I’m aware that my blog posts feature a lot about public transport and my weekends, and make very little reference to work. Mainly because I don’t really know where to start. But I promise I’m not just here making cultural faux pas after cultural faux pas, I really am going to work every day. Suffice to say that I’m definitely busy. Busier than I ever thought I would be, given VSO tell you to prepare yourself to spend the first few months observing as much as you can, and getting to know the organisation you’re working for. Not so for me! But I’m enjoying it, it’s keeping me quiet (ish!) and I’m also learning a huge amount.
But what exactly have I been doing since I got here? I spent the first few weeks trying to learn about the charity I’m working for as quickly as possible, and trying to get up to speed with their current projects. I was able to go to numerous workshops and meetings, which really helped me to try and understand the context I’m working in. The charity doesn’t just work in HIV and AIDs, and does a huge amount of community based work with vulnerable groups and individuals on health, education and good governance issues.
I went to a workshop during my first few weeks, which was attended by all the community based organisations in the area who are working on gender and HIV and AIDs related issues. The aim of the workshop was to discuss the challenges being faced by the organisations when working with women in the community, particularly on HIV and AIDs issues. Some statistics. 58% of all people living with HIV and AIDs in Nigeria are female. 28% of women have experienced physical violence. 46% of young women marry before the age of 18. 23% of young women begin child bearing between the ages of 10-19. This meeting was a real eye opener to some of the practices that go on and contribute to these statistics. For example in one local community from the 10th – 17th October each year they have a ‘free sex week’. The name says it all really. For one week anyone in the community is free to have sex with whomever they choose (whether this involved that person consenting was not covered in the meeting). But the implications for HIV and AIDs transmission are terrifying. Religion is very important here. You can pretty much find a church on any road you go to. What this means in terms of HIV and AIDs is that because of the strong religious beliefs, people do not feel able to be open about their sexual orientation, and cannot seek the help and advice that they need. Transmission rates are therefore very high. Similarly, young girls that get pregnant are not able to access the services they need for fear of the repercussions. Backstreet abortions are rife. This meeting was being held to discuss how services could be improved for women, and how they could be given a voice. And what happened? It was supposed to be an open discussion forum, but every time a woman spoke, the facilitator (a male member of staff from a local community based organisation) insisted that the next speaker was a man. So if 3 women were sat waiting to speak, they had to wait until a man had spoken before taking their turn. This was done in the name of ‘gender equality’ but what it really highlights is that if these are the beliefs of some of the organisations involved in working with these issues, any change is going to be a long time coming. Organisations can do all the work in the world to work with women, and to try and help to educate them on their rights, but unless work is also undertaken with men to try and address some of the deeply embedded cultural beliefs, gender equality will not happen.
So what else have I been doing. I’ve run my first training session for all staff at the charity on monitoring and evaluation. As people who know me will appreciate, I was terrified. Standing up and speaking in front of people is not my favourite activity. My voice shakes and I go a lovely red colour as soon as I start to speak. But it actually went okay. Watch this space, I might just overcome my public speaking phobia over the next few months. I’ll be running more training sessions in coming weeks on putting together a monitoring and evaluation workplan, project management, and budgeting (not my strong point, as the staff of Warehouse, Topshop and the Royal Yacht in Jersey will be able to confirm, but I’ll give it my best shot).
As well as monitoring and evaluation, I’ve been helping with human resources policies, and putting together numerous funding proposals. Neither of which I have a huge amount of experience in, but it’s amazing how helpful google (and previous colleagues, you know who you are!) can be.
I’m lucky that I work in an open plan office, and my colleagues are really friendly and approachable, so I’ve settled in much faster than I was expecting to. I actually wake up and look forward to going to work in the morning. A strange concept, but one that I could grow accustomed to. How I’ll be spending the next few months will be dictated by what projects the charity starts next, as we are in the process of applying for funds for new projects. But if the past few months have been anything to go by, I definitely won’t be bored, so bring it on!
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