Gender equality mainstreaming

For the most part I feel that I am lucky to work with people who like what they do, are good at it, and believe in it. Then every once in a while I come across cases that scare me. I'm currently participating in a knowledge sharing event about mainstreaming women's entrepreneurship in our programs, hosted by the key project team globally. 

I've spent the last two days in a room with technical specialists in women's entrepreneurship development and national program coordinators from Africa and South East Asia, as well as colleagues from our global team in Geneva. Mostly, it's been engaging and interesting. People clearly are passionate about what they do and believe in the core goal of promoting women's entrepreneurship/economic development and gender mainstreaming. 

Then there are people that make statements that I simply can't believe. And from people who are in a position of authority in some ways and are responsible to the work we do at the country level. Today, I just had to take a picture of the statement. This particular individual made a similar comment about God wanting men and women to be unequal on our opening day, albeit verbally in an exercise called Cynics and Believers, where we are challenged to play the role as the champions of WED and also the devil's advocates. However, this statement came from an exercise today in which we were addressing the mental modules that contribute to the creation of structures and patterns. After we identified some in small groups, we were then given red stickers to vote on the mental modules that resonate with us. Alas, on the photo below, you see a red dot. 

The fact that these ideas persist amongst project staff who are tasked with changing attitudes and opinions and promoting gender equality scares me. And this isn't just true in my organization. I know of people who work in major health-focussed NGOs who believe in "miracle cures and madness."

I suppose the point of this rant is that we have a long way to go. Even amongst some of our supposedly well-educated and enlightened colleagues when it comes to some of the core issues we are up against as development workers.

Puppies

Friday morning I woke up to a basket full of puppies. Four to be exact. And before I left for work an hour later, two more had arrived with it looking like there might be more on the way. Luckily, there was just one more bun in the oven, bringing the total to 7 puppies. Poor Shaki is just a puppy herself, being under a year old still. But she was amazing and knew exactly what to do and popped those seven out without any assistance. Broke the amniotic sac, licked the babies clean, chewed over the umbilical cords and cleaned up the whole mess.

The puppies weighed between 395 and 450 grams on Friday afternoon after about 6-8 hours outside the womb - my kitchen scale came in handy.  There are four girls and three boys. Three of the puppies have an extra dewclaw on each back paw (kind of like a fifth toe). Their poppa is actually double dewclawed on each hind leg. Dew claws are common on the front paws of dogs but more rare on back paws and apparently more prevalent in some races (commonly agility, herding and racing dogs). Tanzanian mutts seem to be one of those races. 

Anyway, they're gorgeous little puppies and their momma Shaki is doing great so far. Poor girl is super skinny now that she's given birth, despite being fed more under her pregnancy, so I'm super-upping her food while she's lactating to make sure she says healthy. I did a puppy weigh in this afternoon and they're all gaining weigh well and everyone seems to be nursing regularly. 

Cicero, my kitten who has been part of the household for just about a month now, is interested in the whole affair. Shaki snapped s at her once but has since be okay, although her ears perk up with he comes too close. I'm hope they'll learn to live with each other. If nothing when the puppies are a little older and she's less protective. I'm traveling for work the next 4 days and this is the first time I've left Cicero "out" while I've been away. He usually gets to spend a little outside time in the mornings while I get ready for work, then is inside while I'm away and comes out again in the afternoon for some quality exploring and leaf-hunting. BUT he's started to be more and more interested in the outdoor world and I thought Sunday-Thursday was an awfully long time for him to be cooped up, so I left the window a crack open and instructions with the guards to keep an eye on him and help sliding the widow open and shut when he's wanting in or out. Let's hope he survives the next few days.