A Research Fellowship from Water, Land and Ecosystem (WLE) Greater Mekong’s fellowship program
We interviewed with May Myat Mon who is the one of the alumni of WLE fellowships program. She is currently working in water and sanitation department of Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC). She contributed her experience during the program.
MK30: Capacity building and professional development in the Ayeyarwady River Basin
The fellowship program provides key knowledge and skills including cooperation and teamwork combining with training and practical project work supported by coaching and guiding. She joined the training course together with 15 fellowships from Department of Fishery, Forestry, Mandalay City Development Committee (MCDC), Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) and more.
She stated that in the first phase they introduced the trainees about what water, land and ecosystem are. She also learned about Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). Then, after completing this camping, coaches and water experts gave assignments to study further about water topic. They had to give a presentation the following session.
In the second phase, skills including networking, writing, listening, debating, and campaigning were provided and will be acquired through training workshops. Every participants need to choose their preferable project in this period. Her Pilot area was Nyaung Don Township in the Ayeyarwady division with a focus on sustainable water supply system. The project objective was sustainable water supply system for urbanization by means of better management in water supply system.
During the 4 months break, May Myat collected data, made interviews with local experts and visited to Nyaungdon.
The third phase was held in Myit Kyi Nar University. To prepare for making first pitch to her project, she was guided and trained public speaking, presentation skills. Based on her results, May Myat and trainers discussed on how to get better outcomes and results.
The final pitch was held together with international water experts at Inya Lake Hotel. Everybody had to present their paper in front of a large crowd of water professional experts. The fellowships were awarded with certificates.
She ended this interview with mentioning that she had learned a lot about critical thinking, public speaking and brainstorming.