Happy International Women's Day!

Happy International Women’s Day! Today is officially the coolest way that I’ve ever spent my favorite non-traditional holiday. :) Over the past few days I’ve gotten into the women’s rights mood, listening to the “Afro-Entertainment News” radio station, where young women have been talking about Ethiopia’s and Africa’s successes and challenges with regard to women’s human rights. Liberia’s female president, Rwanda’s 58% women-run parliament, and Kenya’s Nobel Peace Prize-winner Wangari Maathai were all celebrated. Last Saturday March 6th, I also participated in a 5k “choice run” for women and girls with my friend Thamar and her mom, which was an excellent tribute. I found it fascinating that “choice” here hasn’t been co-opted by conservatives to mean abortion; it really does mean individual, empowered decision-making. In this case the race was sponsored by a contraception company, so I guess it does come back to family planning, but in a very positive light. (I should mention that abortion is mostly illegal here, and only a small percentage of women use modern contraception methods, so perhaps that’s why the “choice” conversation comes back to whether or not to use condoms/birth control… a very different paradigm shift from how I’m used to thinking in my U.S. advocacy!) The race was super cool though; there were thousands of people who showed up for the race, all of them wearing bright orange t-shirts and laughing, singing and dancing to music. My favorite tune was this catchy inspirational song created by South Africa in honor of the World Cup:

When I get older, I will be stronger, they’ll call me Freedom, just like a waving flag!

Again, yay Ethiopia!

It was too bad that I’ve been sick for the past week or so, and couldn’t actually run in the race, but at least it gave me a chance to chill out at home and finish my 2nd book since I got here 8 days ago, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. It was another great way to celebrate women’s rights, since it’s about his efforts to promote peace in Pakistan and Afghanistan by building schools, especially for girls. The book had me crying the whole time, since I was so inspired by his life and his passion to improve life for impoverished people in an incredibly challenging area. Thank goodness his organization, the Central Asian Institute, has him traveling around the U.S. all the time giving speeches, so hopefully I can meet him some day! His efforts really make me feel like I’m doing nothing for the world, haha… but I guess I have to be happy with where I’m at, working to advance reproductive health and sustainable development in Ethiopia on International Women’s Day.

I really love volunteering with PHE-Ethiopia, and getting to know how sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) issues are framed so differently in developing vs. developed countries. Last Friday I got to participate in this big Packard-grantees meeting on how to coordinate youth efforts in sexual and reproductive health programs, and was so amazed with how similar the meeting felt to all the ones I’ve had in DC. It took place in a nice Red Cross conference center, and included the works—guided facilitation, power-points, flip-chart paper, buffet lunch, bottled water, etc. It was really interesting though that at the meeting, they focused a lot on addressing the specific needs of disabled youth in SRHR programs, but they didn’t even mention LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) youth. This was NOTHING like my experiences with the SRHR movement in the states! I asked my friends about it afterwards, and was quite sad and terrified to hear their answers… basically the LGBT issue here is considered extremely taboo, even within the reproductive health community. My friends said the question doesn’t come down to whether or not people are born gay, but whether people who exhibit gay behavior are human beings or not. (??!!!) One person told me that she doesn’t think the issue will ever be accepted in Ethiopia, or at least in her lifetime. I couldn’t believe this! Especially because if you walk down the street, you’ll see maybe a dozen pairs of two men or two women holding hands… I previously had thought people were more open with their sexuality in Addis Ababa because it’s a city, perhaps than rural areas. But apparently it’s okay for same-sex friends to be affectionate, but nothing more than that! I later learned that this was a key issue at a recent Sexuality Conference in Addis Ababa in February… hopefully at least some youth are moving in a progressive direction!

Well, clearly I still have a more lot to learn about Ethiopian culture, than my 15 minute walk from my house to work has taught me yet. I can’t wait for next week, when I’ll get to visit the Bale Mountains to learn about the MELCA project! Let’s hope I’m feeling well enough to do a good job with all the intensive interviewing I’ll have to do… wish me luck!