Women activists from Kazakhstan participate in SWRC's June TOT.
WLP's Kazakhstan partner, Shymkent Women’s Resource Center (SWRC), held a national Training of Trainers in the country’s capital, Shymkent, from October 25 to 29, 2016. In total, 23 Kazakhstani women from a variety of professional backgrounds participated in the training.
Training of Trainers workshops, or “TOTs,” are a core feature of WLP’s programming. These workshops provide women’s rights activists with skills to facilitate their own leadership trainings in other parts of the country, effectively spreading the reach of gender empowerment beyond the immediate scope of WLP partner organizations.
Topics of the training included human rights, domestic abuse, forced marriage, and sexual harassment in public places. Facilitators used WLP manuals Leading to Compassion, Beyond Equality, Victories Over Violence, and Leading to Choices, as well as WLP’s documentary on violence against women, From Fear to Freedom.
TOT participants collaborate during the five-day training in Shymkent.
A training session called “Forgiveness for the Future,” which proposes forgiveness as a means to persevere through discrimination, resonated strongly with many participants. “Again and again we can experience our grievances; we bear a heavy burden of unforgiveness many years, destroying our body and soul,” said participant Ademe Ilyassova, a chairwoman of a public union. “But people rarely think about how our energy and emotional state can be changed when we forgive the person and get relief on this.”
Participants found the training material motivating for their future work as women’s rights activists. “The stories that we considered at [this] TOT showed me how much you can achieve in the world if you combine the possibilities of women,” said participant Zoya Seitbekova, an educator in Southern Kazakhstan. “Because the possibilities always exist, just you need to know how to use them.”
During the workshop, participants created and shared plans for trainings they themselves would lead based on their learnings. These forthcoming trainings were targeted at wide variety of populations in Kazakhstan, including young gymnasts, middle school pupils, staff of a city library, employees of women’s NGOs, mothers with many children, and university students.
Click below to see more photos of this TOT.
