Discovering our common language ...
When reaching out to act on our concerns, we need to find common ground and common words for shared values among different groups (here rural vs. urban.)
This MAU Vocal Empowerment Workshop was hosted by the University of Malaysia for university professors, health workers, therapists, students, and activists—all yearning to make a positive difference in their city and the rural areas beyond (from which many of them originated.)  Due to Malaysia’s diverse population, there were Malays, and people of both Indian and Chinese decent. Concerns that were expressed during the workshop ranged from the impact of media on children to the health-care system serving all children in Malaysia.
One Indian university student was passionately concerned about children’s rights in the villages, and her plan for action based on this concern was to offer a workshop for children in the village to teach them about their rights. So I asked her what she would need to do first to get something like this going. All agreed she’d have to get permission of the mothers of the children. Two of the older women and I (all actual mothers) sat on a pretend mat in a hut, acting as the mothers. The university student entered the hut and sat with us. First she told us she was a university student from Kuala Lumpur. We all whispered to each other in cautious hushed voices about this city girl. Quickly she reassured us that she grew up in this village and was really a village girl herself. We all immediately opened up to her upon receiving this news and urged her to continue.
She explained that she wanted to give a workshop for our kids to teach them about their human rights. We mothers again consulted each other in hushed tones, wondering what their human rights even were, and weren’t our children already sassy enough without being told their rights, and of course they already knew they were humans, not pigs (peals of laughter among all). Then the student switched her wording to say that she wanted to teach our children about things that would make them safer. We all nodded our heads and agreed this would be a good thing and agreed to her coming to teach our children.
