The URI Southeast Asia & Pacific (SEAPac) Regional Office brought together 18 delegates for a leadership strengthening program from April 13-19, 2010 at the Meralco Millennium Leadership Development Center (MMLDC) in Antipolo, Rizal, on the outskirts of Metro Manila, Philippines.
Focusing on the theme “Living into the URI Vision” to deepen appreciation of URI’s vision and goals, the event also hosted the URI Young Leaders Program (YLP) led by Sarah Talcott (URI Director of Youth Programs) and Sharon Vaswani (YLP Steering Committee Rep for SEAPac) together with Jahangir Piara, YLP Steering Committee Rep for Asia.
The YLP participants from Australia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Nepal, and the Philippines met to enliven and strengthen their bonds as leaders in their CCs/country. These included three SEAPac Youth Ambassadors and two YLP Ambassadors from Asia together with the Youth Steering Committee member. We value this exchange of experiences and learning.
The YLP program (April 13-15) aspired to empower and build youth leadership through interactive workshops and sharing of experiences. These were conducted on relationship building, visioning exercises, engaging in Heart Listening and team building.
The SEAPac meeting (April 16-18) highlighted URI and workshops on strengthening the Cooperation Circles in the region. The Trustees together with the regional Coordinator facilitated the workshops
SEAPac Day-1 began with grounding in the URI vision followed by workshops on CC Management, Teambuilding, Leadership and Resource Mobilization. A SWOT analysis provided insight and better understanding of the CCs in the region.
SEAPac Day-2 featured Promoting a Culture of Peace workshops, which included Creating Safe Spaces for Interfaith Encounters, Non-violent Communications, Understanding Conflict and a “Peace Jam”.
SEAPac Day-3 In the morning the youth leaders took part in the Sandiwang (Earth Day) celebrations held at the Marikina City Riverside Amphitheatre on Day-3, Sunday, while the Trustees and Regional Coordinator discussed regional matters.
The whole group gathered in the afternoon to share on the regional activities and forthcoming URI celebrations - the 10th anniversary of the URI, which will be celebrated with service projects on June 25-27, and the International Day of Peace on September 21.
During the closing ceremonies, the youth were encouraged to play a more active role in serving the grassroots communities and contribute to building cultures of peace.
What the participants said about the event:
• The five days of workshop was very meaningful and I have learned a lot from here. I will share all my learnings with my Pakistani friends.
• Excellent logistics and organizing! Thank you!
• I loved the “ways of peace” case study workshop. Very helpful to have the practical experience of negotiation.
• I’m leaving this place more knowledgeable, and this will guide me.
• Gave me lots of insights on what to do with my CC.
• Beautiful environment. Nice that the rooms were air-conditioned. Dorms were fine to share.
• Very conducive to learning.
• Facilities and ambience are perfect
• Excellent! They thought of everything! And cared so much!
• Overall it was excellent! Thank you all! Namaste...
