Women for Freedom

Dear friends,

I want to share with you the joy and gratefulness that I feel from our women circles in Yangon. The first circles have been held and our volunteer in Myanmar, whom I trained and whom I worked together with to build the circles, has been growing her skills and her inner strengths. She did not know that she could hold her own women circles, but she felt the importance of the project and also the excitement of starting something that she had to learn. 

I explained to her about the methods I use in women circles and we talked with another volunteer from Myanmar, who has been to my women circles and can also give women circles herself. We researched what would be beneficial for the women in Yangon under the circumstances that they live in right now. There is a trust issue, living under dictatorship, bring that in as a big challenge, when you want to hold a women's circle, where everything is built on trust. Trust and feeling safe is the foundation of a women's circle. So we decided to make small groups, where most women would be from similar networks, so that they could start with a safe feeling. We also decided that the exercises would be more adapted to the culture of the women and our volunteers were very creative in finding exactly the right exercises for the themes of the circles.

The themes were decided:

1.Grounding & Getting to know women circles & eachother;

2.Self Love & Compassion;

3.Inner Strengths;

4.Living from the Heart & Soul;

5.Stay Connected to your authentic self & to your sisters.

Together we held a pilot women's circle with friends of our volunteers. After the pilot, we finalized the project and the first circles started.

Here is some feedback from our volunteer and the participants:

Activities & Flow

The activities were carried out smoothly and in alignment with the theme. Participants engaged with openness and sincerity. They shared their reflections respectfully and listened deeply to one another. The flow of the session felt natural, with each activity supporting the next.

Energy & Group Dynamics:

The group energy was gentle, supportive, and harmonious. Participants connected easily with one another, and there was a sense of shared understanding. Even those who were initially quiet gradually opened up as the session progressed. Overall, the energy of the Circle felt safe, grounded, and nurturing.

Participants Experience:

All of the participants expressed that the session felt meaningful and healing. They appreciated the safe space, the clarity of the activities, and the opportunity to reflect. Some mentioned that they felt lighter, more connected, and more aware of their inner emotions after the session.

Feelings of the participants before the circle:

"I just looked at the information and thought I should join. It wasn’t a lastminute decision."

"I was curious about what kind of people I would meet and what we would be sharing. I felt excited.

"I took the wrong bus, so I became a bit worried. I didn’t expect the place to be like this: the compound is lovely. Honestly, it felt like I was in another country, or at least in a different culture. It was a very unique and new experience for me."

"Before starting, my feelings were a bit mixed and unsettled. I felt worried and thought, what should I do, can I do it, and will everything be okay?"

Feedback about the participant's feelings after the circle: 

"It felt like opening my heart and having quality time with friends who share similar feelings and energy"

"My mind felt very calm. It made me want to try meditating more. I also realized that every woman carries her own unseen struggles."

"I became so comfortable with others that it felt like we had become friends. My emotional state also became very calm."

"I felt like I had joined something really good."

The main goals of the women circles are:

To let the (upcoming) women leaders feel grounded and safe, to get them to know their own worth and their inner strengths, to make them feel the calmness inside themselves and let them take care of themselves, so that they can keep sharing their strengths and be role models for the other women in their community. 

Sisterhood is important in our circles, we share what needs to be shared in the moment. We ask you to trust that what you need to say will come. The beautiful thing is we listen deeply to each other and ourselves and we will recognize each other's stories and will know our own experiences better through our sharing and listening. The sisterhood that we share makes us feel connected to each other and to everything around us. This connectedness makes us feel our inner strengths and helps us to start living from our inner strengths.

We are so grateful for your support, so that we can support the women leaders of Myanmar to keep growing themselves and supporting their communities.

Love Ursula