WLT

First day down! Three to go!

Other than a bit of a slow start at the beginning because the attendees were late (alas, Swahili time), day one of women's leadership training went pretty smoothly.  At first the GET team wanted to hire a facilitator for this training ---> expensive and unnecessary.  I convinced them that by working together the GET members could facilitate the training.  This way, they get a little more education on leadership training for women, as well as facilitation skills for the future.  Raya - a GET member, SMOOCH member, teacher, and mother of three - was the facilitator for the morning session.  She is fantastic! I think she could do all four days and it would be wonderful.

One of the things I've been pushing for is having the women on the GET team facilitate the training for WOMEN's leadership training.  It's a hard battle to win.  They agree, say "yes, yes", but then assign one male and one female to facilitate together.  Alas, I lost the battle.

In today's session Raya and Juma were facilitating.  However, Juma had to go to work in the morning and so Raya had the floor to herself.  This reduced the possibility of her voice being subdued by Juma, who facilitated in the afternoon.  What I am most worried about is the men cutting the women off and dominating the facilitation of the training.  Even though these men are part of the GET (remember, gender equality team), and are progressive thinkers in terms of gender in their culture, it is still a large concern for me for the rest of the training - but we'll have to see how that goes.  My fingers are crossed.

We then had lunch and moved into the afternoon session.  While the morning was more content, the afternoon was filled with group work/activities.  Juma did a good job with the activities, which were designed to facilitate self-confidence and empower the women to see how they can make a difference.  Using the tools and language that was discussed in the morning session.

Both facilitators did a wonderful job - Raya is a teacher and is a natural in front of a crowd, and Juma was nervous but did a good job.  The 4 sessions of leadership training are the same everyday - they feature around 20 different women each day.  So four different groups get the same training.  This way we can concentrate more on the content and have better facilitation with smaller groups (& save money on venue costs).

There's a quick little recap of what's going on with me and women's leadership training, and another early start to the day tomorrow!
Siku njema! (have a great day).
love love love,
Jamie