Text and Photo by the Danish Embassy in China
On May 12 2011, Danish Ambassador to China Friis Arne Petersen visited the Practical Skills Training Center for Rural Women as part of the Danish torch campaign MDG3 Global Call to Action, which promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The center was started in 1998 and aims at empowering women through the teaching of practical skills such as hairdressing, waitressing, nursing, elder care, kindergarten teaching and computer training.
The programs and activities of the center also involves ‘Start Your Business’ courses and capacity building courses, which encourages the rural women to actively participate in village elections back home. At the center the Ambassador met with chair of the board Professor Wu Qing and Director Luo Zhaohong.
The Ambassador said in his conversation with the students of the center that:
“It is hard to be a woman in a man’s world. You have to believe in yourself and work hard in order to fulfill your dreams.”
The MDG3 Global Call to Action torch campaign was started in 2008 by the Danish Foreign Ministry and focuses on the third UN Millennium Development Goal on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.
More than 150 prominent individuals around the world received a torch vowing ‘to do something extra’ to promote equality and women’s economic empowerment.
