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Asian women look to Ctg for their lighthouse

PORIMOL PAlMA
“I want to be a prime minister. I came to this university because its vision is to prepare world leaders and one day 1 hope to be the prime minister of my country."
One Endear, a 20-year Cambodian girl who has enrolled in the Asian University for Women (AUW), said these words confidently yesterday as she explained how she looks forward to achieving her dreams now that she has started her studies at the first university o f its kind in Asia.
Young Asian women can now see a lighthouse of hope in the form of Asian University for Women (AUW), a place where they will be able to equip themselves to achieve their dreams.
The university aims to create a network of educated women throughout the region. It will motivate women to become leaders to work side-by-side with their peers from around the world.
AUW by providing access to quality higher education for women will transform the lives of
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these women and their families. By empowering women to become leaders in the society, AUW is creating an important force for positive change in the world.
These women, once out of the university, will contribute to the community.
This is the first time that Bangladesh has been able to offer such a window of opportunity in the region. So far many students had to leave the country and go to other countries to get first grade education.
Now, in addition to offering its own women a chance to get world class education, the nation will also offer such a grand opportunity to its neighbours.
One said she felt it was a great opportunity for her to be in this university, which brings together students from different countries and cultures in Asia and creates an environment where all will learn from each other in ways different from traditional methods of learning.
Women from underserved communities are often left uneducated and are unaware of how they can serve both personal and community development with their superioreducation.
AUW provides a critical pathway to leadership development, economic progress, and social and political equality, said another student.
The university programmes promise to educate promising young women from diverse cultural, religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds from across South and South East Asia with particular emphasis on the inclusion of women from poor, rural, and refugee populations.
Nepalese student Dipa Awali says she was not aware of how Muslims observe Ramadan until she came to study here. Here she also joined Eid and Durga Puja festivities in groups with other students and gained invaluable experience.
"Joining these festivals was just fabulous. We enjoyed ourselves so
much and also learnt so many things we were not aware of before," she said.
Dipa - pointing out that the university aims at preparing leaders said, "I think one cannot be a leader unless they learn about othercultures."
Academic activity of the university, situated in Chittagong, has begun in April this year with 130 students from six Asian countries -- India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Reputed academics from across the globe have already joinined the university and are developing an international standard curriculum to prepare Asian women as leaders.
The university begins its undergraduate programmes in July next year. In the beginning it will enroll 500 students annually. The university has decided to reserve half of the seats for students who are the first in their families to ever go to a university.
"We spend time together, have different activities and discuss issues relating to different countries. We have clubs for public speaking, community development, and we also go to villages to teach English," a Cambodian student said.
"We not only improve our own English but also teach people in the villages. So when we return to our countries, we can teach others too," Jyoti Shrestha, another Nepalese student at AUW, said.
Students from different cultures learn to respect each other's values and cultures by living and studying together. This make them more tolerant of each other, Jyoti said.
Anushka Yaddenige, a student from Sri Lanka, said the university would play a great role in empowering women as most women in Asia are deprived of opportunities. "We who are studying here, feel privileged. We must help others who are not able to find such facilities," she remarked.
"AUW is a university that will help us spread our wings in the sky," One Endear said.