Zonta Club Colombo

Posted by Ellen on Tuesday, March 31, 2009

On Monday April and I visited the one of the Colombo branches of Zonta International, a global organization that promotes women through service and advocacy. I can't speak highly enough of Colombo's Zonta Club 2 (there are three Zonta Club chapters in Colombo and one in Kandy). The women that I met were inspiring and inspired. They were bankers, doctors, lawyers, businesswomen, and architects. They believed in their ability to help one another, and their responsibility to help all women.

Knowing the caliber of women I was going to be speaking to, I have to admit I was a little anxious. I gave a short fifteen minute talk about Emerge Global, in which I highlighted the work we do in Sri Lanka, gave background information about the girl's situations, and told a story about one individual. Afterward the floor was opened for questions, and the women of the Zonta Club were not only receptive and positive about Emerge, but also asked some very tough and relevant questions. It was evident that they were both interested in Emerge and wanted to help us succeed. We even had some brainstorming suggestions thrown out, such as "These girls could work with our Jr. Zonta Club" and "What about selling the jewelry in my store?"

Afterwards April and I spoke one-on-one with many of the club members, making contacts and enjoying the atmosphere. I followed up with many of these women the next day, and received the following beautiful response from Ruchi, an Architect, that I asked to share with all of our readers:

"It’s so beautiful and inspiring – the manner in which you are doing it. That you are re-awakening and using their innate femininity in healing these young girls and helping them grow stronger and more independent – struck a special emotional chord in all of us women. I do believe very strongly in the power of thought and intent – the sheer beauty of the jewelery you displayed is more testament to the healing vibes you are generating."

Thank you to Zonta Club 2, and especially to Lilamani Dias Benson who invited me to speak and has been an amazing supporter and resource. I am excited about Emerge's future with Zonta. Our organizations have the same goal - empowering women in Sri Lanka - and it's energizing to meet organizations that are making large strides towards this goal.


Until next time,
Ellen Read more »

Ma Sevana Medicine

Posted by Ellen on Monday, March 30, 2009

The month of March has been particularly rough for me, having spent the whole time suffering from a Sri Lankan virus that is either dengue fever or something remarkably like it. Not being able to perform, physically and mentally, has made for a very difficult and frustrating couple of weeks. Additionally being sick away from home is probably one of the worst experiences ever, and I have to say it's made me pretty homesick. To finish it off, the constant problems and barriers that I deal with daily begin to seem overwhelming. I received an email from my Grandmother that explained what I hadn't been able to say but had been feeling all last month and wanted to share her words:

"Alia's blog happened to fit in with something I had read lately about a young man who had lived through some terrible times in Kosovo and had become very disillusioned about the human race, feeling there was nothing that could be done about the conditions of the world so why try. The response to that was that he, and all of us, have an obligation to try. It has to be hard for you young women over there to see so much that should and could be done, to try but sometimes fail. But you are trying."

It's been difficult to handle all of the problems that our girls face and obstacles they are trying to overcome: the situation can really weigh on you. Fortunately for me I was feeling well enough yesterday to go to Ma Sevana for the first time since February, and it was like medicine for my soul. The experience was completely rejuvenating, getting to be part of their lives after being absent for a month. One of our girls sat by my side and held my hand for an hour, and that feeling of intimacy and closeness was exactly what I needed. Hugging the girls gave me the connection that I was so desperately wanting, and seeing their excitement made me excited. We spent the first thirty minutes simply catching up one each other's lives: who had left, which girls were being transferred to other homes soon to go to school, who's birthdays were in March. Just knowing how much they care for me keeps me motivated to, as my Grandmother put it, simply keep trying. And now that I'm almost fully-recovered, I can. Read more »

Emerge Necklace Spotted in Colombo

Posted by Ellen on Friday, March 27, 2009

Last weekend some friends and I went to play pool at the Cinnamon Grand and as I was walking through the bar I spotted a woman wearing an Emerge necklace! I love our current Emerge long necklace design because it's so distinctive that I can pick it out of a crowd, and I did a double-take through the smoky room to scope out what looked like a 4o-year old Belgium woman with one of our signature green chains on.

You can imagine how excited I got because of this! There are only two ways to get Emerge jewelry in Colombo: either you buy it from April or I at the Emerge Headquarters (aka our apartment) or you buy it from Gandhara. And since I didn't know the woman at the bar, she must have bought it from the store. This is the first time I've seen someone wearing Emerge jewelry in Colombo that I hadn't personally sold to them, and it made me ecstatic because it means that Emerge is spreading in Sri Lanka through channels that I'm not directly responsible for. And that's an exciting thought. Read more »

Making Emerge Sri Lanka

Posted by Ellen on Tuesday, March 17, 2009

I can't believe it's already halfway through March! Time flies when you're sick (I've come down with a crazy Sri Lankan virus that is mostly gone thankfully). Lying in bed has given me much time to think about what's happened since I came back to Sri Lanka in January, and I thought I'd fill in some details for you all!

As you may know, Alia was here the month of February, and it felt like the whole month we were running around all over the place: meeting with people, trying to form relationships with other organizations, developing product strategy and curriculum guides, and so on.

The couple weeks before that I spent preparing for her visit. My biggest goal for the first half of the year is to get Emerge Sri Lanka established as its own legal entity. It took a solid couple of weeks to find the right person to assist us with this process - and it was a lot of fun trying to find them! I met a number of interesting and exciting people along the way: in fact I'm pretty sure there was one week where I met with someone new every day. The whole information gathering process really appeals to my way of thinking. It's very important for me to orient myself when I am in a situation that I don't know much about. I do this when I go to a new city by immediately studying maps to be able to navigate myself. Well it turns out this is also the methodology I took exploring how to establish a charitable organization in Sri Lanka.

I ended up finding, through a long chain of referrals, a kick-butt and powerful woman named Sumi who is trained as a lawyer and is currently consulting for a government bank. She has helped immensely already with figuring out exactly what needs to be done to form Emerge Sri Lanka. So much of how business gets done in Sri Lanka is who you know, and Sumi knows a lot of people and isn't timid in getting to know those she doesn't.

After Alia left I immediately got sick, so unfortunately I haven't been able to follow up with Sumi as much as I would have liked. But we're meeting tomorrow to start things off: first step, registering our name (Emerge Sri Lanka) with the Registrar of Companies. Wish us luck!



Best,
Ellen Read more »

Challenges

Posted by April on Thursday, March 12, 2009

Today's post will be a little choppy. Generally my posts reflect both my state of mind and the type of work upon which I'm focusing. The bulk of my current project is analytical....but the deliverable is ultimately creative. Unsurprisingly I'm running into some challenges reconciling the two.

My goal for March 9-March 13 (seemingly an easy task) was:

To create a visual guide to teach our girls

1) how to make jewelry, and

2) what details differentiate jewelry from "quality jewelry."

Background:

All our girls have been making beautiful jewelry, some learning quickly, others still struggling after a year or so of learning the process. We have identified that one of the program goals is for the girls to learn how to make "quality jewelry," measured by a series of metrics like consistent product length, proper wire finishing (not poking out, on necklaces the wire must run through the clasp and back through two beads so the clasp won't slip off) etc. I developed a document on which our Bead Program Coordinator can record weekly production, if any or all of the quality control points were achieved, and whether or not a girl makes the jewelry correctly the first time (or conversely if she consistently struggles with one particular technique.)

Although some of the girls have been making the jewelry for years, often even the veterans miss many quality control points. Thus, we decided to revisit the training materials in the hopes of creating a visual guide (again, some girls speak only sinhala, some have hearing disabilities, some are illiterate.)

I am by nature a creative person, and had only recently been exposed to a lot of visual communication techniques (I was recently enrolled in an Industrial Design program.) Consequently, I thought this task would be easy....it is proving to be otherwise. In addition to the requirements outlined above, we need the visual guide to show certain mathematical concepts. It is relatively straightforward to show a repeating pattern visually, and the girls have shown that they have thus far been able to follow along. However, we only recently implemented a voucher system where the girls order and pay for beads through a simulated store and bank in the workshops, and they are struggling with the basics. For some reason it had not occurred to me that many of the teens had not been exposed to basic math skills, like multiplication, subtraction, and even addition. This lack of a foundation has made it extremely difficult to explain how to go from ordering beads for one necklace to ordering beads for two with any understanding on the girls' part. I guess I was unaware that the mathematical portion was so difficult because I knew the girls have been ordering beads "successfully" using the vouchers for several months (starting just before my arrival.) It was only when I started checking their vouchers and bank book entries that I realized they were ordering far more beads than were necessary for the products they were producing. I was under the impression (because the girls would bring their empty bead boxes to the workshop) that they used up the beads they ordered regularly. It turns out that my assumption was a false one, and that most have reserves going back at least several months if not more.

It may seem insignificant to many that the girls have bead reserves....but it affects the program in several ways, only the most prominent of which I will mention below.

We are incorporating budgeting into the standard curriculum so that the girls who are interested in starting their own businesses at a later date will have been exposed (and ideally have become proficient in dealing with) business basics. Inventory management can make or break an organization, so ideally the girls will understand that their personal businesses will benefit if they maintain the least amount of inventory possible while still reaching their jewelry making goals. (The intention is to free up cash flow in order to buy more beads.)

Unsurprisingly, since we haven't truly emphasized the business factor, the girls have thus far been more interested in maintaining a variety of beads that they like than in ordering only what they need each week.

Conclusion:
Ultimately, I believe that my "developer's block" (my self-coined equivalent to writer's block) experience this past week had a much deeper source. Although I am absolutely passionate about our cause and about working with the girls, I find it hundreds of times more difficult to achieve my goals here, than when I was studying, working and living in the US and in the short periods I have spent abroad in other countries. I could identify numerous contributing factors, but I believe that the primary factor is the disparity between Eastern and Western concepts of independence and autonomy.

This disparity manifests itself in various ways, some of which are basic and tangible and unique to our (Emerge's) situation in Sri Lanka, like depending on trishaws for all transportation rather than having the independence of traveling where you want on your own terms. Otherwise personal space (which I had mentioned in a previous blog entry) is really non-existent, and the absence there-of can truly abrade Western sensibilities (like my own for example.) I am unsure if it is because Sri Lanka is a small island, or because it is an Asian country, or if there is another cause, but each and every person one meets seems to assume the encounter is merely the beginning of a long relationship, and that you are now in some sense, "involved." This occurs in all walks of society and is evidenced by the utterly incessant questioning, "where are you from," "how old are you," "are you married," "do you speak Sinhala," "how long will you be here," "how much does your apartment cost," "where are you going," "can I have your email address," "can I call you later," "will you be my friend...." "I want to be your friend," "I want to be your friend," "I want to be your friend......"

I believe it is my unfamiliarity with the culture and my yet underdeveloped coping mechanisms that keep popping up and frustrating my work efforts. I have been trying to care for my mind body and soul in order to keep motivated and engaged, yet feel that I am constantly struggling to protect my personal space- in coffee shops, in restaurants, at the doctor's office, in my own apartment building- from people who would enjoy nothing more than to engage you in conversation, hear your life story, and share a bit of gossip.

Today, Monday March 16th marks the day I have designated for a turn-around.... a day in which I hope to resolve some of my cultural attitudes in the hopes of pushing forward with Emerge's mission and allowing myself some sense of achievement. I am unsure of what my approach will be, I am just sure that change is necessary.

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