Ramadan Mubarak... Eid Mubarak

I recently asked a cab driver to take me to the post office (it always seems to start with a cab story, huh?). He asked me what I planned to purchase, as I may be able to get postal things at other locations. I told him stamps and postcards. He really wasn’t familiar with the concept of a postcard. I think he thought I meant a regular greeting card. “Are you sending your family members a card because you are away for Ramadan?”
“Oh no, I’m not Muslim.”
“Oh, ok.”
I stare into his rear view mirror trying to figure out his body language. Did I make him uncomfortable?
The driver then went on to share a story of cards he’s purchased since the holiday began.

I surely felt awkward that the driver would default to Ramadan greeting cards. But then I wondered how many times I must have done the same thing in the US. I can hear myself now: “Oh, are you done your Christmas shopping?”

The driver was able to help me find a gift shop closer than driving to town. They had a lot of great things, even postcards!

Being a minority is nothing new to me. Black, immigrant, female. Yes, in many circles, I’m used to being the minority. But for the first time, in a very long time, I’ve felt marginalized for my religion.

I identify as Christian, and like many other Americans, have had the pleasure of not thinking twice about being bombarded with media ads regarding Christmas & Easter. Guyana has given me a different experience. Having friends of different faiths has contributed to my being culturally sensitive and aware of different faiths. I’m going to suggest that awareness and empathy will only take you so far in understanding others.

The Muslim and Hindu communities represent a heavy number of the population. Christians are very much present, however, I’ve had the pleasure of gaining understanding about a culture I know little about. Although I have Muslim friends in the US, it has been an amazing experience to live in a country while so many communities are acknowledging such an important holiday.

One day while listening to a local radio station, I heard an advertisement about preparing for Ramadan. I don’t remember where exactly this place was located, I just remember they claimed to be my “one stop shop” in getting ready Ramadan. It reminded me of the taxi driver. When have I ever heard an ad on the radio for Ramadan? Or seen a greeting card in a store that read “Ramadan Mubarak” (Happy Ramadan). Not to say they don’t exist in specialty shops, but it’s really eye opening and thought changing to think about. A ‘minority’ culture in America is a majority culture in Guyana, and now I’m living here.

I have a new found appreciation for my classmates who practice the Muslim faith. Classmate who would have to use the restrooms as an area to pray throughout the day, because there were no appropriate spaces for their needs. Appreciation for my hairdresser who stays committed to her beliefs and would have to take a break while doing my hair so she could wash up and pray; even though this meant some clients getting upset about the waiting time. Appreciation for my friends, here and at home, who would have to go to class during or after a long day of fasting during Ramadan while everyone ate their lunches and dinners during lecture (especially because fasting lasts a whole month).

Yesterday was Eid ul Fitr, the end of Ramadan. The day is often referred to as Eid for short. Eid, means festivity, and Fitr means to break the fast. While I didn’t celebrate Eid with any locals, I definitely felt its presence.

The holiday of Ramadan, marked by month long sun-up to sun-down fasting, is a time of forgiveness, making amends, and growing spiritually closer to God. What a wonderful purpose. It’s also a time where I’ve learned a lot about my self-awareness and another culture.

Instituting a Web of Gender Responsiveness

So I am now at the halfway point of my time here at UNEP HQ. I thought I would share with you a little bit about where I live, what I've been working on, and gender in my workplace.

Nairobi, Kenya
I live in a very nice suburb of Nairobi called Runda. It is the home of many expatriates who work at the U.S. Embassy or the United Nations Office Nairobi compounds that are nearby. I am enjoying my stay in a two bedroom guesthouse within 30 minutes walking distance of work. My landlady used to work for the UN World Food Programme, and my landlord directed safari trips; they are a very nice couple.

Prices in Nairobi for food, taxis, shelter, etc. have increased significantly since 2008 and are actually the same or more expensive than where I study in Troy, NY, therefore, I do a lot of walking. I share this pedestrian trait with many Kenyans. Since I usually forget how to say, "Habari ya asubuhi", I instead just say "Good Morning". It is a good thing that many Kenyans speak English, Kiswahili and their tribal language!

On the weekends I go to an eye hospital (as part of my dissertation research), shopping at the local mall, and to church. Now that I am becoming more comfortable with riding on the matatus, I will venture more often into the city center. I want to see: Kenyatta's mausoleum; the view of Nairobi's cityscape from the Kenyatta International Conference Center; and any museums and art galleries that I can find. There is a great blog called Nairobi Now with all sorts of cultural events in the city.

My Projects
I have two projects; the first involves consulting on Project Atmospheric Brown Clouds and in particular, its mitigation component Project Surya. Surya means “Sun” in Sanskrit. Project Surya had a pilot phase in India where it: evaluated cookstoves, assessed localized air pollution, assessed women’s experiences with new cooking technologies, and eventually settled on a new cookstove design. This project has three goals: (1) reduce global climate change by decreasing black carbon (a residue of incomplete combustion); (2) reduce deforestation by decreasing dependence on biomass; (3) improve the health of women and children by decreasing air pollution. As a consultant, my role is to report the best practices for gender mainstreaming environmental policy and planning that come out of the Project Surya pilot phase, and, to evaluate the proposed Phase II of Project Atmospheric Brown Clouds to see how gender mainstreaming can be improved.

My second project is to create an annotated bibliography on best practices for gender mainstreaming environmental policy and planning. I am working with a web designer to make this annotated bibliography searchable and sortable when it is published online. This web designer has been working with my supervisor to re-design the UNEP Gender website (the old website is here).

Please note: pictures of the old website (L) and new website (R) were added to this blog entry on 2011-September-16

Gender at UNEP
I find myself fascinated by my supervisor's job and the history of how it came into being.

Apparently, a team was formed in 2007 to look at how to make UNEP a more productive, efficient and effective institution. As part of that team, my supervisor, Ms. Janet Kabeberi-Macharia worked with others to create the UNEP Gender Plan of Action.

Fast forward to 2011, and Ms. Janet Kabeberi-Macharia is now the Senior Gender Adviser for UNEP. She spends a lot of time reviewing prospective employees on HR hiring boards, meeting with individual project managers, and writing policy recommendations and reports, among a range of other activities all of which are tied to gender-mainstreaming. Policy and practice has to be changed at many levels in order to perform a "web of institutionalization" of gender-responsiveness (using Caren Levy's concept). For example, this may involve gender-responsiveness training for staff of UNEP collaborating research centers, as well as the project teams from various UNEP divisions. Also, each project team in UNEP has a team member who also serves as their gender coordinator. Finally this “web of institutionalization” involves changing the organizational composition of UNEP itself to encourage more gender equity in leadership roles and attention to gender mainstreaming by leaders.

This concept of a "web of institutionalization" encourages one to think across scales of an organization in order to implement good policies and practices for gender-responsiveness. Its enactment here at UNEP demonstrates an excellent unity of theory and practice. However its enactment is very difficult. It is neither singularly top-down, nor bottom-up. To be effective, it must encompass both of those modes of institutional change as well as include lateral (instead of vertical) modes that cross-cut divisions, teams, and ideologies.

People who are smart and dedicated to the mission of UNEP may still resist such changes because: (1) it is not a process with which everyone is familiar, and (2) it is difficult to set goals and indicators for this process. It is exciting to be a part of this process for my 10 weeks here at UNEP.

Healthy Relationships

Life in Guyana has been moving at such a rapid pace, that a blog entry is well overdue. Last week I had the opportunity to pilot a workshop on healthy relationships with local school. Here's what happened:

I had the opportunity to pilot my “Healthy Relationships” program for a local private school. The school is located on the west coast of Georgetown and educates children ages approximately 6-16. I thought this was a great opportunity to see what the program would look like on the ground and adjust for any kinks.

I was told that I would have the opportunity to meet with three to four classrooms of children who are in their last years of school (an age range of 14-16). I was not told that I would be meeting with them all at the same time. After entering the school and checking in with the principal, I was escorted to an all-purpose/auditorium room of over one hundred children, ages 6-16. My very formal step by step program went out the window. I was not prepared to discuss sexual assault in front of six year olds, and I was not prepared to facilitate the cries, screams, and side chatter of so many children at once.

The principal explained that the schools are on summer break and the students who are present now are here for summer school. Normally, the students would be in smaller classrooms, but the school uses the all-purpose room during the summer. This was fine; I just wish I had a better understanding of this prior to arrival.

Like any good program manager, I decided to work with what was given to me. The school had audio equipment and I was able to use a microphone to ensure the entire room could hear me. I discussed three types of communication (aggressive, assertive, and passive) as planned and asked the children to do a drawing exercise as planned. The exercise was difficult to facilitate because I only had enough crayons for about 30 children but had a classroom of over 100. The older kids were kind enough to use their own pencils or pens, and those who did not have did an excellent job at sharing. The teachers present were helpful in going around and checking in with the students for the duration of the drawing exercise.

The program also included a role play on the different types of communication. I selected six volunteers and three of them dropped out when they realized they would have to do the role play in front of their peers. So I just lectured to make up for that time and filled in for one of the "skits". The kids seemed to enjoy their school mate acting out "aggressive" behavior with me.

For the last phase of the program we divided the group into a "girls only" and "boys only" section. We were able to separate the room using black boards and space dividers. A program associate from the office joined me to facilitate the remainder of the program. He lectured the boys on topics of aggression and anger management while I spoke with the ladies about bullying other girls and rights within a relationship.

I lectured a little bit about changing who you are to get the attention of someone who likes you. The students did a good job at highlighting this doesn’t work because you can’t pretend forever. I got so many great answers! I also talked about what everyone could do to stop rumors and bullying because they hurt other people’s feelings, and no one deserves to have lies spread about them.

The conversational part was also a challenge, as the younger girls really couldn’t pay attention for very long and the older girls wanted to just ask questions about boys who cheat on their girlfriends. I think this is understandable considering that someone age six probably isn’t dating yet and older students may be better at dominating the conversation.

I asked the girls if anyone was in a relationship and the entire room said no. So, I asked if anyone had a friend who was in a relationship and the entire room said yes. I thought it was very cute.

I told the girls we’d spend the remainder of the time discussing relationships with partners and relationships with friends or classmates. There are different types of relationships, but you have a choice in what you do to keep each one a healthy relationship

There is clearly lots of work to be done in this area. When I asked the girls what you would do if your partner hit you, the responses were “poison him”, “stab him”, “poison his family”, and even “jump out of the window and say he pushed me”. I was expecting answers along the lines of hit him back. OH. WOW.

I was very aware that the children were mostly likely repeating things they’ve heard adults say. I really wanted to drive home that there are other options, so I emphasized trusted adults and trained professionals that the students could talk to if they or a "friend" were ever in this situation: a teacher, social worker, nurse, or counselor at the Ministry. When I mentioned the Ministry, unfortunately, a lot of students spoke up about how the office was unreliable. The girls were eager to share how “friends” had been turned away because they were too young. They yelled over their peers stories of counselors who never showed up for their designated appointment time and they, well their “friends” felt discouraged to reschedule. Unsure of how to buffer this anger, I spoke very loudly to calm the room down. I explained there are many choices in where they seek services, the Ministry was just one of many options, and moved on to my next question.

I wanted to emphasize the importance of warning signs. Your partner will not punch you in the face on a very first date. Everyone says that domestic violence is a “cycle” however no one ever breaks down the cycle: abusers uses phases of honeymoons and then violence in conjunction with power and control to oppress their partners. I also wanted to address the myth that only men can be abusers. If you, as a female, are hitting or verbally abusing someone with whom you are involved romantically, then you are an abuser and you need to get help regarding your unhealthy relationship. I didn’t get very far in this discussion. The girls wanted to focus on what do to in the event of actual abuse.

Rather than focusing on “my program” and “my guidelines” I again decided to meet the students where they were. I wasn’t sure when I would meet with them again, and understood for some girls, they might be asking such questions because they are experiencing violence now. I used the remainder of program time to answer specifics on where to go and what to do if you are experiencing these issues now, as well as where to go and what to say to help a friend who may be in trouble.

I felt very defeated at the end of my program. I felt under prepared and poorly advised. I wondered if things would have been better if I had known the structure of the “classroom”. Did the kids learn anything? What was the point in me even coming?

As I gathered my materials and made my way to the door one of the girls (younger teenager) stopped me to shake my hand. She said thank you for visiting and invited me to come back again. I was so delighted I did not want to let go of her hand.

A few minutes after she walked away, another young teenage girl came over to shake my hand. She explained that my program was very special because I gave “good advice”. The topics were important to her and her friends, and teachers never really talk about relationships at school. She told me that I am welcomed to come back and visit again.

I felt so appreciated. I felt that even if I had only reached just a few girls, perhaps my time was valuable. I also saw that there was a need to discuss these issues. My program materials must be precise and fool-proof to get these points across. Those who implement these projects, furthermore, need to be genuinely passion about addressing this topic. When it comes to discussing intimate partner violence, I’m glad that I was able to do just that, even if it was only for two hours during one afternoon in the school's all purpose room..