Women's Health Workshop

March 27-28, 2015

Peace Corps Volunteer Alison Elder in cooperation with local associations and volunteers Liz Jones and Dre Filzen conducted a Women's Health Workshop in Ksar Taos, a small village near Boudnib.  Over 100 women were tested for diabetes and high blood pressure and more than 65 attended various workshop sessions related to women's health.  Peace Corps Volunteers led sessions on the importance of exercise and led aerobics and yoga sample classes in addition to dental hygiene and gave out toothbrushes.  Other sessions covered general hygiene, nutrition, breast and cervical cancer, birth control, diabetes and high blood pressure, preventing and treating scorpion bites, and environmental sustainability.  This workshop educated women on health issues, but also provided a space for women to gather and discuss and take ownership of important issues facing their community. 

Sexual Harassment Toolkit: Successes and Struggles

An article by PCV, Drew.

After identifying the need for education on sexual harassment in my site, I decided to show the video Breaking the Silence about Sexual Harassment: Moroccans Speak Out.  Rather than show the forty-minute video straight through, to better sustain attention and encourage discussion, we viewed the video in three 10-15 minute segments with discussion immediately following each segment.

Based on the recommendation of my mudir, the event was held on February 26 and coincided with his large IYF class, which allowed for all of his participants to attend. In addition, I advertised the event in my classes and on social media and attraced fifty or so participants from my community, which led to 50 or so youth, roughly half men and women, attending the event.

In order to foster trust, safety, and honest communication on difficult subject matter, I opened the event with a speech setting objectives and stating intentions for the event.  First, it was important that I did not come across as a foreigner chastising my community on issues of their society.  Thus, I made sure to emphasize that sexual harassment was an issue in America, and that similar discussions took place there. Second, It was also very important that the men in the audience have an accurate depiction of sexual harassment and victim blaming and their effects in order to become a better ally to women in the community.

With the assistance of my mudir acting as moderator, after viewing each segment of the video our goal was to facilitate fruitful, safe dialogue before continuing on to the next segment.  The first and second discussions went very well.  Although some people in the audience disagreed with the message of the video, the discussion was civil.  There was a mutual respect of opinions, and everyone was given the opportunity allowed to talk.  

After finishing the third and last segment of the video we were joined by a man from the community who had no introduction or prefacing of the material. Unfortunately, he was displeased by our conversations and stated that the information delivered by myself and the video was incorrect. He stated that women who did not wear a hijab deserved to be harassed and tried to take over the event and prevent others from speaking. After repeated reminders that this was a safe space for civil discussion, I had to ask for help in having this man removed from our forum. Unfortunately, this dramatically changed the tone of the event and participation became more combative, as attendees became more aggressive in sharing their opinions. This was a less desirable outcome to an otherwise successful, productive event.

However, some of the attendees left a valuable new perspective.  Two or three days after the event, two of my male students asked me if we could show the video again, with a smaller group and a longer time for discussion.  They thought the video was eye opening, and wanted another opportunity to have this type of conversation with women in a more controlled setting.

The event was successful, and it was unfortunate that one individual did so much to affect the tone of our discussion.  When I hold similar events in the future, I will require participants be present for the entire event and bar late attendees.