One thing I now know for sure. The women of Woldia have a lot to say for themselves!
“I gained knowledge from the different experiences of the women on the panel. The main message was women students are equal to men students.”
“Listening to them talk gave me solutions to the challenges I will face as a new teacher”
“Self-confidence is a necessary life skill.”
It was all I had dreamed of and so much more, as we gathered at the Woldia municipal hall to celebrate International Women’s Day with the female trainees of Woldia College of Teacher Education on March 8, 2011.
Well, we did start late and there were a few delays with the sound system but that did not seem to bother the 300 young women who, creating a colourful collage as they sat cushioned in the auditorium’s plush blue chairs, partnered up to complete a needs assessment for our gender project.
It was a treat for me to be working with male administrators and teachers so committed to gender equality at our college. And while we waited for a microphone to appear, colleagues and co-organizers of the event Ato Yirga and Ato Wondale busied themselves distributing pens and notebooks to everyone and putting up signs and slogans, including one in English, especially for me. How sweet was that! The Amharic slogans said: “Development without women is unthinkable” and “Quality education cannot be achieved without the active involvement of women”.
I practiced “pausing my impatience” by circulating around the hall, greeting the young women and taking lots of photos. In my head I chanted the Ethiopian proverb “Slowly, slowly the egg will walk!”
WCTE Gender Coordinator Ato Yirga and WCTE Clubs sponsor Ato Wondale
The panelists also waited patiently while enough chairs were found. Meanwhile the WCTE Girls’ Club members began setting up for the coffee ceremony, a gracious requirement for any official event.
At last we were ready! Our dean, Ato Bihonegn stepped up to the stage to welcome everyone, stress the importance of gender equality and say a few inspirational words. He pointed out that International Women’s Day has been celebrated in Ethiopia for the past 35 years, as reported on the TV news. Then I said a few words ( only a few because mine were in English and most would not understand them!) about our gender project and thanked VSO Ethiopia and USAID for the funds that allowed us to hold this event and to have other events this year.
Here is WCTE Dean Ato Bihonegn enjoying listening to women role models on the panel.
From our first day here, Shelagh and I have been impressed by Ato Bihonegn’s strong advocacy for women’s empowerment. Shelagh, by the way, was away in Addis at a training so missed this event. She’s looking forward to involvement in our upcoming events which will include a welcome ceremony for the first year female trainees, skill building workshops on assertiveness and leadership as well as education sessions on legal and health issues. We also have plans for a peer counselling program , peer tutoring and financial incentives for high achievers as well as a hardship fund for females at risk of dropping out for financial reasons.
I told the young women that this event was very special for me as I have been celebrating International Women’s Day for well over 35 years and this is the first time I have had the privilege of celebrating outside of my home country of Canada.
Next Aleme, a 3rd year student, read her poem with a lot of passion. Wondale, an Amharic teacher and a poet himself, summarized it for me this way: The poem spoke of female oppression, where the family did not value education and hindered school attendance. They were going to allow her to be kidnapped as a child bride. It ended happily when an older brother convinced her parents to allow her to continue her education and her family apologized to her.
Yirga, as the WCTE gender coordinator, then introduced our panel of role models. The audience listened attentively as each woman spoke about her life and her work.
Tiruwork Amare – Health Officer, Marie Stopes International Clinic, urged our future teachers to be role models of good health for their primary students. The Woldia Marie Stopes Clinic opened 6 months ago and has already served 800+ clients. Their mandate is reproductive health and they serve 15-44 years old women and their families. Ten staff offer services related to counseling, HIV/AIDS, birth control, maternal and infant health, etc.
Serkalem Assefa – Representing the Zone Education Officer of North Wollo which has 12 woredas, 514 schools. She noted that man educates himself, but a woman educates her whole family, community and society. When asked after the panel about how to balance home and work, she emphasized the need to manage time well, plan carefully and overcome problems.
Seblewongel Ayalew – Head Teacher of Merkekole Primary School (1285 pupils and 52 teachers). Spoke of her experiences in several schools and urged these future teachers to have self confidence and be strong when facing challenges. Education is basic to the economic and cultural development of the country and a country does not develop by educating men alone.
Tafesech Wolde – Public Prosecutor, Zone Justice Department shared her educational experiences doing her law degree. She then emphasized concerns about trafficking of women and urged the young women not to migrate out of the country illegally. It is a big problem in the region. (Shelagh and I have noticed some billboards warning about trafficking around town.)
Zerefa Biru – Community development worker. After living in Canada for the past 22 years, she and her husband have retired and returned to her home town of Woldia to build an orphanage. She currently has registered as an NGO in Ethiopia and has received charitable status in Canada so donors can receive tax receipts. She spoke of the pivotal role that teachers play in the lives of children and how female teachers are a crucial support for girls in schools. Children need to be loved and teachers should be caring adults for all their students to help them succeed. Her message – love all our children to give them a good foundation in life.
While the panel spoke, the clink of bottle caps bouncing on the floor provided gentle ambient sounds. Our finance office staff was circulating around the hall, distributing and opening bottles of Pepsi and Mirinda that had arrived. These soft drinks were a treat as we have not had any for a while. The government recently capped food and drink prices, resulting in a shortage of a number of items, including soft drinks.
(Sorry about the product placement – perhaps they’ll make a donation to CUSO-VSO if any corporate folks read this!!!)
Meanwhile, the rich aroma of Ethiopian coffee began to fill the air as small cups were served, along with the traditional accompaniment – popcorn.
After the panel, several trainees took the microphone to voice their appreciation for the event and to ask panelists more abut their biggest challenges and how they overcame them.
Motivated by the energy in the room, 3 more women spontaneously took the stage and a second panel of three began to speak. This proved to be an extra bonus to the proceedings.
Seblewongel Derijie – Seble is a Biology instructor at WCTE and our newest staff member; a very welcome addition to our college as our only female colleague. Her key message to the young women was that strength and confidence is vital to overcome the challenges on their way to success.
Ambasha Yasin – Head of the Woldia City Women and Youth Office said that International Women’s Day is memorable because so many women have suffered in their homes and communities. Strong women are needed to change this history.
Amelework Geta – Head of the Women’s League of North Wollo urged the trainees to take courage in solving the problems they may face in the countryside and to defend themselves against injustice.
Collectively our speakers articulated so many issues faced by girls and women. As I listened, I wondered what data might be available on the status of Ethiopian women, so I began to check online and in some books. While the statistics are not easy to come by, I have pieced together a few…
- Literacy: An estimated 60% of Ethiopian women are illiterate
- Girls’ education: Large numbers do not complete their education. Overall only 44% of children attend school. 20% of children drop out after their first year of school. The gap between males and females for completion rates is still very wide, despite an upward trend in school attendance.
- Maternal and infant mortality: 1/27 women risk maternal death in their lifetimes. Maternal mortality is one of the world’s highest at 670/100,000. Infancy mortality is 118/1000 births. 1/20 children die in the first month of their lives.
- Violence against women:The National Committee for Traditional Practices in Ethiopia has identified 120 Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs), including female genital cutting (FGC), early and forced marriage, rape, and wife inheritance. Ethiopian law states that 18 is the age of consent for marriage and protects women against violence yet many harmful traditional practices persist, especially in the rural areas. An interesting report by Pathfinder International states ” Low status characterizes virtually every aspect of girls’ and womens’ lives. Given the heavy workload imposed on girls at an early age, early marriage without choice and a subservient role to both husband and mother-in-law, girls and women are left with few opportunities to make and act on their own decisions.” I was interested to read of the successes this NGO had in their Empowerment for Ethiopian Women project, particularly in involving men and religious leaders as allies. The report has many stories of transformation of viewpoints due to education.
- Poverty: Nearly 80% of Ethiopia’s the 83 million people live on less than $2.00 CDN per day. 1/4 of all families are headed by a single mother.
Certainly there is a lot to be done to improve the status of women and girls here. The good news is there are well educated, dedicated and very intelligent Ethiopian women working for such improvements and they provide strong role models for young future teachers at our college.
Ato Burhanu, our Vice-Dean for Pre-Service, closed the event with a story of his own. As a young teacher 22 years ago teaching in the south of the country (SNNPR) he heard of traditional nomadic practice that required women about to give birth to go off alone to the forest for 40 days. If their firstborn was a male, he was “thrown away”. A girl was welcome as she could bring the family cattle as a dowry when she was married. Many women and children died under these grueling circumstances. Now, thanks to government programs to settle nomadic groups and to provide health care and education, the situation has improved.
As the young women spilled out of the auditorium, their sparkling eyes told the story – our International Women’s Day celebration had been a great success. Their evaluations gave it an overwhelming “thumbs up”. The only suggestion for improvement was to add some singing and dancing!
Outside the hall, the happy chatter continued as they made their way home.It sounded like they had a lot to say! Clearly they enjoyed the chance to focus on the issues that concern them and to be inspired by role models who shared ways to move forward for a better world for the women and girls of Ethiopia.
The next day our HDP/ELIC classroom was a buzz with female trainees tallying the needs assessment results on charts and translating comments from Amharic to English for the report.
And I busied myself making a large collage poster to display on our outdoor display case.
Seeing the sparkling eyes of these young women reminded me of many years ago when the “light bulb went on” for me to see the inequalities women face in this world. Now, I look forward to being part of our college gender team providing these deserving young women with further opportunities to talk, share their experiences and find their own solutions.
As the proverb says “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion!”
It is so exciting to know that women in Ethiopia are participating in IWD celebrations…& have the opportunity to share their experiences & aspirations with one another. Sisterhood is everywhere!
We attended a VESTA S/W dinner with Gale as the keynote speaker highlighting the history of feminism within the BCTF & an analysis of future challenges for women within the international corporate-capitalistic culture. There was also a presentation by the Gogos a network of women all across Canada who support Stephen Lewis Foundation’s Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign re African grandmothers raising children orphaned by AIDS. A great evening getting together with old friends & colleagues.
I am so glad you had a part in organizing this, Marian. You have so much experience to share. I am wondering about the language used. I am guessing all the students in your programme can speak English. Do new trainee teachers coming into the programme speak any English or is it something they learn as part of their course? Maybe that’s where Sheila’s job kicks in. No doubt you’re missing the rainy season in Vancouver! Rain, rain and more rain!
Thanks for your comments Moira. While the college instructors in my class do speak varied levels of English, the college language of instruction is Amharic and most students, even the ones in the languages cluster who are studying some English, speak only very basic English. The way English is taught with a heavy emphasis on grammar and rote learning results in some interesting twists. There are so few native English speakers in the country that people have major obstacles in improving their English. These past six months, simply by having four hours a week of HDP classes in which to practice their English, I have noticed great improvements in the level of conversation in my class. That’s why there are ELICs (English Language Improvement Centers) with volunteers like Shelagh in many colleges and universities. Her challenge is to reach out to large numbers of students with little structure to guide her, unlike my program which has a set curriculum.Recently she has been visiting the English classes and co-teaching and working to set up some clubs ( ex. film club) for students.
Our “little rainy season” seems to have begun with a couple of rather dramatic heavy downpours, thankfully usually at night. I have never seen such gummy mud and am thankful for my Croc boots. The days are pleasant with plenty of sunshine and really warm temperatures at mid-day but cooler morning and nights. I do not miss the relentless Vancouver rains at all!!
Marian: what a wonderful report of International Women’s Day! Really interesting to see younger women feeling empowered, and even more exciting to have men’s help to do it 😉 With my new president, Dilma, being elected by both men and women, I believe the world is getting better, as far as human beings go! Great celebration. Thanks for sharing it with us!!
Miss you here on Nevis!
VERY Interesting report, Marian, and the photographs are especially useful. I was 17 days in Tanzania in 2003, especially in Dar-es-Salaam, where my daughter Naomi had been studying for 10 months (3rd year University exchange program). Tanzania is one of the more developed African states but is still very poor overall, although they have a socialized education and health system, having been a Belgium then British colony. Gender equality was making some progress, especially at the university and college settings, but still lots of work to do in rural areas. Good luck with your work!
Great entry, really enjoyed reading it.
I’ve started work on my Gender and HIV/AIDS projects over here in Ambo. They have a lot to live up to after reading your entry. You have definitely set a bar high, I’m very impressed. I’ll let you know how they go.
Hi Marian,
Loved reading your post and seeing the pictures – clearly there was a lot of positive energy. I see that energy in all your posts though, and it’s fresh and wonderful – what a pleasure to see a world that feels so completely free from irony and sarcasm!
And all those beautiful smiling women made me smile too!
hello, madam
teacher Yirga was my civics teacher.
Hi Marian,
I have seen your facinating photos you posted on your website. I found all so interesting , educative and valuable to introduce Ethiopia to some other bodies.
I hope you have been enjoying your stay in Ethiopia. I wish you successful HDP completion!!
Moges Beletew
Debre Markos University
Thanks Moges
I appreciate all the help you gave me at the start of HDP. The time has passed so quickly and I will miss the Woldia group when I leave in 4 weeks. Next year I will be working in Addis at the Ministry of Education as a gender adviser.
Keep in touch!
Marian