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Women Matter!
by Melinda Amihan
I was a Natural Resource Management Adviser placed with a local Cambodian NGO named Culture and Environment Preservation Association (CEPA). My placement was from June 15, 2005 to August 15, 2007.
My job involved building the capacity of CEPA’s staff to deliver its services to the communities the organization worked with in Stung Treng Province. CEPA was implementing several programmes at the time – Livelihood, Advocacy, and Training. I focused on the Community Forestry (CFo) and Community Fishery (CFi) projects under the Livelihood Programme but was also involved with the other projects.
My work involved training and mentoring the staff to improve their knowledge and skills in order to strengthen the efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness of services provided by CEPA to its target beneficiaries. The knowledge and skills taught were from Administrative Management to Programme/Project Management including development of training modules.
One request of the staff was to teach them about Gender Mainstreaming. Although this was not the one of my major objectives, it was an opportunity for me to incorporate one of VSO’s main themes into my work.
Cambodia is a relatively patriarchal society where women are relegated to the background, their voice seldom heard and their work unrecognized. This attitude was often seen in the communities where CEPA worked. CEPA wanted to change this attitude and provide women the opportunity to have a voice especially in managing their resources, but the staff had to change their attitude first.
I started working to change the attitude of the staff in the office, asking the men to do chores that were normally delegated to women. There was a lot of resistance in the beginning. Fortunately, my ex-counterpart was a very good role model for the junior staff. I also encouraged the female staff to speak up and voice their opinions. The staff later accepted the “behavior changes” which soon after were translated into how they conducted themselves in the field and how they designed their project activities and training modules. The changes on how they delivered their trainings provided women the opportunity to share their views in normally “male-dominated” discussions.
Being female in a male-dominated organization and being seen in the community as provider of guidance in the conduct of CEPA’s activities, my presence encouraged women to be more confident and participate in the activities implemented by the organization. By the end of my placement, three women had been elected as CFo Chairpersons and one was even elected as Commune Chief, a position usually held by men.
I cannot say that I was responsible for how the community changed its regard for women - maybe it was the change in the project activities and training techniques, maybe it was my presence in the community, maybe it was the bond I made with the women, maybe it was the change in attitude of the staff ….. there are many factors to consider. It doesn’t really matter to me who or what made the change possible, what matters is that something changed and I hope it is for the good of everybody.
Women matter!
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