Myanmar - Naw Eh Li Htoo - 2013 Graduate
Kayah Baptist Association Women’s Department
Graduate Impact Study site visit, November 2014
“Our women's group leaders, they really work in their community. I’m so proud of them.”
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Naw "Eh Li" Htoo
As the director of a Women’s Department, Eh Li is responsible for 10 women’s groups, with her chief purpose being to instill in them a sense of self-confidence and self-reliance that she describes as “development concept.” At the training center, staff run a program teaching sewing and weaving of traditional clothes which they sell to generate income. They also operate a Care Women program in which Eh Li and her staff go out to communities to give awareness on topics like human trafficking, women’s health, and more recently, organic farming techniques. Leadership training is also emphasized. “We would like to promote the leadership role of women in our community,” states Eh Li, who went on to explain that each Women’s Group has a leader whose role is invaluable in assisting them with implementing their programs. “Our women's group leaders, they really work in their community. I’m so proud of them.”
In 2015 the association plans to start a Domestic Co-training Center to teach vocational skills to girls who are not able to complete their schooling. These young women often go abroad to places like Malaysia and Singapore where work and life conditions can be harsh and they are at high risk of being trafficked. With a few useful skills however, they will be able to find opportunity for decent work at home. It is Eh Li’s intention to introduce an organic farming component in this center.
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Eh Li and her familiy in their home
Eh Li sees her work with women and organic farming as going hand in hand, because mothers prepare food and are responsible for the health of their families. She also emphasizes the value of rural life, something she herself did not recognize before her time at ARI. She shows villagers how their place is full of resources, for example when teaching about bokashi fertilizer, she and the farmers make it together, easily collecting all the ingredients such as manure, rice husk, rice bran, indigenous micro-organisms (IMOs), right there in the village. There is no need to spend money. “Your village, your place, your life – it is the best,” she tells them.
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Villagers at the rice harvest near Eh Li`s village