Women's Empowerment Project - Mansfield Center

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The Women’s Empowerment Project

Montana – Cambodia – Laos – Thailand – Vietnam

Ms. Siwanoot SOITONG
Attorney, Human Rights and Development Foundation
Bangkok, Thailand
Ms. Soitong will be a participant in the second cohort of the project. This clip was filmed in January 2012, in which she discusses her work and her interest in participating in the Women's Empowerment Project

Ms. Siwanoot Soitong Video Download

Ms. NGUYEN Thi Thanh Trung
Project Officer, Centre for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population
Hanoi, Vietnam
Ms. Nguyen will be a participant in the second cohort of the project. This clip was filmed in January 2012, in which she discusses her work and project objectives.
The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center (MC) of The University of Montana (UM) is honored to host a program of the U.S. Department of State: the Women’s Empowerment Exchange Program for Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, with a focus on increasing local capacity and connectivity. Program themes include but are not limited to the environment; economic development; health; safety and security; strong families; and education.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Trung Video Download

In our program, twenty English-speaking Southeast Asian women and 20 Americans will travel to a partner country as one of four cohorts between March 2012 through Winter 2013. Foreign participants will engage in a 37-day program in the U.S., while U.S. participants will travel to one southeast Asian country for a two-to-three week program, depending upon individual availability.

The program offers a hands-on approach to shared issues in women’s leadership and maximizing the potential of technology. It features the development of an action plan created by each southeast Asian participant with the assistance of a U.S. partner to advance the project goal: teaching emerging leaders to engage in collaborative action to address women’s concerns that have global repercussions.

A key aspect of the program is empowering women by providing them the skills to increase local capacity and connectivity. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stated, "...There is no question that the spread of cell phones has launched a new era of possibility in the fights against poverty, disease, hunger, corruption, and political oppression...[But] to have a wide impact, the technology must be widely available, and for 300 million women in low- and middle-income countries the technology is still out of reach."

Our foreign and Montana partners join us in this opportunity to demonstrate how women in business, civil society, and government can cooperate effectively and how our approaches might be adapted to participants’ native environments.

If you are interested in participating:

For foreign participants: The application period has closed.

For American participants: There are many ways to get involved!

We are still seeking women from Montana to participate in the second group as a Fellowship Coordinator. We are specifically seeking women in professions that are closely aligned with the background of our foreign participants. If you are currently working in one of the following fields, please contact Deena Mansour at deena.mansour@umontana.edu: health, nursing, community development, teaching English as a second language, training and development, specifically with Native American populations.

We are seeking host families for our visiting women from southeast Asia. This can be anything from hosting them for an evening at your home, at a community event, at a Passover meal, an Easter celebration, or a two-week homestay. If you’re interested in being involved, please contact Deena Mansour at deena.mansour@umontana.edu.