Growth and Learning: My Journey In The Swedish Institute's Leader Lab Program

Over the years, I have realised that my patience for small talk has been dwindling quite rapidly. While I do not wish to socialise as much as I used to 7 or 8 years ago, I do enjoy meaningful conversations. It becomes all the more engaging when such conversations revolve around the work that I do which I am passionate about. That is exactly what I was able to do for about 3 months, thanks to the SI (Swedish Institute) Leader Lab. The Leader Lab is a program that I had been selected for, where young leaders from across different countries working towards gender advocacy could get together to learn from each other's experiences, explore the different cultural contexts we all worked in, and learn from experts in the field. 

One of the things I am most grateful for in my life is to have wonderfully kind and generous people around me. One such friend told me about this program which she had been a part of and thought I might be interested. Some reading up later, I filled out the application and then got selected for the program. It was the first time I was going to be a part of a program with participants from across the world which I found really exciting.

I remember the eagerness and nervousness before the first session. There was a bit of apprehension as well, but all that faded quite quickly once I saw how warm, kind, and inclusive the facilitators were. My first session was one where I got to connect with a small group I would keep meeting with again and again (as well as a brilliant facilitator from Sweden with whom I hit it off quite well). Hailing from Nepal, Yemen, Palestine, and Bangladesh, these women became a small safe space within the program to have open conversations about gender, education, well-being, and anything else under the Sun.

The larger sessions, called the forum, included all the participants (about 60 of us). Participants came from different corners of the world including Morocco, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Jordan, Sri Lanka, and Tunisia. The entire program was so enriching because of the diversity of the cohort. Session after session, in the spaces we were given to share our expertise and knowledge of working in our countries, I learnt a lot more than any classroom could teach me. Yes, all of us were working on the same issue - bringing about gender equality, but we approached the issue through different angles and perspectives. It also really made me realise how different it is to work on the same issue in different countries - working towards gender equality in Palestine for example is completely different from the backdrop I work in due to political, social, religious, and cultural differences. All of those sessions truly made me understand how to have a worldwide of working on an issue.

                                                
                                            (A screenshot from one of the many Forum sessions)

Through the sessions, I also learnt a lot about Sweden. From listening to gender advocates who had pushed for and brought about important legislative changes to understanding where they stand in terms of gender equality (Sweden is way ahead of the countries the participants come from) as well as their music, culture, and the general kindness of Swedish people, it was sheer joy. 

Another aspect of the program that stands out for me and was extremely special was getting to connect with people from Pakistan. Although I was born way after the Partition, I have grown up listening to opposing views and opinions of Pakistan and Pakistanis from people here. However, this was the first time I interacted with people from Pakistan and it confirmed what I had presumed long ago - they are kind and thoughtful people and not very different from us Indians. The program left me with this strong yearning to visit Pakistan once - to eat the food there and to meet the lovely people there. (This feeling has been heightened by the book I am currently reading called "Remnants of A Separation" which interviews people who survived the Partition in 1947. Why did that even happen? We could have avoided so much loss if only India had remained undivided.)

From sharing meaningful and personal conversations with a strong and passionate Yemeni woman (who now lives in Paris) to discussing gender and LGBTQ+ issues and solutions from a structural perspective for hours with a brilliant young gender advocate from Morocco as well as listening to beautiful Swedish music and learning a whole lot about myself and the world I work in, the program was a blessing. It excited and motivated me, boosted my self-confidence, and gave me a network of passionate people I hope to keep in touch with. The program is easily one of the best things to have happened to me in 2021, and kept me going during this pandemic. It was a journey of growth, both personally and professionally. 

(For those who are curious or would like to know more about the program, you can find details here: https://si.se/en/apply/leadership-programmes/leaderlab/)