Train Leaders in Asia for Peace and Sustainability

Dear Kind Supporters and Donors,

We want to thank you first for supporting this project, which works to cultivate strong young leaders in Asia. We feel that giving personalized and ongoing support is the most powerful and effective way to nurture leaders with integrity in a time of crisis. In the context of unbelievable levels of state violence, environmental destruction, and huge inequality, the young leaders you have generously supported over the years make us feel profoundly hopeful. 

Thanks for your contributions on July Bonus Day, we received $3,500 including $400 of matching fundswhich GlobalGiving generously adds in. It is a big help for us as we are heading to the 10^th year of the annual three-month SENS program. Your support going forward will enable us to bring more extraordinary leaders to the 2025 program and strengthen the network of SENS alumni contributing to the regional movement for justice and sustainability. 

 At the beginning of July, our Director (Ted Mayer) visited SENS alumni in Vietnam for a period of 10 days. For me, as an alumnus of the SENS program, welcoming and accompanying him on a part of his journey was truly heart-warming. In the first two days in Southern Vietnam, I took Ted and two Vietnamese SENS alumni to meet with my family. Traveling and spending time with them reminded me of the caring and trusting relationships we aim to create in the SENS program. On those days, we had a chance to sit down and offer each other Co-Counseling sessions, which is the core practice we use to build our connection. Believing in the healing power of genuine attention through deep listening with respect, I had already been organizing a weekly meeting with two other SENS students to practice Co-Counseling. These sessions helped me to overcome the tiredness of my daily workload and also deepen our trusting relationships. Ultimately they allowed each of us to do our work and follow our own path more confidently. 

In the second half of Ted’s journey, in Central Vietnam, I felt hopeful as I watched online photos and chats as he visited SENS alumni in Da Nang and Hue. Ted accompanied Chau (nickname), a SENS 2023 alumnus, to a small and remote village in a mountainous area outside of Hue. There she has organized a summer program with a focus on plastic and its negative impacts on the environment for school students who have much more limited access to quality English classes and extracurricular activities than do children in urban areas. Chau has also done an amazing job of gathering together a team to assist her, including Duyen (nickname), a tutor from SENS 2023 and a volunteer in Chau’s program. I felt impressed when I witnessed them from a distance working hand in hand while inviting more young Vietnamese English teachers to put on a progressive program. I feel so grateful to all of you when I realize that our SENS students can go that far in large part because of your kind donations. 

Returning to our work in Thailand, we are nearly ready for our second annual Mae Sot program for Myanmar teachers in collaboration with Civic Engagement 4.0 of Chulalongkorn University. The Mae Sot program aims to create a stronger network of Myanmar teachers who are living and teaching in exile in Mae Sot, Thailand. It provides them a chance to meet in person, interact, and exchange experiences in their teaching career. We have just finished interviewing the applicants for the program. As we meet and talk with them, what strikes me most is that despite all the obstacles to practicing their profession in a new country and the uncertainty of living in a neighboring country, they exhibit a powerful desire for knowledge, seriousness about the future of Myanmar and migrant education, and a love for the migrant students.

In the chaos of broken politics, the domination of major powers in the international system, and the destructive decisions of leaders in many places across the globe, we need a new kind of leadership. We feel the necessity of new generations of leaders who can lead with compassion, orient themselves to people’s needs, and take constructive action. It is a huge inspiration for us knowing that you are with us in this journey of nurturing young leaders. 

Thank you for reading this report. And thank you for your companionship in this work. We would be glad if you could share this report and/or talk about our work with your friends and family.

With deep gratitude,

Au, SENS Program Assistant

To Our Generous Friends and Supporters,

We are very grateful for your support for our work. The resources you have kindly donated to this project go directly to support young adults from Southeast Asia and beyond to become effective and compassionate leaders through our 3-month School of English for Engaged Social Service (SENS).

A special and heartfelt thanks to those of you who have decided to make monthly contributions. This gives us stability and enables us to predict in advance how many scholarships we will be able to offer, and how many we still need to find.

During these days, parts of the Southeast Asian region are beset by violence from authoritarian regimes, and some of our students face serious personal danger on a regular basis in their home communities. Aware of these dangers, we decided this year to accept more students than we had funds for. We felt it was the right thing to do to provide them safety as well as support in taking their next steps--whether that meant returning to their communities with renewed energy and confidence, or pursuing higher learning as a longer path back home.

We will be very grateful if you can help us make good on our commitment to provide as many scholarships as we could manage this year. You can do this by donating to this project or telling your friends about our work during the upcoming Little by Little campaign on this platform. The campaign runs from 00:00:00 Eastern US Time on April 8th to 23:59:59 pm on April 12th. During those 5 days, all donations of $10-$50 from distinct donors will be matched 50% as long as funds last. You may also donate more than $50 and still be providing us with matching funds. If someone gives $500 USD for example, we would still receive matching funds of $25 USD on the first $50 of that donation.

Highlights from the SENS 2024 Program

1. Our teaching of peer listening practices based in an approach called "Co-Counseling" has been more successful than ever. For me it is a joy to learn a bit more every year about how to introduce such ways of finding and giving genuine support more effectively. Because then students become self-reliant and carry on these practices when they return home. This year, for example, I focused on asking the students to consider setting up a new kind of close and supportive relationship, in which they could practice mutual respect, share their stories, and find healing, and many have begun to practice even outside of class.

2. When asked about their future goals, more than one student has said that they want to create a caring community "like this one." We already know, but it confirms for us again, that we have created a community based on respect and caring, even despite our mistakes. It's encouraging to see clearly once again that this is how human beings want to live with each other. It's inspiring to hear the students describe what they would like to create in their life. And this is especially so when we see the increase in militarism and the brazen disregard for humanitarian law in many parts of the world. Our learning community is small, but it would be foolish to limit our expectations about what our students might accomplish over time.

3. We have faced personal tragedies in the group. Just after our midterm break, one of our students from Myanmar texted me that her older brother--who had been working a few hours from our campus at a rice processing plant--had passed away unexpectedly. Somehow he had fallen from the fourth floor of the plant and died instantly.  But I want to emphasize the warm and moving response of the students. Unsure of how best to support her, I knew I had to attend his funeral when she wrote that migrant workers from her country are often denigrated or devalued, and it would mean a lot if I could attend. What moved me was when I informed our students I would attend the funeral, and asked if anyone would want to go with me, every single member of the student cohort and work team raised their hand. We cancelled the afternoon class to go, and our student from Japan asked permission to stay overnight with the bereaved student so she would not be alone with her loss.

4. A group of young leaders from the region who graduated from SENS last year have played the key role as my work team in running SENS 2024. This is encouraging in many ways, because I can see the depth of their thinking about the students who are now also under their care. Au (nickname), from Vietnam, has so enjoyed working with his tutoring group of intermediate English learners, that he plans to carry on tutoring them online after the course is over.

I could tell you many more stories--about our Forest Temple Field Trip, about opera director Olivia's wonderful workshop on transformating self and society, and others. But they will have to wait until our current very intensive program has successfully reached its end. I am once again reminded this year that when you treat young adults with respect, offer them accurate information about the world as well as tools for living, when you appreciate their excellent qualities and offer them ways to keep improving, when you encourage them to freely set their own goals for life that can also respond to the needs of the world, you unleash a huge reservoir of energy.

And this is one of our biggest and most lovely hopes for the future.

Thank you again for your generous support for our work! It has been a huge blessing for us all.

May your work and life be a hopeful contribution to peace.

With appreciation and gratitude,

Theodore (Ted) Mayer

Links:

• The SENS Program's Website Page