6th International Symposium for Women

Over the weekend, I was honored to attend the 6th International Symposium for Women, held on the Sias campus. Saturday morning started early with opening ceremonies held in the sports stadium, where there were 5,000 students, faculty, dignitaries and VIPs in attendance. The opening ceremony lasted about two hours, and because the seats were very hard, I found myself fidgeting a lot. That stopped however, when Chung To, who was one of the keynote speakers got up to speak.

Chung To is the Founder of the Chi Heng Foundation (CHF) which translates as “wisdom in action”. Growing up in China, he emigrated to the US as a teenager, and had a very successful banking career, eventually being relocated back to Hong Kong. In the late 90s, he became aware of how AIDS had decimated some of China’s poorest provinces, and he set up CHF to help children who have been impacted by AIDS. In his keynote, he explained how blood selling in the poorer provinces had led to high HIV infection rates, because of dirty needles being used. For a long time, the problem had been hidden, because of shame, which only exacerbated the situation. Even though getting access to AIDS drugs through the work of the Clinton Foundation has helped many of the kids with HIV/AIDS survive and lead relatively healthy lives, there is still a lot of stigma associated with the disease. Chung To has worked tirelessly to overcome the stigma and isolation for these kids, with programs designed to help them integrate into their communities.

Over lunch, we met with Chung To and brainstormed on win-win ways that he could partner with both Sias and the World Academy for the Future of Women. He’d brought 20 of the kids with him (helping the kids to aspire to staying in school and going on to higher education), so in the afternoon, I opted to lose the adults and hang out with the kids, instead. It was a lot fun.

In the evening, there was a full program of entertainment laid on by the students at the Opera House. As I’ve said on here before, there is a beautiful innocence and naivety about these students, and that shone through in their performances. At the end, I joined them all up on stage for the obligatory picture-picture-picture session, and it was just delightful to see the way they lit up when I complimented them on their performances.

On Sunday, the day started with 2 hours of performances, as the hot sun beat down on the square outside the main administration building. My favorite had to be the roller blading troupe, who looked ready to step in for a re-run of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express. There were singers, kung fu displays, dancers, gymnastics, monkey kings, dragons, etc. You name it; they had it.

After that, it was time for the women of the World Academy to present their projects, designed to tackle the UN Millenium goals. I tried to get to as many of the sessions as possible, and as I tried to sneak quietly into each presentation, proceedings would stop while I got a thunderous round of applause.

I challenge anyone to come here and not fall head over heels in love with these students. They are so hungry to learn, and so grateful for the opportunity, Many of them have already endured a lot of hardships to get here. Often their families and even their entire villages are sacrificing a lot to give this opportunity. What I marvel at is that many of them are so aware of others that are less fortunate than themselves, and want to do something to help. Whenever I am around young people who are wired that way, and I’m very fortunate to get to spend time with a lot of young leaders like that, I am hopeful for the future.

In the afternoon, we had a 3 hour closing ceremony (note to self: wear some of those padded cycling shorts under my clothes, next time). For me, the highlight of the closing ceremonies was seeing the women and the men of the World Academy proudly go up on stage to receive their certificates. All of the women were wearing matching outfits that the Academy had designed and had a local tailor make for them. Given that many of these young women come from very poor backgrounds, it is an incredibly practical item, as they now have a suit to wear when they start to interview for jobs.

All in all, the second day of the Women’s Symposium was a very emotional day for me. I’ve always been very empathic, and so the event had me in floods of happy tears. At the mother and daughter’s tea party that closed the day, I felt blessed to see mothers and daughters share their stories with the Academy. It was very intimate, very moving, and very special. Among them Gloria sang with her mother, Amber gave such a heartfelt speech to her mother and Susanna and her mother’s obvious devotion to each other had the whole room in tears.

It was also a very emotional day for me, because it was exactly one year since my oldest brother died, and hearing the young women made me think about what a blessing it is, to be in touch with your feelings like that, and to share them with the people you love. My brother wasn’t always an easy person to love, or even to like, and so I found myself exploring those paths that our relationship didn’t take.

Did I mention that I’m really enjoying my time here?