As the Civic Spaces in Myanmar Change, Girl Determined Continue Reaching over 4,000 Girls Weekly
The bus timetable reads the bus leaves at 7 o’clock. Making her way to work, Aye* arrives promptly each morning only to see the bus departing before its scheduled time. This happens day in, day out, and Aye remains passive, thinking she has to “let it be”. As she sees it at the time, she only has two options. She can be late to her work post in a Myanmar garment factory and endure scolding from her supervisor, to whom she doesn’t know how to explain why she is late. Or she can start her days ever earlier, possibly impacting her health and rest, hoping to catch the bus this time. One has to suffer, either her work or her life outside of it.
But recently, Aye has gained some confidence in expressing herself. At her supervisor’s encouragement, she participates in the My Life programme, implemented by Girl Determined at her workplace. It was a communication game played at a weekly My Life session that motivated Aye to take another approach to her bus problem – to speak up for herself. “I could apply the knowledge gained from this training,” she says. One morning, she arrives early and calmly approaches the driver to tell him that the bus is always leaving before the scheduled time, which is not convenient for her. The next day, the driver waits until 7 o’clock.
The Need for Gender-Responsive Programmes in Myanmar Today
Aiming to empower garment workers with life skills that benefit them in the workplace and at home, the My Life Myanmar programme was delivered by Girl Determined from 2020 until 2024. It was a time when COVID-19 peaked in its severity and the civic spaces of Myanmar were faced with heightened regulation following the military takeover.
The total number of Myanmar garment workers rose rapidly over a decade of reform, to around 700,000 by 2020. This population consisted mostly of young women, the majority of whom have left their home villages to pursue this work – often their first formal employment. Only three years later, that workforce was estimated to have been cut by just under half, as buyers and suppliers began leaving the country due to increasingly challenging operating conditions[i]. Nevertheless, Girl Determined continued reaching and engaging with women and girls in factories and other spaces. They still hold space for relief and connection, countering the stresses and challenges the women and girls in Myanmar face daily.
Girl Determined is a Myanmar-based organisation working to equip girls with the skills, confidence and support systems to navigate Myanmar’s changing landscape. Through various sport- and play-centred programmes, the organisation works with girls and women to ameliorate the increasing gendered threats that pose barriers to them living their lives safely and fully.
While operating in Myanmar civic spaces comes with more and more challenges, Girl Determined still manage to reach over 4,000 girls weekly. However, this work does not come without cross-sector collaboration and support, something that is particularly needed in the current position of organisations such as Girl Determined.
Trust-Based Collaboration and Responsive Design
Navigating the complicated and changing contexts during the My Life programme, Girl Determined found stability in open and trust-based collaboration with factory management. It is with the management’s support that the workers were able to participate in the My Life activities during work hours, without fear of being reprimanded. Beyond just support, management was often actively involved, committing in-factory space and time to the sessions, and even participating in the activities themselves. This involvement led to their awareness of the benefits of such programmes, with one manager sharing they “think this event is really effective for the workers, they participated actively and happily. I believe that it made them reduce their stress.”
At the My Life sessions, the workers engaged in play-based activities addressing the issues they themselves identified as the most relevant to their realities. These included assertive communication and active listening, mental health and self-care, gender-based violence, menstruation, physical safety outside of the home and the workplace, and protection from the emotional impact of fear and threats.
Conversations on these topics brought to the surface stories of sexual harassment the women endure, some of which has even been normalised. But the women also found encouragement to stand up to such behaviour. One of the participants recounted her experience:
“In the past, when I was followed and teased by men on the streets, I was very shy and afraid. Now I think I should not be afraid of them anymore. I tell them that their manners are not okay.”
Coming into their confidence and power, the women that Girl Determined reached are now standing up for themselves – to bus drivers, to sexual harassment on the street, even to their supervisors at work. They have the skills to communicate and they are no longer afraid to use them.
Play-Based Activities Bring out Confidence
It is through collaborative design and active engagement of different stakeholders that Girl Determined are able to deliver programmes that accurately address the topics that the women and the girls in Myanmar are concerned about. In the unsure landscape of Myanmar, such programmes provide stability, connection and respite. By making the programmes play-based, a space for joy and relaxation is created and strengthened. Games and sport can encourage participants to become more comfortable in their own confidence and with expressing their bodily autonomy. “I felt that I had more self-confidence. I dared to talk to others,” a My Life participant said.
Other participants shared that they found special value in activities such as “Physical Moves”, which taught gender-responsive self-protection, as well as in practising how to say “no”. By becoming comfortable with “no”, they also became more comfortable with speaking up for themselves with strangers and at work. This external confidence, practised through participatory games, helps women in knowing how to get out of threatening situations and how to ask for help.
Network of Facilitators Ready to Implement Women and Girls Empowerment Programmes
While the My Life programme ended, Girl Determined maintain relationships with those workers who showed interest in girls’ and women’s empowerment. There is now an engaged community of trained facilitators in place who can reach around 300 girls to support them as they build their life skills and confidence. The knowledge and skills to implement factory-based and other women’s and girls’ empowerment programmes in Myanmar are there.
The need is also there, expressed in numerous calls that Girl Determined receive from past participants, requesting more similar programmes. In the wrap up of the My Life programme, the team found that most of the participants were intensely interested in menstrual health. Many held harmful myths about this topic, which remains a taboo. The need for a programme that works with girls and women to deconstruct these myths and taboos, while providing sexual and reproductive health and rights resources and knowledge, is clearly present.
As the challenges to civic spaces in Myanmar remain and increase, programmes such as those delivered by Girl Determined provide some stability, connection and strength. Co-designed with partners and participants, they are aware and accurately answer to the current needs of girls and women in Myanmar. The continuous interest in the Girl Determined programmes reveals the important role that local women’s rights organisations play in the lives of women and girls. By employing play-based methods in safe spaces, Girl Determined are able to share meaningful information, broaden their network of women’s and girls’ empowerment facilitators, and ensure sustainability of the partnership.
As the challenges facing women, girls, and civic spaces in Myanmar continue to evolve, organisations like Girl Determined play a crucial role in providing stability, connection, and relief. Their innovative, play-based programs have proven effective in building confidence and life skills. Co-designed with partners and participants, they are aware and accurately answer to the current needs of girls and women in Myanmar. The continuous interest in the Girl Determined programmes reveals the important role that local women’s rights organisations play in the lives of women and girls.
With a network of trained facilitators ready to implement more initiatives, Girl Determined stand poised to expand their impact – if given the resources and support to do so.
If you are interested in supporting Girl Determined as a funder or a partner, please reach out to info@girldetermined.org
[i] World Bank. Resilience Amid Constraints : Myanmar’s Garment Industry in 2023 (English). Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099113023044018823
