First of all, I would like to thank SAW (Social Action for Women) for choosing me as the primary translator and WISE (Women International Shared Experience) for the opportunity to work on a meaningful project for twelve days. 


I believe the ten women who participated benefited greatly from the training. They all came from different backgrounds, ethnicities and places in Burma. Most of them were unable to use camera, edit video, or use the internet; some had never even touched a computer before. But all of them were happy to learn and enthusiastic about putting these skills into practice with the help of Danielle (the WISE project Coordinator). Not only did they learn about making films but they also learnt about team building, trust building and personal development of other kinds.

Afterward, the women practiced by conducting some interviews in order to be able to create their own ten minute movies about the conditions facing Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. The training was not always easy however; currently the Thai police have been arresting larger amounts of Burmese migrant workers. This is a result of a political deal between the SPDC (Burmese government) and the Thai Prime Minister Arbisit, to crack down on undocumented Burmese workers in Thailand. Therefore, as many of our participants fall into the ‘undocumented’ category, we were always wary of the police presence during our commute to and from training. Luckily we made it through our sessions without any serious security hang-ups.

In the ten minutes movie the women produced, they focused on shooting topical issues that have been affecting women in the area. These issues include: domestic violence, abortion, trafficking, and HIV. I believe these issues are particularly important to teach in our communities as women are currently unaware of the details and intricacies of these problems. Furthermore, it’s important that the international community knows the situations of Burmese women while they are working in Thailand, as it is within this community that we have found many of our strongest partnerships. 


I strongly believe that all the women participating received a lot of technique in production, shooting methods, social networking and editing. 


Subsequently, they showed off their talents during a movie-night designed to reach target communities. As the sole translator for the program I couldn’t help but learn alongside the women. I may have even come away with a greater understanding because of how often I had to repeat the concepts to the women, seeing as the material was so new to everyone! 


Particularly effective for Burmese culture was the use of team-building and ice-breaker exercises; this relates to a culture of shyness and set the stage for later success. 


I have determined that the training is useful for effective advocacy (both locally and internationally), but also as a means of social networking and community awareness. All this is not to leave out the obvious creative outlet we’ve created for our participants.
 
Ko Myo is a man working for SAW - Social Action for Women, in Mae Sot, Thailand.  Originally from Burma, Ko Myo is dedicating his life to helping female migrant workers and their children.  It is important for WISE to engage men in the community as well and we thought it would be a great idea to get the male point of view on the project as well as the point of view of one of our translators.  We'd also like to congratulate Ko Myo on the birth of his first child - we can only hope that he grows up to be as much of a liberal man as his father!