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March 16, 2009
Report from Fabio - colombia
Hello Japanese friends and friends from Japan!
I hope all of you are doing well and having a healthy and rewarding life.
It's been more than a month studying here in Washington DC, (one of the main centers of power and decisions in the world) at Georgetown University. A great and exiting opportunity to share and learn with young leaders from all Iberoamerica, thirteen (13) countries have representatives: Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Colombia. Total: 35 participants.
Being the first PWD (Person with a disability) participating in this Leadership for Global Competitiveness Course is very challenging but a great opportunity at the same time; because we (PWDs) need to “conquer” new spaces every day and show our potential wherever we are.
Sometimes I feel that working too much on projects for PWDs let us, somehow and in some situations, isolated from the rest of the world, and I think that one of the most important every-day goals we have as leaders of PWDs is to integrate our lifes, projects and organizations successfully in the common world. Not to be just another one but giving our best to set outstanding standards to follow.
To be here, enjoying this integral scholarship in one of the top-level Universities in U.S., I had to compete at national level in my country: Colombia, against near 1500 candidates with very good backgrounds; “Real Leaders” as stated in the media by Grupo Ardila Lulle, the business holding that promotes this initiative in Colombia. I don’t know if there were other PWDs competing but, of course, I’m very happy to be one of the lucky four winners. It was the same challenging process for all my colleagues going through several contest stages in their countries.
Luckily there are many other outstanding PWDs in Colombia (including some other JICA ex-participants), but the important thing here is to be present in those relevant scenarios that assure our strength and our presence in the “main stages”. Today and in the future.
Of course I’ve had some problems but rather than complications I prefer to face them as challenges: it’s a hilly city and elevators are not easy to find when moving around the University (just like Japan: “erebeta doko desu ka?...”), I had to ask for some special arrangements in my room and, in many ways, finding my way to be a daily wheelchair student in campus (ask for keys of private elevators, to fill out specific forms to get a special card for Metro or finding different and more effective routes to get to the hotel, which is located in one hill, not so nice for wheelchair users … except when looking for strong arm training.
Some of you may already know how this “group interaction” works, on first weeks everybody is absolutely friendly, everybody is offering to help you (wheelchair and accessibility issues) in many ways, even those you don’t need. And that’s OK.
But sooner or later everyone gets into their own business without much time to loose. So, at the end it’s only you making things on your own way and finding creative solutions if problems arise.
I cannot give you details (because I don’t want to frustrate the very interesting experience in case you face this situation in a future training) but, we had an exercise related with the famous “Milgram Experiment”… using a special technique … and guess what?.... I was the only one who made it different… the only one (out of 35 people) getting out from the experiment trap. And I made it through leadership… I’m sure that has a lot to do with what I learned in Japan.
Hey… hey …. hey! … c’mon! … it’s time for you to be on stage. Show us what you got!
Hugs and greetings for everyone!
Fabio Padilla
Colombian Engineer, wheelchair Tennis Player and Inspirational Speaker
JICA Colombia ex-participant from Leadership Development Course - 2006
Posted by jicafriends at March 16, 2009 02:01 PM
Comments
What an inspiring story Fabio!
Posted by: Neomai at March 31, 2009 01:23 PM