By Pham Kim Ngoc (Ms), Helen Keller International Vietnam, Hanoi, Vietnam

Before joining the BABA6 retreat program, I was a little bit worried and wondered how this retreat would be. Only one week to become better leaders to build a better Asia? How could it happen within one week? And so on, many questions came to my mind that time.

However, those kinds of questions just disappeared when I first met my room mate Sadia, Pakistani who is very friendly and then the whole group of BABA participants. Everyone was so friendly that I did not think that we just first met for the first time and that we have been friends for a long time. I still remembered we were asked to draw portrait of the person of each other with one drawing without opening the eyes. It was so funny and everyone had his portrait at hand just within a second.

The following days came with the pechakucha presentations where everyone had to make one presentation of 10 slides with the limited time setting for 20 seconds per slide and we had to learn how to talk within this limit, it was also interesting though. It was great that we had chances to listen and interact with resource persons who have deep knowledge in many fields such as Johnson Paul, National Library Board, Singapore with the “12 Angry Men: Transforming Opinions and Groupthink”; On Creative Hats by Edward de Bono an “Think out of the box” idea; Mr. Shuichi Ohno on “The Nippon Foundation and Its Work”; Prof Amitav Acharya; Dr Anupam Saraph: “Technology and Democracy: Lessons from the Recent General Elections in India”. We also had a chance to climb the Great Wall and experienced how Great it actually is.

The last night ended with the Takbeer night and everyone wore traditional clothes of his own country. It was interesting to see how diverse it is in Asian countries that we, the young future leaders need to preserve and develop them in appropriate ways.

Yet, the retreat would not be extremely successful without the presence of Maki Honda, the Fanatic four, facilitators, Mary and Peking university staff who made this retreat unforgettable.

Many things that we learnt from the participants and scholars during the retreat have been applied such as “Think out of the box” idea and this has been practiced right after the Retreat.

After all, my questions and wonderings before the retreat were answered after the retreat finished. And the most important thing we have after this retreat is the networking that we hope we will build and develop it so that we can build a “better of yourself contributing to a better Asia.”

Tamy Yamamoto M.D.

Master student of Community and Global Health

Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo

Participating in the BABA 6 retreat was an incredible experience and it has been the best opportunity I have ever had to share, interact and learn with people from different countries, cultures and backgrounds.

Before going to BABA 6, I had many expectations about this retreat, as I wondered how after a 1-week long retreat we could improve our leadership skills and most importantly, how 19 people from different countries, meeting for the 1st time, were going to be able to build a strong network to work together for the betterment of Asia? After the 1st few days of the retreat, I saw how it could be possible. As our BABA 6 family grew closer together, I was certain that this bond was going to last for long time after the retreat was over.

During the retreat we had many activities, each one with its own purpose. Starting with the ice-breaking activities, lead by the Fantastic 4, which helped us to feel comfortable sharing our thoughts and feeling as a family working together towards a common goal. The presentations by the resource persons, gave us the tools to become better persons and leaders. Being able to learn from their experiences and their advices was an extraordinary opportunity. The activities lead by the Facilitators (Incredible 2), especially the Pecha Kucha Morning, was an enriching experience where we could learn what each of the participants does in their own country and how each of us is already a young leader in his/her own field/area.

I found very interesting one of the last activities we did, which was “Creating a better Me”. After learning from the resource persons about leadership and the characteristics leaders should have, in this activity we had to make introspection and come up with ways to improve ourselves as persons and as future leaders. After it we had to share it with other people, and also ask for their advice on how to improve. Although it could had seem a difficult task, the trust and friendship developed during the retreat, made this activity easy and enlightening; getting good advices which I plan to work on.

Finally, I would like to thank all the people involved in this program, for giving me the opportunity to participate and for making it an inspiring and unforgettable experience. In this retreat, I not only learned about leadership, other cultures and countries, but also about myself. I hope our BABA 6 family can meet again in the near future and that through our friendship and network, we are able to work together to build a better Asia.

By Vanthana Nolintha, BBusCom, MEcon

Researcher, National Economic Research Institute (NERI)

Vientiane, Lao PDR.

When I was first recommended by one of my senior friends to apply for the participation in the BABA retreat program, I was not sure what I will gain from and how I will get engaged with this one week get-away. I was somehow convinced that this program was designed to help building the leadership skills and I therefore applied for this program. After being one of BABA families, I realize that the decision to join this wonderful program has been one of my best decisions I have made in my life. I will next try to put some of my key thoughts about this program in the remaining of this page.

BABA 6 helps connect me with many other young leaders who share the same passion of the betterment of Asia. One of the most interesting features of this program is the opportunity to meet with many different individuals from all walks of life. Each participant, in my opinion, is the true leader in the respective field who has contributed in his or her own way to make Asia and the world a better place. This network will allow a more productive relationship and cooperation on various aspects in the future.

BABA 6 makes me realize that even one person can make a positive change to this world. Throughout the retreat, I was given opportunity to meet, listen to and interact with various resource persons from different fields. Most of them are successful leaders of the world who, in many cases, start making a difference from themselves and later involve others to join with them to create positive changes.

BABA 6 re-confirms my belief that people can be different but we can live and share with each other. Many participants are very much different in terms of cultural, academic, professional, political and religious background. We however manage to break the ice, big thanks to FANTASTIC 4 and our facilitators, and establish a very strong bond which has proved to last even after the retreat. I believe if others in the wider community share this belief, we will not see many of the terrible problems in many parts of the world where people hate each other just because they are different.

Finally, I’d like to use this opportunity to thank everyone who makes this wonderful program possible and let me be part of BABA families. For my BABA 6 families, I thank every one of you from my heart for making my BABA 6 experience a fruitful and joyful one. By meeting and connecting with you, I discover another part in me that want to do something “out of the box” for the betterment of myself, my family, my society and the world at large. I believe we all will meet in many more occasions in the years to come. Let the end of the retreat mark the beginning of our life long relationship and join our hands for the betterment of Asia and the world.

(Sept 13 – 20, 2009)

I came to Beijing one afternoon in early Sept, where BABA 6 Retreat was organized from Sept 13 to 20, 2009. The weather was perfect and I was totally relaxed without any depression or pressures at all. I did attend similar workshops and retreats before, each time, I was so tired and worried as I had tried to fulfill what I was supposed to do. This time was completely different, I did not have to be responsible for anything, except, I was requested to prepare one presentation from home to share with everyone at the retreat. So interesting, because that was the first time to experience of Pecha Kucha presentation style, the topic was free of choice. I was supposed to present in ten slides to convey my ideas to the audiences with twenty seconds for each slide and not more than twenty words in each slide. My first thinking is that, it may be a bit tough for me as I am used to talking a lot whenever I have a chance to present and I thought that 200 seconds of presentation is just enough for my introduction only.

Pecha Kucha – style presentations

I have a habit, it is so much job orientation, that I always look forward to clear objectives set up at the beginning of each workshop or retreat and then review if those objectives are able to be achieved at the end. When Mr. Raja, on the first day, announced the retreat was for getting to know one another and building network for later on, I was so released. However, when I got more involved in later days I realized that I got a lot, more than my expectations. So what were the most significant things I gained for myself then?

First, a part from getting to know one another and building network, I did change a bit about my styles of a leader. I was so much Asian traditional orientation; never dared to step out of old box of thinking and not so much initiative as well.

Second, I was having so many privileges to be updated and shared with different perspectives from global speakers at the retreat on different international hot topics. Those topics are not new to all of us, but the motivations were that we realized our potentials of real leaders in this world, specifically in our Asia and our extended hands for sharing, discussing and solving international problems are inevitable with our full great honors. From those different perspectives, I feel like I have more encouragements and empowerments to work toward my communities and people living around me.

Third, I did learn valuable skills from Fantastic Four and Amazing Two, their approaching and mobilizing methods are what young leaders should learn for themselves. Amazingly, not only skills but also meanings brought to us throughout various games they facilitated, all were so meaningful. One of their games reminded me that it is not always good if a leader keeps chasing new things or new promotions but sometimes leaders should know where and when to stop for a while on their journeys, look back what have been done and value what leaders got and achieved . Diversity of designed activities was also one of special points need learning; interactions with different people, indoor and outdoor activities gave participants a sense of close cooperation, critical thinking and problem solving. Which, of course, urged and nurtured our common vision and bonding toward a betterment of ourselves and of an Asia.

One of the exercises with the Fantastic Four

Coming back to the meaning of this retreat; young leader with common good in Asia, yes, your leaders’ styles, your thoughts and your perspectives toward a better Asia may be different from mine. However, Baba 6 was a forum for such different leaders and different ideas from different countries in Asia to share and merge into one common vision. Moving forwards to one common vision of a betterment in Asia in the future, of which, efforts to build a better Asia may not possible for one individual but it is highly possible if a strong network with enthusiasm to share and act toward a betterment of Asia from all Asian families, especially, all BABA families. On the top of what had been going on in one week in Beijing, I have to say that the retreat really opened a new door to me. That door is not going from one room to another but it is a door outreaching my mind to a new world, where I have a network of fabulous international friends but importantly, I am empowered and motivated toward my next steps in my life. As a member of Baba 6, I also dedicate myself to a better Asia by trying my best to fulfill by current job of a development worker; working with the poor and vulnerable people to improve their lives. I believe that suffering from poverty and illiteracy are the main reasons affecting to a betterment Asia.

Tran Quang Tuan, Vietnam, Personal Reflection on BABA 6

Shuichi Ohno, Executive Director of Nippon Foundation spoke on the activities of Nippon Foundation . He also demonstrated the history , financing ,affiliation, budget ,recent programs, success rate of Nippon Foundation, .He talked about the future and future planning of Nippon Foundation The session was very good and enjoyable.. He answered several issues raise by the participants

10:30 Interactive session Technology and Democracy

Dr Anupam Saraph discussed on the election commission of India. He demonstrated his recent election and the election process of India. He also arose some issues which can be reformed for the perfect and transparent election in India. He talked on Privacy and secrecy of election commission. He insisted on Right to Information Act. He answered several issues raise by the participants from his lecture.

13:30 Interactive session: Value Innovation

Johnson Paul was the resourse person of this session. He talked about Innovation criteria’s. Techniques, Planning Process, Six Steps in Decision taking. he showed us a lot of examples and models of Innovation Ideas.

15:30 Walking in the streets of Beijing

Walking in Beijing city in different types of places, such as The Olympic Village and the free market, Software park we can find some thing positive, something negative and also others we don’t know how to make a comment. And the most important thing is to interview the people we met.This session was very enjoyable and fantastic because it was organized by fantastic four. Beijing people are happy people!

20:00 presentation on your achivements walking in the streets

Each group’s presentation is impressive and initiative.,All of the grups tried their best for finding and focusing the positive matters of Beijing. Actually there are very low negative thing in Beijing. Presentation session wasvery enjoyable and also lively.

Personal impressions or opinions

Li Bing Zhong:

Today most of the participants has a deep impression about the Nippon Foundation and identified with it much. And also our mind are experiecing an revolution and began to think about what the Nippon Foundation means to us, to Asia and to the world. Of course the most intersting thing for us today is to travel in Beijing and feel the Beijing culture. In sum, it is an intelligeable, creative and enjoyable day.

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Mohammad Afzal Hossain Akand

Today I was very happy because I knew a lot of thinf about The Nipon Foundation.I have lack of Knowledge on this organization which was met today.The other two session was basically Khowledge sharing based.Today the city strreet walking was the best program for the because I like to know people and also like make friends.Meet the Beijing was a dream by me and this was partially filled today.The last session was also attaractive because everyone demonstrated what he saw in Beijing.

In the afternoon of the second day in India, we had the pleasure to listen a talk from Mr. Shuichi Ohno, the executive director in charge of international programs at the Nippon Foundation. Let my say first that it was a brilliant talk. And I’m not saying that because, I’m a Nippon Foundation Scholar. I truly think what Mr. Ohno showed to us on his presentation can change how we deal with many things in our lives (even if such lesson was not the goal when he gave the talk – maybe a kind of unintended subliminal message).

Mr. Ohno initiates his presentation with a very funny sentence: “My name is easy to remember Oh! No! … but that is not good, then please remember me as Mr. Oh! Yes!”. Everybody laugh. With all in the room in a good mood Mr. Ohno (Oh!Yes!) presented where the money of Nippon Foundation comes from and in what kind of programs do they spend money currently. It was very interesting to know the main source of Nippon Foundation’s income which helps me to achieve my dreams and support many other people to achieve their dreams. If you want to know more about it please visit http://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/eng/who/resources.html

One of the most interesting parts of this talk was when Mr. Ohno showed a slide with the “seven Commandments” that drive/guide Nippon Foundation and its projects:

1. Deal with issues in depth and in detail in accordance with priorities rather than trying to tackle all issues comprehensively.
2. Attempt to create new projects and ideas without being bound by precedents.
3. Act promptly without being afraid of failure.
4. Be open and transparent to society.
5. Never forget to evaluate yourself and educate yourself constantly.
6. Discover signs of new changes and cope with them.
7. Develop good human networks, worldwide.

If you don’t get why I think these commandments are very important let me explain each one of them from my perspective. The first one: “deal with issues in dept and in detail in accordance with priorities rather than trying to tackle all issues“. Well, the more things we learn, the more we known that we don’t know enough. Thus, my interpretation of the first commandments is: if we want to solve difficult problems we shouldn’t try to understand a little of everything, we cannot be superficial; we need to be more focused, setting priorities on issues that matters and truly understanding them. Only going deep and being meticulous we can find solutions to solve difficult problems. Of course, never forget the context (the whole) and the relationship between different issues that may have relations with the problems being addressed. In life, we deal with many difficult problems/decisions and having a set of priorities and goals in mind help us to think deep and choose good ways to solve these difficulties. We may change our goals and priorities in life, but having them is the first step for a wonderful and heath life with less regrets.

The second commandment: “create new projects and ideas without being bound by precedents”. Frequently, we act as followers. I think because it is easy, or sometimes we like to go with the flow (at least I like sometimes). But, to produce new ideas and projects that may have the potential to help many people we must “think outside the box”. Don’t let previous ideas or precedents intervene or restrict your thoughts. Always use previous experiences and knowledge of others to create original ideas. Only in that way we will be able to create a better society. Only being creative we will be able to solve global warming, climate change, poverty, racism, wars, and others problems of the society. So, let’s try to play a role of leadership. We are all leaders, any person is a leader, we just need to practice that role more often and make changes instead of just following them.

Mr. Ohno gave a very good example of thinking outside the box to solve medical problems in Mongolia. There, people are constantly moving from one site to another (nomadic people) and medical care is not close to where people live. Thus, many people died because of fever or diarrhea that could be easily treated. Thus, creative people decided to create a medicine kit which consists of box with many traditional medicines inside of it. Each family could have a box and they only pay for the medicines if they use them. Such a great idea helps to dramatic decrease medical problems in this country. This is just an example of how a innovative approach can have good impact in the society.

The third commandment: “Act promptly without being afraid of failure”. If you have a good idea, you believe in it, so it up to you to do something and make your idea come true. I have a similar way of thinking, I prefer to regret of things I have done than regret of things I could have done. Many times I make mistakes, because I do things that I believed to be correct, but in fact were incorrect; especially when dealing with people. In these cases asking for apologies is also a virtue, and I still need to work on that . To have an understanding of my mistakes is the way I found to grow as a person. So, try to be a good person, and do actions if you think you are doing the right thing. Your actions might improve the life of many people.

The forth commandment: “Be open and transparent to society”. Don’t lie, don’t hide and be loyal to your beliefs, friends, family, anyone. If we have good intentions and we believe that doing some actions can help us to achieve our goals without harm other people, then there is no need to hide anything.

The fifth commandment: “Never forget to evaluate yourself and educate yourself constantly”. That is one of the most important commandments: self-evaluation and self-education. We need to know when we are doing the right thing to keep doing it; we need to know when we are going to the right direction to keep following it; and more important, if we know we are not doing the right thing or not going to the right direction, we must have wisdom to learn from our mistakes and change the course of our actions.

The sixth commandment: “Discover signs of new changes and cope with them”. In life, everything is changing including us. So, we must be flexible enough to understand the changes that surround us. If we understand why these changes are happening we don’t need to fight against them we can make inner changes to bring good outer changes and live a more happy life.

Finally the seventh commandment: “Develop good human networks, worldwide”. Citing Al gore the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2007: “if you want to go quickly, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together”. To go far, we must have good human network. If your dream is like mine which transcend the barriers of individuality (I want to make a better tomorrow to all by supporting education) then you need as many people together with you as possible. Only in that way we will be able to achieve that dream. And I think Nippon Foundation is helping many people to achieve their dreams by creating such a wonderful network of people.

Mr. Ohno also talks a lot about other projects and many other interesting topics related to the foundation and its impact in the society. I really felt that he was trying to make his best to make people understand the goals of Nippon Foundation and approach people he believes to have the potential for helping Nippon Foundation to accomplish its mission.

In conclusion, I’m really happy that I had the opportunity to participate of BABA retreat and hear Mr. Ohno. I think the thoughts I wrote here will stay with me forever. I hope you (the reader of this blog) liked them too.

If you have something to add, please comment on this post.

cheers,

Seiji