OSU TAJIKISTAN WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP PROGRAM GOES TO CENTRAL ASIA

June 26, 2002 – (Oregon State University) This June, five Corvallis women are traveling to Bishkek, the capital of the Kyrgyz Republic, to conduct a leadership program for women from Tajikistan.

Charlotte Moats-Gallagher, Co-Director of OSU's Office of International Research and Development, will lead the project. Professional development trainers Muneera Spence (Assistant Professor, Department of Art), Joann DeMott (The J. DeMott Company), Nancy Rosenberger (Professor, Department of Anthropology), and Morgen Daniels (Program Coordinator) will accompany Moats-Gallagher. In addition, four trainers from Ukraine (themselves former participants in a previous OSU Women's Leadership Program) will meet U.S. staff in Bishkek.

Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of State, and conducted by OSU's Women in Development program (WID), the Tajikistan Women's Leadership Program will work with thirteen Tajik women active in non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The program will promote women's leadership, organizational development and locally driven coalition building that is designed to bring about positive social change in both the public and private sectors in Tajikistan.

The Tajik participants will attend a three-week workshop designed to develop their personal leadership style and skills; explore the essentials of organizational and community leadership; learn design tools that can enhance organizational identity, and create personal and organizational action plans.

Participants will also build a long-term network with organizations in the U.S. as a source of ongoing support. The ultimate goal is to help these women leaders build organizations that will make significant progress in helping the people of Tajikistan.

Tajikistan is directly north of Afghanistan, and it, too, is rebuilding after war. The Tajik civil war of the late 1990s left the country in difficult straits. The economy, already troubled since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, was shattered, refugee populations swelled, and many were wounded and killed.

"The work is especially important in Tajikistan because the need is great and the resources limited," said Marion McNamara, Co-Director of the Office if International Research and Development at OSU. "The non-governmental sector is crucial to the country's recovery and progress."

The program begins June 22 and will last three weeks.

From:
http://oregonstate.edu/international/IP-umbrella/newsletter/news062602.html