I recently joined over 5000 women, men, and youth activists from around the world at the Women Deliver Copenhagen conference this summer. I was inspired by how many individuals have devoted their time, talent, and wealth to help women gain access to healthcare, education and other basic human rights. When I returned to Portland, I attended the World Affairs Council of Oregon Pan-African youth event. Young leaders from Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana and beyond, all shared with Oregonians about the most pressing issues in their communities, and proposed innovative solutions. So many of their challenges echoed those I heard in Copenhagen—girls’ access to education, reproductive health, clean water. Often the underlying challenge for girls and youth is being deemed valuable enough for the world to invest in them.
And it reinforced for me the reason I am here at the W.A.C. as the Director of Marketing and Communications. Whether at a conference, a global journey, or at an event here in Oregon—seeing the world through the eyes of another is the first step to understanding the nature of our challenges—and to finding solutions that work for everyone. The World Affairs Council of Oregon’s youth programs, international visitor exchanges, and thought-leader speaking events, all have the power to catalyze the relationships which I believe are at the heart of any social change. I welcome you to reach out to me with your ideas and input—what are the issues that matter to you as a Global Oregonian? What global relationships have changed your life? I look forward to hearing from you.
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Dear Friends,
For the last decade, living surrounded by Oregon's lush beauty and vibrant communities, I have had a dream of helping Portland seize the mantle of a truly globally-connected city. This is a town of travelers; international academic leaders; nonprofits and foundations serving humanity on distant shores; and corporations who value social justice and sustainable global growth. From this home-base, Half Sky Journeys has been an instrument for engaging women leaders across borders through meaningful travel. From Cambodia to Rwanda and beyond, we've witnessed the beginnings of life-changing relationships between women leaders and supportive advocates. I have been seeking ways to accelerate global awareness for social change, and I'm thrilled to announce a new role that brings momentum to this dream. In addition to connecting women leaders through Half Sky Journeys, I will now proudly serve the World Affairs Council of Oregon as Marketing & Communications Director. With an energetic staff and a new forward-thinking President (Derrick Olsen), it's an exciting time to help this time-honored organization reach a wider and more diverse audience, both locally and globally. In a period of such deep ideological divisions in our own country, I know that as we look to the women, men, and youth leaders of the world—widening the context in which we see ourselves—the seeds of understanding can grow. World Affairs Council is devoted to providing this kind of connection for Oregonians and our visitors. http://worldoregon.org/ Next week (alongside thousands of leaders from over 150 countries), I travel to the Women Deliver conference in Copenhagen, Denmark http://wd2016.org —the world's largest conference on the health, rights, and wellbeing of girls and women in the last decade. I can't wait to meet these global change-makers and hear their stories, and provide an opportunity for others to learn about how their work and relationships could expand through a customized Half Sky Journey. I will also be seeking fascinating individuals to participate in the International Speaker Series of World Affairs Council (which has hosted global heroes like Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Jane Goodall, Queen Noor of Jordan, the Dalai Lama! and so many more). My life continues to be an incredible journey surrounded by inspiring people. I welcome your feedback, and would love to hear the stories of what happens to be making YOUR life more wonderful at the moment, whatever that may be. With enormous gratitude, Ila R. Asplund, Founder & CEO Half Sky Journeys LLC WHEN: |
Michelle HyMichelle Hy is in her final year working on her B.A. in Applied Linguistics at Portland State University. A Portland native brought up by Asian parents, she's spent the last couple decades accruing a love for travel (with much thanks to her travel-happy grandparents), language, and The Phantom of the Opera. She's excited to be working as an intern for Half Sky Journeys spreading the word for Rwanda 2015. What ignited your passion for empowering women worldwide? Being raised by a single mother who didn’t so much preach feminism as lived it. She taught me to be independent in my material and mental wealth. And as a “millennial” brought up in the technological age, I have had access to more information on the world than any generation before us. With all this data, we can solve problems like never before. Gender equality is an important issue to me because, well, it directly affects me. To fight for the right of all women to be equal citizens of the world is fighting for my right, too. There’s so much untapped potential and I want to do my part in unleashing that beautiful, powerful resource in us. What's one of your favorite places you've traveled and why? Angkor Wat, Cambodia is a surreal place for its history – both glorious and tragic. I had never been to a place such as Siem Reap, so to see real poverty in the flesh for the first time was perception-altering. At 15, it made me uncomfortable and made me question various political and social structures that create such a disparity in living quality. Getting a glimpse at the life of people who live half way across the world from me, in addition to being surrounded by the historical aesthetic of the largest religious monument in the world, gives me chills from time to time when I think of that trip. Those three days were spiritual, unsettling, and will likely stay with me the rest of my life. Where would you like to visit next and why? Let me through a dart on a map and that’s where I’d like to go next. The whole world is there for the viewing and I would like to see as much of it as I can in my lifetime. But if I had to consciously choose, I would love to explore China first. I am a born and raised Portlandian, but my family is from Taiwan and China. I’ve visited family in As an agent for positive change, what is one of your dreams for the future? The re-discovery of our social roots as human creatures. I want to see people re-unite in tribes, communities, families – whatever you want to call them, as long as they’re sustainable. As cheesy as it sounds, the best way to solve global problems is through working together and getting social cohesion back on the top of our priority list. | Rebecca BrownRebecca Brown is a new intern on the Half Sky Journeys team. Originally from Washington State, she spent her childhood moving all around the western US, which is probably where her need for continued travel and exploration came from. She's now lived in six states and two countries, including two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Eastern Ukraine. She's an absolute addict when it comes to coffee, podcasts, cross-stitching, and travel. What ignited your passion for empowering women worldwide? Education has been the ignition switch for me. I've been involved in education, both in the US and abroad, for over 10 years now. I believe that education, both the systematic and the informal, lays a foundation for a full life. I have seen what happens when women have the tools, knowledge, resources, and freedom to achieve. They do! And when women achieve, the world achieves. When the potential of women is unlocked, we are all unshackled. What's one of your favorite places you've traveled and why? That's such a hard question because all of my trips have been great for one reason or another. South Africa was my first solo trip and it was amazing to be able to just go with the flow, meet new and amazing people, explore a beautiful country, and generally just do whatever I wanted at all. Puerto Rico was spectacular because I used that trip to introduce my much younger sister to the joys of travel, which she had never done before. We both had wholly new experiences and got to bond in a brand new way. Poland in the winter was like walking in a real-life snow-globe with cobblestone streets and wrought-iron lamp posts. Leaving my previous home of two years and crossing from Ukraine into Poland looking out the window of a train very literally took my breath away. I could go on and on... Where would you like to visit next and why? The list is long, for sure, but at the top is Vietnam. My grandmother is from Vietnam and I grew up with her stories that I long to see in real life. It would be magical to travel that country with her. As an agent for positive change, what is one of your dreams for the future? Free, high-quality, and equal public education for all of our children. Education is empowerment. Sharing knowledge and experiences with our children, and encouraging them to generate their own, plants so many seeds-- curiosity, empathy, perseverance, hope. All children deserve that. I want to be a part of making that dream come true. |
A fun list of advice that we just sent to our Rwanda travelers. There's some good advice for traveling in Rwanda—and some for anywhere! Big thanks to stylist Meg Gallager and writer/travelista Steph Zito for contributing. Get the abbreviated shop list on Pinterest.
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And she is carrying half a truth.
And she is carrying half a lie.
And she is carrying half of tomorrow.
And she is carrying half the sky.
Travel offers us the capacity to see things a different way, overcoming perceived limitations in our work and relationships.Here in Oregon, forest fires have been blazing all summer. On a particularly hazy day, I smelled that rich, warm, throat-scratching scent—and instantly I was in Indonesia with a plate of nasi goreng (fried rice) on its way. We’ve all had that moment—a smell, a sound, a word transports us to another place in time. A fascinating article came out in the Atlantic recently, by Brent Crane, entitled “For a More Creative Brain, Travel.” Link http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/03/for-a-more-creative-brain-travel/388135/ It’s not too surprising that “new sounds, smells, language, tastes, sensations, and sights spark different synapses in the brain and may have the potential to revitalize the mind.” In essence, “psychologists and neuroscientists have begun examining more closely what many people have already learned anecdotally: that spending time abroad may have the potential to affect mental change.” One of the benefits of our Journey to Rwanda is the opportunity to build capacity for new ideas in a short amount of time. So often we feel stuck in problems that we just can’t seem to transform. Maybe it’s a habit that we repeat even if it is counterproductive (hello to my post-gym buttermilk donut!). Maybe there’s that One Person at work who just plain bugs you, or worse yet creates contagious negativity on your team—and it remains avoided and unresolved. On a bigger scale, why in the world are there still so few women represented in positions of authority and decision-making? I mean really, people!!! Most of us in our hearts feel that equality is essential. And yet the implementation, the steps to get there still elude us. Human beings need to see and hear from others who have faced the same challenges and have overcome them. We need each other’s stories in order to invite our own creative solutions. And we need to hear them without tuning out or hiding in our own stuck-ness—to listen with all of our senses instead. But “engaged listening” is hard. It’s not just a switch we can turn on. And yet, when we take the leap to surround ourselves with new-ness, magic happens. “Foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth and integrativeness of thought, the ability to make deep connections between disparate forms,” and “Cognitive flexibility is the mind’s ability to jump between different ideas, a key component of creativity.” This is why I am so excited that on our Rwanda journey, we are creating a space for the exchange of stories between thoughtful and skilled leaders, in a completely fresh environment of sights, sounds, smells, and strangers. We’ll learn about why Rwanda is lauded as THE success story in the developing world today—and we’ll hear it directly from the people working to make it so. It’s essential that countries like the U.S. take time to examine why Rwanda has highest representation of women in government (on the planet!), or why two decades after genocide, Rwanda is a booming hub for social innovation, environmental conservation, and technology. Companies and organizations who seek “capacity building” are usually thinking in very specific terms—e.g. growing skill sets and resources be a bigger, stronger business. But before this is possible, our brains need to be ready and open to receive those new ideas. I am convinced that the bold but simple act of removing ourselves from comfort and familiarity grows something important and rare in our abilities to perceive new information, and our own place in the world. I see this analogy of Capacity Building in my mind’s eye in a line from a favorite poem by Richard Kenney, about the birth of his child, “...the close cosmos / Opened that day, and a great pleat opened in my heart.” It might look from the outside that our plates are just too full. For some, the thought of going to Rwanda—the loss that has happened there, the distance, the unknown—it seems like it could be all too much. Yet I know without a doubt that when we take the time to relate to one another through a journey experience, connecting across borders as real people, sharing our lives and our skills—a positive transformation is inevitable. A “great pleat” opens—something that was folded inside of us all along, expands. For more information about how our Women's Leadership Journey to Rwanda can benefit your team members, board, or other group stake holders, please see the information below or email us at leadership@halfsky.org |
Today's e-news features our friend and co-traveler, Rebecca Rodskog. She answers questions about why she's hopping aboard the December Journey!
Rebecca, why did you decide to join us in Rwanda this December? Simply put, I know it will be life-changing! I’m at a time in my life and my own personal development where I’m seeking experiences that can push me, break me out of old patterns and into a new ways of thinking, so that I can be a more positive contributor to my family, my work, and the world. Why now?As time goes by and my children grow, I’ve felt more and more how important it is to be a global citizen—especially to be part of women worldwide helping each other. It seems like—what better way to do this than actually go, see, and meet real women leading change across the world?! |
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