"Both boys and girls (...) should respect each other and help one another.”

 

 

Nearly 4 months have passed… the bad news are, the confused rooster is still alive! And also all the other roosters which are roaming around the neighbourhood at night and keeping me from sleeping peacefully. The good news are, I’m still vegetarian...

Other good news are, that I was able to start three interesting and hopefully useful projects after my month-long needs assessment period. The puzzle I was trying to solve to get a better picture of the community is still not complete, even after my time of observation, needs assessment meetings and months of working. It is natural, because it takes more time to solve such a complex puzzle completely. However, at least the puzzle pieces I was able to put together give a hint of the beauty as well as the challenges of this unique place and its’ inhabitants.

 

The tree and his shade are functioning as a school staff room and assembly hall

 

 

Project no. 1:

During the needs assessment meetings teenage pregnancy was emphasized as one of the challenges for the communities related to the topic of gender. As headmasters, teachers, market women and other community members requested, I started to work on the topics of sexual reproductive health (SRH) and the causes of teenage pregnancy with young people from the communities.

 

Overall, I engaged with 6 classes at 5 Junior High Schools for several weeks. Within the new curriculum in Ghana SRH is more and more included into the sessions at school. However, it will take time until it is fully embedded in every school. Rather special for the students was the secret question box. It is a useful tool as most teenagers all around the world are often too shy to ask questions about sexuality openly. With the secret question box they had the opportunity to write down questions anonymously and put them into the box. That way I could see what topics they are really interested in and talk about those with the whole class. As everywhere in the world, some teens are more interested in the topics of sexuality than others. Overall, the questions showed how important it is to talk with young people in Kongo about SRH and educate them about risks and protection. It is easier for them to talk about this topic with me than with their parents. I remember that it was the same for me, because I was hesitant to talk about it with my mom. I enjoyed working with the school kids. With each session they were engaging more.

Even more than answering the questions about SRH I enjoyed the sessions on the topic of gender roles. I engaged the teenagers into this topic with the task to draw pictures on gender roles in their community. Besides that, they added short notes on the drawings.

“I think sweeping should not (be) for only girl but boy, too. In my community they say that sweeping is meant for girl but I think it should be for both.” This citation is from one of the boys who participated in the sessions on gender roles with his class.

The pictures below are some examples which mirror the gender roles in the rural communities in the Nabdam District. They also implicitly show the challenges for both males and females. However, some of the drawings also show the ongoing changing of mindset in the younger generations, as the citation above from one of the male students shows as well.

Some of the sessions on gender roles ended up in active discussions, e. g. about the statement that males are working harder than females. In one class most of the boys supported this statement while few of them and all the girls argued that both males and females are equally hard-working.

The conclusion of the sessions is the importance of understanding and supporting each other as males and females, or like one of the girls expresses in her drawing: “Both boys and girls should learn to support each other in term of school activities, house activities. They should respect each other and help one another.”

Some of the students who participated in my sessions

Project no. 2:

In my second project I work with students from the Kongo Senior High School. 30 students participate in workshops on gender roles and photography. After talking about gender roles in their communities as well as the challenges that come along with them the students are now supposed to take photos on the topic of gender roles. These photos will be submitted for the Contemporary African Photography Prize competition. Of course, the students are not professional photographers but they got some input on photography skills. Furthermore, they chose themselves a theme for the photo series. They decided to portrait both gender together performing roles which are usually expected to be performed by only males or only females, like farming, watering plants, taking care of the animals, fetching water, doing laundry, taking care of the children, etc. They want to emphasize the importance of supporting each other with the duties assigned by society. The sessions are still ongoing and I’m looking forward to the outcome of the photo project.

Project no. 3:

The third project took a lot of energy from me so far as it is a field I never worked in before. The goal is to sew as many reusable sanitary pads as possible with the engagement of six local seamstresses.

After testing the reusable pads design from one of the previous projects, watching YouTube tutorials on how to sew pads for weeks, reading and processing information from the previous volunteers as well as various website for days, and tons of voice messages disturbing my sewing experienced friend in Germany, I felt somehow ready to engage in this project.

As sanitary pads are expensive it is difficult for lots of females to afford them every month. One of the negative effects is that girls stay absent from school during their periods. Besides that, the lack of sanitary pads pressures some females to engage in sex in exchange for money which entails different other risks. The lack of access to sanitary pads was also pointed out during various needs assessment meetings in my first month. Period poverty is a serious gender-related issue that was important for me to address. That is why I think it was worth to overwhelm my brain with tons of new information on this topic. I assume all women reading about the challenge to access sanitary pads can sympathize with the females who experience that problem.

After finally deciding on patterns, fabric, etc. with the local seamstresses and accomplishing the quest of finding waterproof material, the sewing process is starting. In the end, we had to be creative as not every fabric is easily available in the rural areas. However, cotton bedsheets and absorbent towels are easily available, comparatively cost efficient and should allow good quality. I’m hoping for fast and neat results.

Another positive effect of this project is the support of the businesses of the local seamstresses who participate. As the economy is tough they are also happy about additional work.

My time in Kongo is ending soon so I’m concentrated on finishing all the projects adequately. Soon another blogpost will follow on the results of the ongoing projects. However, I guess it is not only thrilling to see the results of the projects but also to find out if the rooster will survive until the end of my deployment...