership potential of 1,000 female Rising Stars in Asia over...
We sat down with Kim Chongsatitwatan, the Managing director of Namneebooks and talked about how her mentor helped her when she was young, and she is ever grateful for her guidance. Kim is now looking to pay it forward, and share the value of mentorship...
It’s been a month sin ce Wedu launched its crowdfunding campaign. We need your contribution because in order to truly realize our mission – to nurture the generation of female leaders by providing education to young women – we need sufficient funding to build the...
Angela Merkel, Dilma Rousseff, Yingluck Shinawatra, Joyce Banda... Just to name a few of the incumbent female heads of government around the world. Compared to a century ago, women are gaining importance in both international and domestic politics as they are occupying various important positions in national governments and multilateral organizations. While it seems that more and more female politicians are rising in power, let us not be contend with the status-quo: only one-fifth of the seats in the parliaments are occupied by women worldwide, and the figure in Asia, Middle East and Pacific is even lower than the world average. Women, in today’s world, are still underrepresented in the political arena. What are the major obstacles that women face in political participation? According to studies, it is a complex issue as it can be traced back to a number of institutional, historical, socio-economic as well as cultural factors. UN Women found that in Bhutan,
Gender equality has been one of the founding principles of the European Union, and the principle has been successfully upheld as believed by many: men and women seem to enjoy equal fundamental rights in their daily lives, and nine out of ten highest ranked countries in terms of gender equality are in Europe, according to the United Nations Development Programme. The European women are apparently better off than their counterparts in other parts of the world, but the recent developing in the EU might have suggested that women still face invisible barriers to their advancement in the workplace. A week ago, the EU decided in the last minute to postpone the vote on a plan to oblige companies to reach a 40 percent female boardroom quota by 2020 as it was deeply unpopular with many of its member countries.
If we are going to see real development in the world then our best investment is women. - Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize This year’s International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) will be observed on 13th October. Since 1990 when it first begun, IDDR has become an important event which highlights the successes and the continuous attempts toward achieving safer and more resilient communities. “We cannot eliminate disasters, but we can mitigate risk”, said Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations in his statement for the IDDR. “We can reduce damage and we can save more lives.” The IDDR reminds us of the importance of preparedness at normal times. Natural hazards, such as earthquakes, floods and cyclones, need not to turn into “disasters” with casualties and economic damages – if effective preventive measures are in place. This year, the theme of the IDDR is “"Women and Girls - the [in]Visible Force of Resilience”. The Day reconfirms the importance of women and girls in contributing to various stages of disaster risk management. Women, if given the right opportunity, areLy Chhay, from Kampong Cham in Cambodia, is Wedu’s first scholar student to go study in Chittagong, Bangladesh, at the Asian Women University (AUW). Thanks to the extensive rural network of our local partner organization and our local talent spotter, Ruby, we were able to meet Ly Chhay during her last year of school. She clearly demonstrated her leadership potential together with securing admission to AUW. Ly Chhay was offered a place at the university with a full scholarship covering her first year of study.
It is not to say that the road was not bumpy for Ly Chhay. There were many challenges for the first time: her application from rural Cambodia was delayed due to postal systems (we feared it got lost on the way!); getting a passport; obtaining the visa; saying farewell to her best friend and her family, and there was the first flight of her life! Ly Chhay, however, demonstrated strength and determination during this process of transition and moving abroad. She is now slowly beginning to settle into her university life and