In September 2009 Olena Rozskazova participated in the WAGGGS Advocacy seminar II in Sangam, India.
Linda-Sangam-Advocacy |
Advocacy – everyone can join and change life for better!
Each of us, in spite of age, race, social status and nationality at least once during the life thought about changing for better. Members of non-government organizations think about social changes every day, that’s why these people decided to organize in communities.
For the members of World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts changing life for better is the duty. We follow BP’s message “help to create a better world and a brighter future for the youth of tomorrow”. And WAGGGS mission is to enable girls and young women to develop their fullest potential as responsible citizens of the world”. So each of the members takes reaponsibility for her own life and what is more important – life of the others. And not only in her region.
Every year the Association of Ukrainian Guides gets help from different Guides organizations in Norway, Denmark, UK…And we do a lot in our local communities, for example, grow flowers and trees, help elderly people, orpshans and mothers who have a lot of children… Because for us, Guides, it’s impossible to be happy when someone near us suffer. And we are glad when we can help.
And by these actions, if it’s not just one activity, we can influence people to take decisions that will improve our lives and the lives of others. And that’s what advocacy is according to WAGGGS. That’s what makes us happy and involved. You can say – it’s a challenge. Yes. Of course, it is. But without it we can’t imagine our life. And our organizations’ development.
The WAGGGS Advocacy seminar II which tok place in Sangam World Centre since the 6 till the 12 th of September gave us a possibility not only to learn theoretical things about advocacy, but also to make advocacy plans for our national Guides organizations. Of course, different countries have different problems: for India, Egypt and Pacistan it’s education of girls and encouraging them, for Canada - reducing the carbon footprint, for Mexico - culture of conserve the environment, for Denmark – giving paid days by employers for volunteering work, for Ukraine – empowerment of the girls in rural areas, for Kenya – promotion Guiding values in Garissa District and give women possibility to take their own decisions.
While making the advocacy plans we thought about our goals and objectives, made SWOT analysis and analyzed the economical, political, social, technological, legal and environmental factors we can meet in the region where our advocacy plan is realized, primary and secondary audience and “milestones”. Each of us had a unique opportunity to present our advocacy plan to the others by message. It was great! You really think you have to perceive the audience and try to do your best and to use different methods to make others to believe you.
During the seminar we learned a lot about other countries in the international evening and of course, we “plunged” into Indian culture and traditions.
The press-conference devoted to migration was very interesting and useful. And both the staff volunteers and the trainers (Rebecca, Ezter, Donna and Prjanka) used informal methods and we really learned by doing.
So the Advocacy seminar II was very important for us. We came back to our national associations full of ideas. And I hope we’ll be able to realize our advocacy plans to chenge people’s life for better.
Olena Rozskazova,
Association of Ukrainian Guides