Working Women

I know I write about gender issues a lot; it’s because they’re often in the forefront of my mind here. It’s been a while though, so I think I’m about due for another one. Here goes:

Today I had a very interesting conversation with a male counterpart (why do so many of my blog posts seem to start that way??) about “working women” in the Gambia, i.e., women who work outside the home bringing in money. He explained that working women here usually give a large portion (1/2 to 2/3) of their earnings, either in cash or in kind, to their biological families. It generally goes to their parents but sometimes it goes to siblings or extended family. However, if she is married, even though she is bringing in money, there is still a very strong cultural expectation that her husband will support her and their children by paying all their everyday expenses. This has two direct consequences:

1) Men often do not like to marry working women (at least as their first wives) because working women's household work suffers compared to women who don't work and the men see very little, if any of the money she makes. Remember, without things like dishwashers, washing machines, microwaves, running water, etc, maintaining a household here takes a LOT more time and effort than in the US.

2) In many cultures, there is significant preference for sons over daughters because daughters have to be married off (which sometimes involves paying a dowry) and never give much back to their biological families once they're married. Here, not only do daughters shoulder a huge amount of household work (sweeping, fetching water, doing laundry, etc), but parents know that if she ends up working when she is grown, she will support them financially. My counterpart insisted that this is happening, daughters are supporting their families, and even cited daughters paying to send their fathers on pilgrimage to Mecca. Talk about a role reversal! Not surprisingly, son preference is not as deeply ingrained here as it is in many other cultures.

This again raised the related issue of the intense financial strain on "working men," i.e., men who are bringing in money. Very often, the man who goes out and get a good job instead of sitting back and waiting for aid dollars or a free ticket to America is faced with outstretched hands and deeply ingrained dependency everywhere he turns; his wife/wives, his children, his parents, his extended family, even his lazy friends who know they can get by just fine without having to work all look to him for financial support. They all are pulling these men down, making it virtually impossible for them to save or invest in their future (such as going back to school) in a way that would give them a chance to break out of the cycle of poverty.

That said, on the flip side, the social safety net of those who have supporting those who don't is what supports the elderly, ensures sick and disabled people and orphans are cared for, keeps a roof over people's heads and food in their bellies when they have a bad harvest or their house burns down, pays the school fees of countless children and provides housing when their school is far from home, and countless other social services that the government does not provide here. This is a desperately poor country, and yet, people aren't starving and there are no homeless people on the streets. Why? Because people here share everything and everyone is constantly helping each other. To a fault. Good or bad? You tell me.

Know Your Status Football Tournament

For the last year-plus, a group of guys in our group worked extremely hard putting together a two-month long North Bank football (soccer) tournament. The PEPFAR-funded project, which was a collaboration of many partners, including the National AIDS Secretariat and the Ministry of Youth and Sport, among others, was brilliant because it used football, something almost every young man in this country is passionate about, as a way to reach the all-important but hard-to-pin-down young male demographic with information about HIV/AIDS. In a country where most of the sexual decision-making is done by men, this kind of project is hugely important.

The tournament, which consisted of 12 official games throughout the region, wrapped up a couple weeks ago and it's fair to say it was a huge success, with 120 players and coaches educated and trained on HIV (with a focus on prevention through condom use and limiting their number of partners), by local health workers with support from Peace Corps Volunteers, ~7,000 spectators reached with messages about HIV transmission, protection, testing, and macro causes of the epidemic. Radio stations aired three programs with local football players and hospital staff talking about HIV/AIDS. In preparation for the tournament, the project moved two tons of rocks, hung 24 nets, and lined 13 fields. Over the course of the tournament, the project also played over 48 hours of music, and moved people collectively over a thousand kilometers. A massive undertaking, but a highly successful one, and one we all hope will be replicated in other regions and countries in the years to come. Here are some pictures from the final game in Farafenni the weekend before last:


Most of the people who made the tournament happen


Nope, your eyes aren't deceiving you...those are girls playing! Two girls teams got to play an exhibition game before the big final.

Almost ready to start

These guys have worked their butts off for over a year to make this happen. So proud of them!

Lining up

Kickoff!

I don't know much about football, but these guys can PLAY!

Erica up in the stands cheering on her team

Fans doing what they do best...rushing the field

Upper Niumi celebrating their win

Champions of North Bank Region!

Baby Mamas

One of our good friends living in a small Wolof community on North Bank, Lindsey, has spend most of her service to-date working on an innovative community health competition targeting mothers called "Baby Mamas." In Lindsey's words: "The heart of Baby Mamas is six health lessons, each lesson taught twice, dealing with issues identified in a village health assessment, such as reproductive and child health, exclusive breastfeeding, nutrtion, personal hygiene, evironmental santiation, malaria, and female reproduction and anatomy. For each lesson a woman attends, she gets two points if she is on time and one point if she is late. Women also can earn points for attending RCH (monthly government-run Reproductive and Child Health clinics)."


At the end of the project, Lindsey tallied up all the points and had a big closing ceremony where she gave awesome prizes to all the participants based on how many points they had earned. Prizes included practical but highly valued items like buckets, bowls, and fabric. In case you're curious, the whole project, including an opening ceremony and a closing ceremony with a sound system and snacks, prizes, teaching materials, etc, cost about $700. It really is amazing how far money goes here (and how much you can do with little or no money!). I was lucky enough to get up there for the closing ceremony program. Here are some pictures from the event:



All the Peace Corps ladies at the program (minus Lindsey, who was a wee bit preoccupied!)


Lindsey's baby mommas waiting for the program to start



Kids watching from the shade inside the skill center

Time to kill? It's obviously time for a dance party.

Getting started

Lindsey kicking butt with an awesome speech in Wolof. Love their asobi fabric!

Baby mamas performing a drama demonstrating what they learned in their lessons. I think this one was about proper care for skin infections.

Attentive audience for a drama

Lindsey handing out prizes

Take our Daughters to Work Camp

Sometime in the middle of July, a local NGO contacted Peace Corps for help with their annual UNICEF-sponsored girls camp focused on bringing up-country girls down to Kombo to meet successful professional women there. The rationale is that there aren't a lot of women that fit that description up-country, so many girls don't have female role models to inspire them to strive to achieve more than simply becoming housewives. The camp was scheduled for the end of the month, so we didn't have much warning, but despite the late notice, we rallied and five of us identified smart, motivated teenage girls from our areas and brought them down for the camp. While I have to admit the camp's logistics were a bit of a nightmare, it still was an amazing experience for the girls (some of whom had never been to Kombo or hadn't been for many years) and we had a blast.

The girls visited and/or met women working in the following professional settings: Gambia Teachers' Union; Julbrew bottling company; a very successful female tailor with a team of men working under her; Gambian Technical training Institute; a women's oyster-harvesting cooperative; the Female Laywers Association of The Gambia; a young female journalist; and The Forum for African Women Educationalists, Gambia Chapter.

The girls also got an opportunity to visit the national museum, go up the famed arch in Banjul for a bird's eye view of the city, and went on a mini-shopping spree at the biggest shopping center in the country. We also helped facilitate a variety of interactive life skills lesson on topics like leadership, teamwork, role models, and sexual health education. Here are some picture from the camp:


We asked the girls to get in line for breakfast and this is what happened. Sigh. Pick your battles, right?


The first of many dance parties

Opening ceremony. The ambassador came! In her speech, she encouraged the girls to dream big and start dreaming NOW. She told them that if they want to have a husband and kids, that's great, but if they really want to help their families, their communities, and their country, that's simply not enough.

Me with my girls

Koko explaining a game to the girls. They all closed their eyes and one side of the table raced the other side passing a hand squeeze down the line to the end. The last person grabbed the roll of tape when the squeeze got to them. Yay teamwork...

They LOVED the game!

Pairing up by picking a shoe from the pile and finding its owner

Awa, a very inspirational young journalist who came to talk to the girls

The girls' role models

A group from a school in Kombo came and did a presentation for us

Group picture of the girls showing off their Africell shirts before the shopping center excursion

Group shot in front of the arch in Banjul

Killing time by posing with the kankeron statue while waiting to go up the arch

Still killing time. Two of my girls playing games with some random kids.

Finally going up. They were SO excited...

Some of Koko's girls looking out over Banjul. Most of the girls had never been up this high before.

Beaded jewelry the girls made

Performing one of many dramas. This one was about the dangers of "sugar daddies" - men who help girls out financially and buy them things with the expectation that they will be compensated with sexual favors.