Today, if we talked about woman,it should be related to every aspect of human life. Women in the 21st century are not only as housewives, but have strategic and important positions in jobs such as nurse, teacher, doctor, director, and even at the top level in government as president or prime minister. The mindset about women has changed, but we should keep in mind and recognize the most important women’s role that is of a mother and a housewife.

We have many examples on women’s success history, as they keep struggling and worked hard in their long life journey. In 1995, U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had delivered her wonderful speech at the Women’s World Conference in Beijing. Since then the world declared Human Rights Are Women’s Right and Women’s Right Are Human Rights. Perhaps, we also often hear “Wonder Woman”, the famous story about an incredible and heroic woman. The story has inspired and shown to us how woman can be strong and keep going to avenge the truth. We can learn and take some points from that story eventhough wonder woman only lives in our minds as a woman with heroic stories in comic and movies.

The Colombo Plan, as one of the International Organization which gave contribution tothe development of South-South Cooperation, held a Third Country Training Program in cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Indonesia. This training is called “Training Course on Empowering Women through Social, Economic and Cultural Intervention”. The Colombo Plan in cooperation with the Government of Indonesia worked together to improve the awareness of women in third country members on the importance of women’s role in the society where they live.

The National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) is appointed as the implementing agency. BKKBN sets family planning that aims to build a small, happy and prosperous family. Since the beginning, the family planning program of Indonesia has been focusing on 5 interventions:

delaying marriage through Adolescent Reproductive Health Program,

1. fertility control through contraceptive service,
2. income generating program for family planning acceptors,
3. parenting for children and adolescent, and
4. family empowerment program for taking care of the aged people in the family.

The main purpose of this program is to give advance education to women so they can reduce the number of their children. Women empowerment and the improvement of women’s roles in the socio-economic activities can mutually influence the number of children.
The high status of women will lead to the reduction number of children. With less number of children there will be more opportunity for
women to improve their socio-economic status. Therefore, family planning program in Indonesia is closely linked with women empowerment
programs through economic, social and cultural.

The Training Course on Empowering Women through Social, Economic and Cultural Intervention is one of the tools that is used by the Government of Indonesia, and the Colombo Plan brings better knowledge for countries on family planning through women’s role. The
training is divided to a class session and a field visit.

In this field, the Colombo Plan has made cooperation with the Government of Indonesia second times. The first batch in 2010 with 10
participants from 8 countries. This year is the second which was held on July 18th until July 23rd 2011 in Jakarta and Bandung. The class
session was held in Jakarta on July 18th to 20th 2011 at Sofyan Betawi Hotel. And after that all the participants went to Bandung to have
the field visit session starting from July 21st to 23rd 2011. The training course was attended by 10 participants from 7 countries: Mrs. Naeem
Aminath Shirani from Maldives, Mrs. E.L.S.J. Perera and Mrs. V. Dilhani Pradeepika from Sri Lanka, Mrs. Genden Zangmo and Mrs. Rinchen
Lhamo from Bhutan, Mrs. Nguyen Hoang Anh and Mrs. Ngyen Thanh Huyen from Vietnam, Mrs. Surayya Akhtar Jahan from Bangladesh and
Mrs. Daovone Symeuangvong from Lao PDR. All the participants were so excited about the topics they learned in the training.
They kept sharing about what they faced in their home countries, and they really hope they can adopt the lessons they got from Indonesia
in their country. The participant from Maldives shared about the difficulties that they faced in her hometown, which is comprised of islands
and they found that it’s not easy for them to socialize the program. Participants from Sri Lanka shared about their excitement in attending this training course and they can’t wait to get back to their country and apply the system that they learned here in Indonesia. The participant from Bhutan found that Indonesia is really a big country which is very diverse, but have a very interesting point of view in women empowerment. Participants from Vietnam were so excited about Indonesia’s culture and vision in empowering women. They hope Vietnam can adopt the spirit to be better in that matter. Participant from Bangladesh came up with so many questions and was curious about Indonesia’s culture and also
women’s role in some tribes. Participants from Lao PDR and Myanmar also were excited about both the class and the field session.

Participants :
Ms. Surayya Akhtar Jahan(Bangladesh), Ms. GendenZangmo, Ms. Rinchen Lhamo(Bhutan), Ms. DaovoneSymeuangvong (Laos), Ms.
Maeem Aminath Shirani (Maldives), Ms. Hnin YeeHlaing (Myanmar), Ms. E. L. S. J. Perera, Ms. V. DilhaniPradeepika (Sri Lanka), Ms.
Ngeuyen Hoang Anh, Ms. NgyenThanh Huyen (Vietnam)

On the first day of the field visit, all the participants were taken to the provincial office of BKKBN in West Java. All the staffers there welcomed the participants and the delegates from the State Secretariat warmly. The courtesy was held to strengthen the relationship between the participants and the facilitator before starting the field session. After the courtesy, all the participants and the facilitators had lunch together.

After the courtesy to the provincial office, all the participants continued the field trip to one of the UPPKS unit in Bandung. In this UPPKS
unit, all the participants learned that all the things that they learned in the class session were true. Through the UPPKS unit, all the
participants experienced new ways to improve women empowerment through the unit. They were so excited about the UPPKS and all the
things that they found there. The second day, all the participants were taken to the BKB group, also in West Java, and after that they had a cultural orientation in Bandung City. Each of the participants was asked to make an action plan that will be presented to their government once they arrive in their home countries.

At the last day, the morning session began with the presentation of the action plan from each participant. After that, the facilitators gave
them some evaluation of their action plan. The training course was officially closed by the Secretary General of the Colombo Plan, Mrs.
Dato Patricia Yoon-Moon CHIA. Also attending were Mr. Eddy Hasmi from BKKBN, and Mrs. Erdin Djuwita from the Ministry of the State
Secretariat. Each of the participants was granted a certificate as a compliment of their kind will to join the training course.