10. Australia Return and Reflection
As I write I have returned to Sydney and to the office of Habitat for Humanity Australia two and a half weeks ago, which is not very long but feels like a huge amount of time, having been overwhelmed with the enormous amount of work that I wasn't able to attend to whilst away travelling.
What this time has allowed me to do, however, is reflect on the experience I had in Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal, to think about what I was able to learn from it.
Not to be overly self-deprecating, but I have to be honest that I do not consider the quality of the blog very high, only partly because it was always done on the fly, usually late at night after an already very full day. While you can add to that factor a substantial lack of literary prowess on my part anyway, my primary concern relates to my perspectives and attitudes to the situations I found myself in, as described in the previous nine pages.
I have considered going back and reviewing, redacting, re-writing, and re-publishing all the entries, but it was suggested to me by a wise female friend that I leave it as it is and consider writing one more entry which identifies the short-comings I now see in what I conveyed during the trip.
One startling cringe-worthy discovery I have made is the 'me-centred-ness' of the content. I recall mentioning that I was treated with a rather excessive amount of respect by communities and partners when I visited them which placed me at the centre of proceedings a lot. But this blog was never intended to be about me, but about how community development happens in different contexts, what is happening within vulnerable communities, what different stakeholders are doing to help, and hopefully learning ways to achieve better outcomes and deeper impacts of the projects HFH Australia are managing, in accordance with community strengths and needs.
While it was always my intention to take some photos in the communities we work with, upon arrival at various places, I was often received by rather formal ceremonies of introductions and presentations which made me think that taking photos myself would be quite inappropriate. One of the various people accompanying me to the communities would always offer to take some photos while I was there but unfortunately that meant that I appear in far too many photos than I care to think about, many of which have made it to the pages of this blog. For that I feel a significant sense of shame, but I have left the posts as is, as a lesson to myself.
But probably the most important lesson I have learned upon reflection relates to the intended objectives/outcomes of the work we are doing in these extraordinarily culturally different parts of the world. By way of example, I felt it was my duty to ask the community groups about the roles of women in local committees and in community decision-making, as well as to state the importance of women's empowerment as an objective of the projects we are implementing there. I now believe I could have approached these matters quite differently. While women's empowerment is certainly a cross-cutting objective of major importance in the work we do at Habitat for Humanity Australia, which derives partly from Australian government aid funding priorities also, there are a number of reasons why my stating this with the men and women in the urban slums of Dhaka or the rural plains of Nepal may not be quite the right thing to do.
Firstly, I am a man. In my head at the time, I thought it would be good for the men and the women of the communities to hear another man say that women's influence on decision-making within communities is not just important but essential. While this may or may not be true, the fact that I am making this point clear, as a man, strikes me now as quintessentially patriarchal and arrogant to almost impose this view on the community. The fact that I also represent some funding resource for the communities and am potentially implying a threat of withdrawal of funding if this imposed objective is not met, does not bear thinking about...
Secondly, I am from another country and another culture, a male caucasian. Women's and men's roles in communities is something I do not yet come even close to understanding, therefore who am I to come from Australia, spend a couple of hours with a community and immediately tell them what I think the roles of women should be? We are talking about ancient cultures that have been taking shape for millennia, cultures that are no stranger to colonial impositions and the fact that I may have displayed some far too common cultural ignorance and superiority in this way also causes me quite some discomfort.
I remember on one occasion in rural, and therefore highly traditional, Bangladesh 'I' felt so awkward about being farewelled from a community by shaking hands with solely the men and boys who stood around me smiling while the women and girls stood back in the shadows watching from afar that I approached the women and offered to shake their hands also as I departed. While I knew already this was not a culturally appropriate action to take, I thought it would be an expression and demonstration of my respect for the women in the community, in keeping with the objectives of the project to ensure women are engaged and influential in the projects. I now think this could quite easily be construed actually as a sign of disrespect for the women, and the men, placing them in the uncomfortable position of being obliged to touch another man in the presence of their husbands and fathers etc. It is customary that a woman may offer her hand to be shaken by another man, but in that case it is the woman's decision, and not a decision that should be taken from them by a man. While I am certain that exceptions are made for me being from a different culture myself, this is something I need to be very careful about.
I spoke with a community committee in eastern Nepal after I was told that almost no women took part in the mason/construction skills training that we offered to the community, in which Habitat for Humanity Nepal had planned a 30% participation by women. I had heard however that the women engaged eagerly in the housing construction itself, just not in the construction training that was offered previously. I therefore asked the women why they were not interested in the construction training. One of the women said that their husbands say that their family homes are very dark when their wives are not there, that the homes shine brighter when the women are in the home, thereby discouraging them from leaving the family home to participate in the training. While I must say I thought this quite a beautiful sentiment on some level, I asked the women to confirm that they had indeed participated in the housing construction itself, which they did confirm eagerly, and then suggested to them that if they were going to help build anyway, why not do the training first and then get paid more money to help build as skilled rather than unskilled labour. Whilst they did seem to agree that this made sense, upon reflection I again feel that this was undervaluing the cultural context in which I was the outsider and their motives for doing or not doing things.
While all of these reflections cause me some discomfort as I've said, it has been part of my learning experience and is something that I hope will translate into a more respectful and sensitive approach from me in future. My sense is that in future I need to understand better that any changes within communities need to originate from within the community itself. It is not for me as a representative of an international NGO to visit the country and tell communities that this or that is good or bad. The benefits of female participation in projects needs to be identified by themselves and sourced from within. Of course we have a role in facilitating the process but not in a way that pontificates from top-down how the community should operate.
The revelation of these concerns and learnings on this blog I hope adds some quality to it as a whole and addresses any concerns that anyone may have identified as they read. People who work in the international development sector understand that a lot of damage can be done in communities with the best of intentions, so it is essential to approach it in the right way.
This will be the last post for the next while. We spend the next few months planning the transition of existing projects into a new financial year starting on July 1. Some projects will continue as they are, some will move into different communities, some will change significantly and some will conclude. I hope the wisdom we need in participating in the decision-making around these projects will accompany us through the process.
What this time has allowed me to do, however, is reflect on the experience I had in Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal, to think about what I was able to learn from it.
Not to be overly self-deprecating, but I have to be honest that I do not consider the quality of the blog very high, only partly because it was always done on the fly, usually late at night after an already very full day. While you can add to that factor a substantial lack of literary prowess on my part anyway, my primary concern relates to my perspectives and attitudes to the situations I found myself in, as described in the previous nine pages.
I have considered going back and reviewing, redacting, re-writing, and re-publishing all the entries, but it was suggested to me by a wise female friend that I leave it as it is and consider writing one more entry which identifies the short-comings I now see in what I conveyed during the trip.
One startling cringe-worthy discovery I have made is the 'me-centred-ness' of the content. I recall mentioning that I was treated with a rather excessive amount of respect by communities and partners when I visited them which placed me at the centre of proceedings a lot. But this blog was never intended to be about me, but about how community development happens in different contexts, what is happening within vulnerable communities, what different stakeholders are doing to help, and hopefully learning ways to achieve better outcomes and deeper impacts of the projects HFH Australia are managing, in accordance with community strengths and needs.
While it was always my intention to take some photos in the communities we work with, upon arrival at various places, I was often received by rather formal ceremonies of introductions and presentations which made me think that taking photos myself would be quite inappropriate. One of the various people accompanying me to the communities would always offer to take some photos while I was there but unfortunately that meant that I appear in far too many photos than I care to think about, many of which have made it to the pages of this blog. For that I feel a significant sense of shame, but I have left the posts as is, as a lesson to myself.
But probably the most important lesson I have learned upon reflection relates to the intended objectives/outcomes of the work we are doing in these extraordinarily culturally different parts of the world. By way of example, I felt it was my duty to ask the community groups about the roles of women in local committees and in community decision-making, as well as to state the importance of women's empowerment as an objective of the projects we are implementing there. I now believe I could have approached these matters quite differently. While women's empowerment is certainly a cross-cutting objective of major importance in the work we do at Habitat for Humanity Australia, which derives partly from Australian government aid funding priorities also, there are a number of reasons why my stating this with the men and women in the urban slums of Dhaka or the rural plains of Nepal may not be quite the right thing to do.
Firstly, I am a man. In my head at the time, I thought it would be good for the men and the women of the communities to hear another man say that women's influence on decision-making within communities is not just important but essential. While this may or may not be true, the fact that I am making this point clear, as a man, strikes me now as quintessentially patriarchal and arrogant to almost impose this view on the community. The fact that I also represent some funding resource for the communities and am potentially implying a threat of withdrawal of funding if this imposed objective is not met, does not bear thinking about...
Secondly, I am from another country and another culture, a male caucasian. Women's and men's roles in communities is something I do not yet come even close to understanding, therefore who am I to come from Australia, spend a couple of hours with a community and immediately tell them what I think the roles of women should be? We are talking about ancient cultures that have been taking shape for millennia, cultures that are no stranger to colonial impositions and the fact that I may have displayed some far too common cultural ignorance and superiority in this way also causes me quite some discomfort.
I remember on one occasion in rural, and therefore highly traditional, Bangladesh 'I' felt so awkward about being farewelled from a community by shaking hands with solely the men and boys who stood around me smiling while the women and girls stood back in the shadows watching from afar that I approached the women and offered to shake their hands also as I departed. While I knew already this was not a culturally appropriate action to take, I thought it would be an expression and demonstration of my respect for the women in the community, in keeping with the objectives of the project to ensure women are engaged and influential in the projects. I now think this could quite easily be construed actually as a sign of disrespect for the women, and the men, placing them in the uncomfortable position of being obliged to touch another man in the presence of their husbands and fathers etc. It is customary that a woman may offer her hand to be shaken by another man, but in that case it is the woman's decision, and not a decision that should be taken from them by a man. While I am certain that exceptions are made for me being from a different culture myself, this is something I need to be very careful about.
I spoke with a community committee in eastern Nepal after I was told that almost no women took part in the mason/construction skills training that we offered to the community, in which Habitat for Humanity Nepal had planned a 30% participation by women. I had heard however that the women engaged eagerly in the housing construction itself, just not in the construction training that was offered previously. I therefore asked the women why they were not interested in the construction training. One of the women said that their husbands say that their family homes are very dark when their wives are not there, that the homes shine brighter when the women are in the home, thereby discouraging them from leaving the family home to participate in the training. While I must say I thought this quite a beautiful sentiment on some level, I asked the women to confirm that they had indeed participated in the housing construction itself, which they did confirm eagerly, and then suggested to them that if they were going to help build anyway, why not do the training first and then get paid more money to help build as skilled rather than unskilled labour. Whilst they did seem to agree that this made sense, upon reflection I again feel that this was undervaluing the cultural context in which I was the outsider and their motives for doing or not doing things.
While all of these reflections cause me some discomfort as I've said, it has been part of my learning experience and is something that I hope will translate into a more respectful and sensitive approach from me in future. My sense is that in future I need to understand better that any changes within communities need to originate from within the community itself. It is not for me as a representative of an international NGO to visit the country and tell communities that this or that is good or bad. The benefits of female participation in projects needs to be identified by themselves and sourced from within. Of course we have a role in facilitating the process but not in a way that pontificates from top-down how the community should operate.
The revelation of these concerns and learnings on this blog I hope adds some quality to it as a whole and addresses any concerns that anyone may have identified as they read. People who work in the international development sector understand that a lot of damage can be done in communities with the best of intentions, so it is essential to approach it in the right way.
This will be the last post for the next while. We spend the next few months planning the transition of existing projects into a new financial year starting on July 1. Some projects will continue as they are, some will move into different communities, some will change significantly and some will conclude. I hope the wisdom we need in participating in the decision-making around these projects will accompany us through the process.
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