We recently had our mid year retreat — 3 fabulous days of intense learning, knowledge sharing, cocktail drinking, networking, team building, perfect still harbor style reflection, discernment and introspection and just general global health leadership goodness. All in all, a perfect public healthy type retreat. The theme of this retreat in particular allowed me to reflect very much on something very close to my heart – Women. The plight of womanhood really…..not so much my plight as a woman, but more the plight of the women in the communities that we serve – very different. I was struck when in preparation for the retreat, we were assigned quite a number of readings on the situation of women with focus on the countries where we serve and it was shocking, real yes, but severely alarming. In brief the situation is bleak.
To summarize: high fertility rates accompanied with elevated unwanted pregnancy rates, outrageously high maternal mortality, concerning rates of unmet family planning needs and the list goes on and on…. As I read this I was caught thinking, there is a story that is missing here. Through our work in this fellowship we work directly with the women in the community and I wondered what had happened to the story that had all the smiles, gratitude, generosity and love I see spewing from these women. Despite all the challenges after challenges that I myself cannot even attempt to illustrate, I think it important not to steal their happy story from them. This is also the story of their survivor hood, their resilience and their ability to be constantly graceful and fire. As I read report after report and situational analysis after another, it occurred to me that this here was the single story we learned about in our Still harbor sessions. And it isn’t fair because while it is important to properly grasp the magnitude of this generally terrible state of being a woman in some areas, I feel it is as equally important to retain their personal narrative, a personal narrative that highlights personal joys and forgiveness, community kindness and generosity, collective love and hard work and many, many, periods of happiness. Just the basic core of what it means to be a woman to each woman, and the joy, love and essence of women.
My co-fellow Joseph and I do a lot of work in a district called Kasese – A beautiful district ridden in the Rwenzori Mountains. Every time I’m in Kasese I’m reminded of the power of women and why we are so amazing. Women in this district, as in many African countries, run the show! You see them walking everywhere with extremely heavy loads on their heads, you see them digging in the fields in the hot sun, you see them in high positions in the local government, you see them gathered under a tree learning how to use the new energy efficient stove, you see them as the teachers, nurses and district officials. They are the foundation, building blocks, watering hole and glue of this society lets honor them and take some time to speak of their happy stories.
