CSW 68 Forum: Game Changer: Empowering Asian Girls in Career Development.

March 11. With 190 registered participants across 28 countries, the event was a huge success!

📌 2023 AGC Alumni Queen Azalia Rahmawati (Indonesia) and Dora Tsai (Taiwan) engaged in conversation with our host, Patty Chan. Dora shared her aspiration to become a pilot, despite societal biases that question women’s capabilities. She also highlighted increasing female participation in the military field, while discussing disparities in women’s basketball. Queen from Indonesia presented statistics illustrating women’s obstacles in leadership, including psychological barriers, limited representation, and networking opportunities.

📌 While 2023 AGC Honorary Ambassador Narges Rasouli (Afghanistan) could not join us on zoom, she shared a moving video discussing how the recent Taliban upheaval has stifled women’s aspirations. Most importantly, she underlined the unwavering resilience of Afghan women in the face of these challenges.

📌Yvaine Yeh, social worker supervisor at the GOH’s Tainan branch, highlighted her commitment to providing employment empowerment serviced for women and youth. During her presentation, she not only called attention to the challenges young women encounter, but also introduced Tainan’s program in aiding these vulnerable teenage girls advance their careers prospects.

📌 Undrakh Chinchuluun presented Princess Center, an organization she founded in 2003 with the goal of safeguarding the rights of girls in Mongolia. She outlined the NGO’s latest initiative, Business Girls, which aims to train and support girls in succeeding in the business world.

📌 Misheel Batbold shared her story as a Business Girls program participant. Thanks to the support of the program, she recounts how she successfully turned her passion for baking into a profitable business.

📌 Tasaffy Hossain from Bonhishikh (Bangladesh) is actively engaged in gender rights activism. In a context where women are discouraged to pursue higher education, she explained how her organization uses entrepreneurship as a tool for fostering women’s leadership and empowering them to negotiate with their families and communities.  

Social Media Movements to Change Asian Girls’ Future?

The #MeToo movement has shown us the impact of social media movements on advocating for gender equality. But how will social media movements change the future of Asian girls, where patriarchal cultures are still widely entrenched?

Garden of Hope (GOH) is honored to invite Asian girls who successfully use social media to speak out for themselves, organizations working on technology empowerment, and the private sector that uses social media to promote gender equality to discuss how social media could accelerate the pace of gender equality. Welcome to join us and to learn more about the issue!

📌Inside Out Team, 2022 Asian Girls Award winner in the Changemakers category for their passion to change gender stereotypes in Mongolia.
📌The representative from YUWA, a Nepal NGO purely run & led by youth which promotes youth participation through empowerment and advocacy
📌Syafiqah Fikri, Legal Officer of ALSR (Advocacy, Legal Services and Research) Unit, Sisters of Islam, a Malaysian organization that works to promote women’s rights within the framework of Islam.
📌Tribeni Pegu, Media Manager of Breakthrough India, an organization working towards shifting norms that lead to violence and discrimination against women and girls.
📌Vanessa Chang, Director, Communications/ Head of Corporate Citizenship, P&G Hong Kong & Taiwan

• Girls-Centered Social Enterprise Business Models: A Roundtable Discussion
• Girl Entrepreneurs + Girl Empowering Partners + International Corporations + UNDP
• The Garden of Hope invited six panelists from five countries to the international forum of CSW66 to showcase that besides protection activists, Asian girls can also be SDG leaders.

• How do we empower Asian youth to end violence through the use of technology?
• We empower and support girls so that they can be prepared for potential risks and fully equipped to deal with issues like this.
• We need to conduct a lot of public education to convince more people to believe that these issues are related to many gender minorities’ rights and equality.

• From Survivors to Change-makers: Asian Girl Activists on Overcoming Trauma
• hey shared stories of how they overcame gender violence, trauma, and discrimination to become activists for the human rights of girls.
• We talked about using social media to empower survivors of violence.

• From CEDAW Cities to Girl Friendly Cities
• We emphasized that girls are the future leaders of the country and should be empowered to promote change.
• Girls from The Garden of Hope Foundation performed and delivered the message that girls all over the world want to live in safety.

• Elevating Asian Girl’s Human Rights: Releasing the Power of Asian Girls to Bridge the Gender Gap
• When girls are empowered with the education and opportunities they need to thrive, they can help pull whole communities out of poverty.
• “We believe that change in a society comes through empowering young girls. Silence is our death, and we will not remain silent against injustice.” – Gulalai Ismail, Chairperson of Aware Girls