Train Leaders in Asia for Peace and Sustainability

Hello Dear Friends and Supporters,

This is a brief update on the current work of the School of English for Engaged Social Service (SENS).

There are a couple of ways we can explain the scope of our work these days. One way is to talk about the different programs we run. First, our primary annual program is the three-month SENS program that goes from January to April, next year January 11 – April 4, 2026. Second, we have a variety of programs for Myanmar people who have been forcibly displaced to the Thai border town of Mae Sot. We just completed a program for young adults there, and will offer further programs in October. Third, we offer one-on-one mentoring for a few of our alumni from various programs who need extra help and support due to life circumstances or due to the important work they are doing. That program is called 3OM. Finally, our Apprentice Leaders in Sustainability Program (ALPS) is a higher-level training in which our outstanding alumni are invited to deepen their learning through further study and by helping design and run our SENS programs.

In terms of the two fundraising projects we run on GlobalGiving, we can divide them into: 1) any program that works with a new group of students, and introduces them to our primary points of emphasis, namely: a) supporting self-discovery and self-awareness; b) developing the skills of a genuine and respectful listener as an important part of building relationships; c) raising awareness of social structures that promote inequality and violence; d) raising awareness of the seriousness of ecological challenges, especially the climate crisis; and e) encouraging students to take stock of their immediate social context as well as the global one, and respond energetically and with confidence by taking action in some form. This work with new students is supported by the project we are reporting on here, namely “Train Leaders in Asia for Peace and Sustainability.” 2) any program that provides ongoing support to students we have already worked with, made possible by our sister project, “Nurturing Learning Communities in a Time of Crisis.” Funds from that project enable the 3OM, ALPS, and Mae Sot follow-up programs.

In general our approach emphasizes the building of long-term relationships of mutual support. As our societies promote isolation in many ways, we find that one-on-one and face-to-face relationships of mutual trust help remind us of the joy of learning and working together, and of making real changes in the world together. This requires that we do our best to follow-up with our participants and provide concrete support in whatever way we can. When things are going well, as they have been recently, it is the participants themselves who take the initiative to maintain and deepen those relationships.

In the last few months, Paung (nickname), one of our ALPS members living in the border town of Mae Sot, began encouraging young people she knew to get together to share experiences, to learn together, and to meet on a regular basis. She invited me, as the director of SENS, to run a two-day workshop on listening practices based in Co-Counseling for this group at the end of August. This workshop, working with new students, was also supported by funds from this GlobalGiving project.

As often happens, participants in the workshop were somewhat hesitant to show deep feelings of loss or frustration with life’s challenges, though having been forcibly displaced from their home country, such feelings of loss and frustration are well known to them. Yet was clear that holding such feelings in or keeping them to themselves impedes their ability to move forward. As they begin to see in the workshop that one can cry, and laugh, and express one’s feelings fully without losing face, it brings great relief. And they often leave such sessions feeling deeper confidence in their own value as human beings, while at the same time the horizon of possibilities opens up.

We also held support groups in which the participants chose themes of shared concern, including in this case: Preparing to Attend University; Language Learning; Creating and Maintaining a Business; How to Attain Legal Documents, and more. The sharing in these support groups was energetic and lively.

I am grateful to the participants for inviting me and for opening up about their lives and experiences with me and with each other.

To you, our kind donors, we want you to know that your donations help us meet the expenses for workshops such as this Introduction to Co-Counseling. Even more importantly, they allow us to offer scholarships for participation in our upcoming SENS 2026 program at a time when funds for philanthropic work, especially from governmental institutions, tends to be shrinking. We would like to say thank you for the help many of you have given over months and years! We are deeply grateful.

We will have a four-day campaign from September 8-12 called Passport to Purpose, where any donation, even as little as $10, will be matched proportional to the funds we raise over the four days. Please stay tuned for information about this campaign, and tell your friends about this opportunity to support our work.

Thank you so much!

Ted Mayer, Designer and Director of the SENS Program

Links:

• INEB Institute Website
• Application Form for SENS 2026

• Our Brochure for the Upcoming SENS 2026 Program (PDF)