Stepping It Up by Grace M.

Grace Mullin 
Muhanga District, Southern Region

The GAD Rwanda Committee officially formed in 2009. Over the next few years, the committee went through ups and downs with work flow. There were many great initiatives put forth, including starting the GLOW Camp (Girls Leading Our a World) and then eventually BE Camp (Boys Excelling). Various other projects were started, some country-wide (Like the Healthy Living Workshop), some at individual sites (Such as Women's Day Celebrations). Since 2009 many Peace Corps Volunteers have participated in gender work, both the numerous GAD Committee Members, as well as the Peace Corps Community, country-wide.

Over the last six months however, the GAD Committee has really stepped up their game. This has happened in part because of the help and work of our wonderful GAD Staff Liaison, Nicole, and in part because of new committee members with fresh eyes, fresh goals, and a whole lot of drive, motivation and dedication! GAD has begun to work on a lot of new initiatives to really bring GAD related issues, ideas and projects to the Peace Corps Rwanda Community. I am so proud of the group I work with and all of the time they have given in the last few months to improve the work we do. I wanted to take a moment to highlight these things for everyone to see, as well as to express my eternal gratitude!

• GAD Manual: after realizing that many other GAD Peace Corps Programs had specific GAD Manuals for volunteers in their country to utilize as a resource for understanding gender issues, strengths and challenges, members of our GAD Committee formed a standing committee to create one for Rwanda. Four months and 123 pages later, I am very pleased to report that Peace Corps Rwanda now has a GAD Manual for volunteers, that is in the final approval process and should be available in the next month. It goes through everything from the breakdown of the gender statistics in Rwanda (based off of data from various Reports and Policies, especially those from the Government of Rwanda), an understanding of gender needs in both the Health and Education Sectors (the two Peace Corps Sectors here in Rwanda), cross-sector GAD information, an overview of projects that have been done both in Rwanda and other countries that volunteers can use to generate ideas, information on other NGOs in Rwanda that do gender work, and various gender issues volunteers may face in country, especially regarding the cultural differences between America and Rwanda. We are very excited about this Manual, and are confident it will help all of our volunteers to be better aware of gender needs in their communities and ways to attend to those on various levels!
• Social Media and Publications: we have also increased our work to share what we are doing with the larger community. This includes blog writing by all members on a more consistent time table, a Facebook GAD Rwanda page (as supposed to just a group), quarterly GAD Updates (for Volunteers), and a revamp/relaunch of our GLOW Magazine (coming out in the next week).
• A restructuring of GAD positions, including a GAD Chair, a more defined role of the GAD Secretary, a NGO Liaison, a specific M&E Point Person (Monitoring and Evaluation), and a defined role of standing committees for various projects.
• Work to increase our GAD-related M&E so we have a better grasp on all of the ways in which we are contributing to gender development here in Rwanda.
• A more defined Mission Statement, as well as more defined Objectives for both our GLOW and BE Camps/Clubs.
• Updating a very archaic and somewhat unhelpful Gender and Development Section of our Peace Corps Rwanda Resource Drive, giving volunteers more access to gender-related publications, Government of Rwanda gender-related documents, policies and statistics, camp documents, club ideas, and other helpful resources.
• More ideas generated on helping volunteers to recognize gender-related International Days, including International Women's Day (March 8), International Day of the Girl Child (October 11), International Men's Day (November 19), and 16 Days of Activism (November 25-December 10).
• Discussions on other projects we can bring into the communities, most notably Gender Walks and a new "Let Girls Work" Campaign (a spin off of the new Peace Corps Worldwide "Let Girls Learn" Campaign, which will be based off of the concepts of Take Your Daughter To Work Day)... More information on these projects to come soon!!

As you can (hopefully) see... We have been very busy!! So THANK YOU to all of the Committee Members and our Staff Liaison for ALL of the hard work you are doing. It certainly has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated, and will hopefully be now be noticed by a much larger community (you, our wonderful readers and supporters)!

Until next time, Happy GADing :)

Let's Get Campy! by Max M.

Max Marsland
Nyaruguru District, Southern Province

In many Peace Corps countries, including Peace Corps Rwanda, camps for students are held in various regions. Usually during school breaks, these camps have many different focuses: technology, health, leadership, science, and the arts among others. Recently in Rwanda, GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and BE (Boys Excelling) camps were held all over the country during the beginning of August, with my region (the Southern Province) holding both camps back to back. These camps are for girls and boys respectively, and focus on healthy living, preparing for the future, and general leadership. They are a great opportunity for campers to build friendships with students from other schools, to hear inspiring guest speakers, and to develop valuable life skills.

            GLOW is designed to help girls in secondary school develop confidence and leadership skills they can take back to their communities. Since girls in Rwanda are often shy and feel that they can’t speak up in class, confidence is an incredibly important skill to build. At the Southern camp, lessons are taught by four Peace Corps volunteers, who are helped by two Junior Facilitators each. These Junior Facilitators are girls chosen from various Volunteer communities who have showed a high level of English comprehension and leadership skill. While at first the volunteer leads the lesson, the Junior facilitators gradually take a more active role in the classroom, becoming student leaders by the end of camp. Lessons at GLOW camp include self-esteem, gender awareness, nutrition, and how HIV works.

But camp isn’t only lessons. There is also a daily guest speaker; this year we had Gloriosa, who is a stellar Peace Corps Rwanda staff member, talk about Gender Based Violence, as well as a career panel, and a speaker from Kigali Hope talk about HIV stigma and support. There are also crafts (like bead bracelets, paper mache, and fabric pouches) and games in the afternoon. Each night after dinner we have a special activity for all the girls in the main hall. This year the girls staged a stellar debate, watched the film Dream Girls, showed off how much they had learned during Trivia Night, and blew us all away during a talent show that included excellent singing and a fantastic fashion show.

Camp is a great experience for many young Rwandans. While there are a lot of important lessons to be learned in the classes, the most important part of camp, in my opinion, is what is learned outside of the classes. Girls and boys learn how to work as a team during many of the games and sports, they learn to put others ahead of themselves when they help to serve food at meals, and they learn to put themselves out there when they perform for each other, and show respect for everyone as they cheer each other on. GLOW/BE Camps are a lot like Peace Corps in general: a lot of stuff can and does go wrong, but how you deal with it defines your experience, you get out of it what you put into it, and finally it’s more about building and maintaining relationships outside of a formal setting. 

This is also my last post as a member of PC Rwanda GAD (since I will be finishing my service in the fall). It has been a pleasure working with all of my colleagues on GAD, and everyone in Peace Corps Rwanda, volunteers and staff. As a few parting words let me say this: the most I've been able to do to help promote gender equality here has been to live as an example. In many little ways, I've tried to show my Rwandan friends  and co-workers what I think when I imagine gender equality. This, I hope, has shown them that "equality" is not a zero-sum game, there's enough room at the table for everyone to be there, you just have to give them the same and listen to what they have to say. 

Thanks again for everything, and good luck!