Darilyn Syiem

Darilyn Syiem has a Master’s Degree in English Literature. She taught Communication in English at the Shillong Polytechnic for 28 years.  She has dedicated about two decades of her life, working on women’s rights issues through the North East Network (NEN), a women’s right organization working in north east India.  She was previously the Chairperson of this organization. She has worked on issues of women’s reproductive health and rights, empowerment of women in natural resource management and violence against women. She is an experienced gender trainer and has worked intensively on gender sensitizing institutions (including government) as well as advocating for gender mainstreaming in policies and programs. Her significant contributions have helped in building partnerships between NEN and state agencies on gender issues in agriculture and natural resource management. Her efforts also led to convergence between state departments of Meghalaya on issues of gender-based violence, as a result of which, a one stop crisis centre for women facing violence, was set up in a public hospital in Meghalaya

Darilyn is now a philanthropist, actively involved in a project on girls empowerment and boys up for girls movement in village schools in Meghalaya. In this, she partners with the Girls Empowerment Movement in the US.

INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATIONS

• Women and Sacred Medicines among the Khasis in the Highlands of Northeast India– an essay published in the book “ Women and Indigenous Religions” edited by Sylvia Marcos and published by PRAEGER
• Navigating BureaucraticNarratives: Generating Legitimacy and Accountability for Gender Equality – an article in the Journal, “Gender, Technology and Development”, a SAGE  publication.
• Institutionalising a health system response- an essay published in the book ‘Violence Against Women and Girls –Understanding Responses and Approaches in the Health Care Sector. Routledge Publication

GEMs is a movement process where girls grow with confidence, are aware of their rights, particularly the right to grow side by side with boys and become women who can make individual decisions, when the need arises. Her experience with women’s work showed her that there is need to involve boys and men in the empowerment of girls and women. Boys must UP for Girls in order to have a better world, where there is mutual respect and love, equal access to opportunities and gender justice.
GEMs is a gateway to all of the above and Darilyn feels that being a part of this precious movement also builds her empowerment.

As a young girl, I grew up believing in my prince charming and living happily ever after. The bubble burst right after the birth of my first daughter. From then onwards, I lived in a violent marriage, going through traumatic periods in this relationship that lasted for thirteen years. Those years almost drained the life out of me and made me doubt my Creator. I lost interest in life and was literally disconnected from the rest of the world. But I bucked up and when I decided to close that chapter of my life, I emerged a survivor who wanted and still want to send inspirational messages to other women who live in an abusive relationship and help them access support services that will enable them to counter the violence in their lives. Women and girls are unique beings who have a lot of guts and spunk that lie dormant in most of them because of the socialization process. We are the GEMs who try to bring these amazing qualities to the surface so that we may be able to contribute to a world of goodness.