Success Stories: Gender work at all speeds

by Shawn Dubberly

This Gender and Development (GAD) Committee recently presented at the Meknes HUB. They introduced GAD to the new staj and used exercise as a theme to illustrate various speeds of gender work. Here are some the success stories from the last two years.

Gender and Development Success Stories 

Walking, Jogging, Running

“Gender work at all speeds”

Walking

A Male in a Female Space

Steven Howard in Goulmima

Steven and his counterpart Mustapha chose to emphasize "International Girls' Day" at their Leadership Class at the Dar Chebab. They talked about some of the students' impressions of the place of girls in Moroccan society and what their perceptions were of girls' abilities to excel in society to the same extent as boys. Together, Mustapha and Steven, two men, encouraged all of the students to identify some negative stereotypes they have held about the ability of girls and women to achieve in school and work and recognize gender equality.

Celebrating Female Teachers

Shawn Dubberly Site: Birkouat

 

Shawn and a science teacher in site

At a school science fair, Shawn was pulled into a spontaneous speech. So she decided to focus her speech on celebrating the female science teachers. She told the students that they were lucky to have this intelligent role model in their lives. Then she included the students by telling them the importance of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). It’s rare for women to talk about themselves, so she felt this was a good example of how everyday gender work can simply be highlighting, celebrating and thanking women for the work they do.

Jogging

Women’s Hours at Men’s Gym

Rachel Gates-Vickery in Itzer

Women and girls gathering in gym 

Rachel works with a women’s athletics association. The women have an open space with homemade weights and a certified trainer however there is minimal resources/space that the association can provide. After months and months of trying, the women successfully got permission to integrate the services into the all male gym at the other end of town.

The previously all male gym is better equipped with materials as well as a shower. Increasing the instructor’s cliental led to a slight raise in income allowing her to build a shower in her all women’s gym and hopefully purchase new materials.

The women’s gym has not only been a space to workout, but they are the only true spaces in town dedicated to women. Women, now on both ends of town, can gather, workout, share recipes, talk about their kids, exchange prayer...really the opportunities are endless....it has created a bond that truly cannot be found anywhere else-not even in the streets where we know of women congregating.

GLOW Club

Rachelle Wilson in Sidi Rahal 

     

Rachelle wanted to find a way to start development work beyond language, reconciling that it may look much smaller than what she imagined. She meets once a month and do 3 to 4 hours of activities, some adapted from the GLOW camp curriculum. 

    

So far, our GLOW club has covered topics such as: education in Morocco, prioritizing, effective goal setting, self-advocacy, gender equality, and leadership.

Girl’s Basketball Club

Ben Zapchenk in Agdz

Ben noticed that girls were interested in participating in physical activities that would afford them an opportunity and reason to get outside of their houses. Because of the existing cultural structures in Moroccan society, many girls and women are hard pressed to find communal spaces where they can be themselves and engage in collective endeavors, whereas boys and men find no such restrictions.

Running

GLOW Safe Space Community Library

Julie Feng in Settat

The Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) Club of Settat is building a community library at the dar chebab. Our main goals:

                  ●  Access. Our community has no reasonable or affordable access to books.

                  ●  Capacity-Building & Empowerment. The library project is completely led by Moroccan girls and young women. Though this means that building is slower than most PC libraries, the power shift is worth it!

                  ●  Safe Community. Girls often get the message that they don’t belong in public domains, even at the youth center. The library creates a space that is completely inclusive.

GLOW Camp

Nina Lopez in Er-Rich

Nina worked on a 5 day GLOW camp with 35 girls. Covering subjects such as Healthy Lifestyles part I, Science, Healthy Lifestyles part II, Goal Setting & Careers, Agents of Change and The Environment.

Biggest Challenges: getting presenters to commit, girls waited until the last minute to sign up, Ministry backed out on providing lunch, keeping schedule on time.

Biggest Accomplishments: Given the opportunity counterparts really stepped up, participants brought food and supplies and we cooked together, not providing lunch was no big deal, Moroccans presented the majority of the classes, awesome toolkits available through Peace Corps.