Julia's Story from Myanmar
“Eight years ago, I dreamed of creating a social enterprise that could help young people like me.”
Why get involved for women?
Young people in my country are looking for work to earn money and survive. But the problem is that we aspire to work in large companies that sometimes have little regard for the future of our planet. We, the poor, struggle to earn money but we don't care about the environment and we contribute to destroying the planet without even knowing it.
Moreover, women have even fewer educational and employment opportunities. They are even more marginalized. Many of them migrate illegally to work in dangerous jobs or become victims of human trafficking.
In the search for a better life, we have also lost our culture and tradition to modernization, which is causing climate change, which is making the poor even poorer.
How did you get started?
I am part of the international Fondacio movement, which aims to build a more humane and just world. The training I received at Fondacio helped me grow and realize this dream. I first worked as a trainer at our Young Life Development Center (YLDC) in Yangon. The YLDC provides them with basic skills so they can begin looking for work. However, they struggle to find employment. That's why I wanted to create employment with our traditional textiles. This aims to provide livelihood opportunities for young people, especially women. In 2018, I began training myself and others in sewing. Meeting Yvonne allowed us to diversify and expand our products and develop local and international sales.
What development?
In 2024, I was able to entrust the YOUN SONE workshop to a young woman I trained, Monica Moe Moe Aye, to get more involved in Opportunity for Women and develop new workshops and training and job creation activities. I had the chance to come to Europe to better understand the culture and the market and to understand its specificities. This immersion helped me a lot to better support the artisans here and to help them innovate.
 
|
