Women's Leadership Conference

Women’s Leadership Conference 2008
September 25-28, 2008

# of female Participants: 50
[# of girls under 25 years old: 38, # of women over 25 years old: 12]
# of Presenters: 16
[15 women – Kyrgyz, Russian, Uzbek, 1 man - Kyrgyz]
# of PCVs who assisted: 14

Conference Sessions (1.5 hours each):
1. Role of Women Leaders in Society
2. Women’s Suffrage
3. Gender Equality
4. HIV/AIDS Awareness
5. Round Table: Women Leaders in Kyrgyzstan – What Does it Take?
6. Yoga and Healthy Living
7. Women’s Rights are Human Rights
8. Women in Business Leadership
9. Human Trafficking
10. Bride Kidnapping
11. Promoting Volunteerism and Civic Involvement: NGO Fair
12. Leadership Skills and Programs – for students
13. Corruption
14. Balancing Career and Family
15. Breaking Stereotypes
16. Educational Opportunities Abroad
17. Women’s Sexual Health
18. Stomp and Dance

Members of the Women’s Leadership Club – “Lady Leaders” organized this 4-day Women’s Leadership Conference, along with Peace Corps Volunteer assistance (me) and the support of the Gender Studies Department and the Center for American Studies at the local State University. The goal of the conference was to inspire a sense of possibility and instill a sense of responsibility toward women in leadership in Kyrgyzstan. The conference was successful because it provided a space for current local women leaders and future women leaders to come together to discover and develop leadership skills, behaviors, attitudes, and opportunities. The conference was conducted in the local languages (Kyrgyz and Russian). Peace Corps Volunteers worked behind the scenes setting up coffee breaks, rooms, doing registration, taking photographs, etc.

Evaluations were collected at the conclusion of every day. The return rate averaged 34 completed evaluations/day. At least 3 mentor/mentee pairs were formed. 25 participants expressed interest in joining the Leadership Club - “Lady Leaders.”
Each participant received a participant packet (folder, notebook, pen, badge, handouts, evaluations), a 65com/day Per Diem, a t-shirt (NOT SPA FUNDED), a certificate, and a CD of photographs from the conference.

Each presenter received a badge and a 165com Per Diem.

Both participants and presenters expressed interest in helping plan/facilitate/participate in next year’s conference.

3 Members from my organization – the Central Asian Alliance for Water – were involved in the conference. My director was on the round table panel representing Women Leaders in Kyrgyzstan, Gulnara presented on Leadership Skills for Students, and Aida was the CAAW representative for the NGO Fair. They were all happy to be involved and present.

Challenges: Some presenters who had committed weeks prior dropped out a few days before or never showed up, including the person who was supposed to give the welcome speech. It was very frustrating and stressful and made us appear to be unorganized. Evaluations reflected that the first day was not as smooth as the others. Another challenge was technical related. The university promised us 2 projectors but day of said they only had 1 working one. We had to borrow a projector from another NGO. Lack of power was also a problem.

Indicators of success: The participants hardly spent 10 minutes at the coffee breaks. They were always sitting and waiting for the next sessions to begin before the breaks ended. The participants were enthusiastic, grateful, and extremely active. The topics were interesting and generated a lot of discussion in and outside of the sessions.

I’m really happy with how the conference went. It took a lot of preparation/time/energy, but definitely felt worth it. The presenters and participants took the conference seriously, but also had a great time learning, developing leadership skills, and meeting new people. There were definitely aspects we could improve on, but for our first time organizing anything at this scale, I’d say we did a good job – thanks to Farida and Cholpon (my Lady Leaders).