This week we have met Nang Seng Pin, the Programme Coordinator of the Community Development and Civic Empowerment Program (CDCE) which is located at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Chiang Mai. CDCE has also offices in Bangkok and Myanmar.
CDCE is a three-month programme for society actors from Myanmar which aims at capacity building of young leaders and engaged citizens. It was founded in 2006 by the Vahu Foundation. While CDCE has originally been financially supported by Oxfam, Seng Pin told us that today’s main donator is the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
Every year, 29 to 35 Burmese NGO workers and society actors are invited to spend two month in Chiang Mai in order to follow classes and workshops from experienced NGO workers, University professors and freelancers. Followed by one month of training in the field.
The programme is a full-time programme which includes accommodation and food for the participants. Classes are held in English or Burmese according to the lecturers’ language skills. The classes concern various topics like community development, financial management and accountability, transparency, empowerment and others. Seng Pin told us that CDCE aims at making the programme as intensive and complete as possible.
There is currently one batch of students in Chiang Mai and we could assist a class from a Burmese NGO worker who has been giving lectures for CDCE for several years. The class was in Burmese and we could not understand much, but the Power Point Presentation was in English which gave us an idea of the overall topic.
CDCE is missing advisers to work with the students on their project proposals which they present at the end of the programme. As Lisa has studied humanitarian development, she is currently in contact with Seng Pin in order to see how Omakua can support CDCE in that matter. You will hear more about Omakua’s work with CDCE soon.
If you have any questions you can contact us or CDCE.
