Muraho! -- by Zach S.

Zach Siddall

ED3 -- Muhanga District, Southern Province

Muraho! My name is Zack Siddall and I am one of the three new GAD representatives from the most recent Peace Corps group Education 3. I, along with my fellow ED3’ers Chinelo Nwosu and Sarah Epplin, are very excited to join the already sterling line up of PCVs on the GAD committee. We look forward to bringing an onslaught of new ideas and fresh energy to the nationwide GAD meeting this month in Kigali. 

Before working with the Peace Corps here in Rwanda I was blessed to have amble opportunity to do gender equality work with my previous employer Habitat for Humanity. Through Habitat I worked with a program called Women’s Build which focused on breaking down the stereotypical gender roles so often associated with the construction field of work. With the exception of a few males, such as myself, providing moderate amounts of technical support the entire Habitat house was built by women. The comradely and confidence that blossomed between the women I had the opportunity to work with over that 2-3 month window of time it would take to build each house was amazing. At first these female volunteers would hang on my every word. By week two I was demoted to the coffee and donuts errand boy. Then I recall one time while working on a house (about a month in) I reached down to grab my hammer only to find it had been stealthy stolen from my tool belt by a female volunteer who not a month earlier confessed she had never touched a hammer let alone even thought of building an entire house. Now she was swinging away, knocking 8 penny nails into hard pine like it was a hot knife through butter.

I hope to bring some of that Habitat mentality here to Rwanda. Rwanda is a beautiful country and now, here in 2012, is the best time to be doing gender work in this rapidly developing country. Every day women are breaking down the traditional gender roles in Rwanda. You see more and more women entering the work force and obtaining higher degrees of education. However, Rwanda (and the rest of the world for that matter) still has a long way to go before everyone is truly treated equally. That’s where we come in. During my service I intend to focus my GAD work on building partnerships. Whether that be on a nationwide scale by building relationships between Peace Corps Rwanda and other NGOs/the Rwandan Government. Or simply working on the village to village level by connecting people through cooperatives and creating gender equality dialog sessions. I’m very excited to join this wonderful project and I look forward to the good work that will happen in the weeks to come.