Social Media Literacy for Women Rights

Jobs Shadowing Program in Madrid, Spain: A Jolly First Week

Starting from the 2nd of August 2022 until the 14th of August 2022, Harun and Dhania were going to participate in the Jobs Shadowing program of the project Social Media Literacy for #WomenrRights.  Social Media Literacy for #womanrights is a project that is socio-educational, with the goal of strengthening the capacity and awareness of organizations working in the field of gender equality.

For 14 days we (Harun & Dhania) will stay at the Las Rozas de Madrid, Spain. Las Rozas of Madrid is one of the largest townships municipalities in the autonomous community of Madrid. It is located around 17 km from the northwest part of the city of Madrid, according to some historians Las Rozas de Madrid could have been a Roman mansion or staging post called Miacum, from which the name Madrid may have derived.

This Job Shadowing is the last series of activities for the project Social Media Literacy for #WomenrRights. During these two weeks, we will complete all the tasks of this project, and we will learn and take part in spreading awareness of the importance of gender equality and women’s rights. Other than that, for sure we will explore the city of Madrid, learn about different cultures, see things from other perspectives and increase our empathy.

We left Bali for Madrid, on the 1st of August and arrived safely in Madrid on the 2nd of August 2022. Luckily we did not have to travel to the city by ourselves because the host of this organization picked us up. We met Camilla, the host of the organization in the exit building of the airport and she brought us straight to the apartment.

Arriving at the apartment, I met with the other participant, introduced ourselves, and we went straight to our room. Harun was paired in one room with Ton, and Dhania was paired with Tik in another room. They are both from Thailand and we already met during the workshop in Bangkok. So, we do not need to make a further introduction, because we already know each other.

In the late afternoon, because we are going to stay for two weeks, Camilla again helps us out by taking us to the supermarket. We bought some groceries and food for the next 14 days. Going back to the apartment, the Thai guys, Ton and Tik, ask us to go to the city center, and we could not resist, because we do not want to miss the city.

So, we decided to go to Madrid today because tomorrow we have already started to work on the project. During the broad daylight of summer, Madrid reaches the highest temperature. When we walked on the pavement to the station, the sun was so hot and dry. In the city center of Madrid, we visited several famous places. We also do not forget to buy something like a keychain.

The sense that we got during our visit to the city of Madrid was pleasing. As someone says that Madrid was as pretty as a picture, it is true. We can not deny how the building was in place so well that we can be unnerved by just looking at the view from the corner of the coffee.

The next day, Camila opened the Job Shadowing program by explaining the purpose of this activity, then she also explained Erasmus + and the topics raised. These job shadowing activities are designed to give participants hands-on experience and education in handling organizational and related tasks, as well as to foster initiative and communication skills. Furthermore, the participants must be able to work in groups, be creative, and develop new initiatives, ideas, and innovations during the sessions. And the idea was we are going to work in small groups, expert presentations, social media methodology, and modular training with local experts from the host are all part of the job shadowing methodology.

The session was continued by assigning tasks to the participants, who in this case became shadow workers for the related organization. The participants also continued to finalize the Guide Book for the Social Media Literacy for Women’s Rights program and learn how to propose for the event. This program’s success is measured by the evaluation of the participants, the evaluation of the host, and the evaluation of the working mentor.

We took a break at 2 p.m. and were given free time. Dhania and Ton went shopping at the supermarket to stock up on food. We walked about 15-20 minutes to the supermarket, which is not far from the apartment. Following that, we will continue working on the assigned tasks and brainstorming new content ideas in the next following days.

Camilla told us that we did not work on the weekend, so it was a free day for us. So, we follow the Act Global biweekly virtual program to make the time more valuable. Yet, we are still working on editing the vox pop project we create. The idea of this project is to make this job shadowing project still relevant to what we have been working on for the past couple of months. Other than that, I spent the day cooking something and enjoying food.

The next day on Sunday, August 8th of 2022, as we planned, we went to Toledo. Toledo is a small city close to Madrid, it was only a one-hour drive. We went to Toledo with Andrea. We met her in Thailand during the training course in Bangkok. Our first impression of this city was that we were amazed. We will remember Toledo by its tall wall and the castle. Andrea told us that Toledo is the former capital city of Spain. Another interesting fact was that Toledo has been under the influence of three major religions in the world which are Jewish, Christian, and Islam, and we could find in all those three major religions relics in form of synagogues, churches, and mosques. Those relics are the actual proof of the long history of this city.

Even though we visited Toledo during the summertime and the temperature hit 38 degrees celsius, we still enjoyed all the scenery in front of our sight. We can stand for too long to adore the old big door of the building or we did haste to take the picture in the beautiful alley, or we did not dare to differ not to praise the gothic style of the architecture of this frame, the castle or the church.

Toledo for us is like a city that we only see on the screen. Everything was magical. We surely can be drawn in the midst of an enchanting castle and the architectural exquisiteness of the building. We can say it was a small city, but I am not sure we could visit every corner of the city in only one day. There were so many beautiful buildings that needed to be looked at carefully and adored.

A week in Madrid was completed with the feeling of cheer and joy.

Written by Harun and Dhania