27 Luni

One of Peace Corps Romania’s more active organizations is our Gender and Development (GAD) committee.  The group is run by Peace Corps Volunteers and Host Country Nationals and, as the title would suggest, its mission is to promote gender equality in the social and economic development processes of Romania.  As the GAD website explains, the organization fulfills its aims through various outlets, such as national campaigns like the 16 Days Against Gender Violence, by holding workshops across the nation, helping with and creating GLOW and TOBE camps, and supplying grants to worthy actions.  Although I am not a member of the GAD committee, I have participated in a few of its initiatives, most notably GLOW and TOBE but also its annual 16 Days Against Gender Violence campaign.

The latter event is among one of my favorites while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer, though my role was relatively limited, acting largely as a Producer of sorts.  The campaign, 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, was launched in 1991 as a way to organize activities that focus on gender violence awareness.  Each year the GAD committee rolls out a slightly different take on the same theme.  This time around it observed the 16 days from November 25^th through December 10^th, with the following relevant and important days:

• November 25: International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
• November 29: International Women Human Rights Defenders Day
• December 1: World AIDS Day
• December 3: International Day of Persons with Disabilities
• December 10: International Human Rights Day

Per GAD’s marketing materials on the topic: The 2012 theme is “From Peace at Home to Peace in the World”. Writing (in Romanian), Art, Photography, Theatrical Performance, and Film Submissions should be creative interpretations of this theme created specifically for this competition.

When the campaign first launched, I brought the idea to my Counterpart’s attention and watched her eyes light up with excitement.  As a teacher of Romanian Literature she immediately put on her Director’s hat and jumped on the idea of collaborating with her students to create a Theatrical Performance.  Coincidentally, this was the first year that GAD included this particular category.  So, over the next few weeks, we worked out a script, students designed costumes and props and we transformed my classroom into a mini theatre.  After a couple of rehearsals we let the film roll, recorded our submission and then sat back and waited for the results.  A couple months later the good news arrived and as it turns out our students won first place under the heading of Theatrical Performances, never mind the fact that they had the only entry in this category.

Worth mentioning is that the entire project from start to finish was generously sponsored by IREX/Biblionet and the SensiBlu Foundation.  As reward and recognition of the students’ hard work and dedication, the GAD committee and its sponsors invited all winning participants to an award ceremony at the National Library in Bucharest.  The photography, paintings and essays of many participating students were debuted and film submissions were played on repeat for all guests to see.  Our students had the distinct honor of performing their submission for the large group of attendees. In the end, each of our students won a digital camera and their round-trip ticket to Bucharest for the event.  With their newfound stardom pumping up their self-confidence our little troop of performers later gave an encore performance in our high school’s auditorium.

Ultimately, the point of this project was to encourage participants and spectators to challenge the status quo as it relates to gender equality and more specifically domestic violence.  Even more so than in America, I have learned that in Romania the traditional role of women as homemaker is still very much alive today.  During preparatory discussions on this topic, many of our high school boys were appalled at the fact that I do my own laundry, cleaning and cooking; in their minds this was very much the role of their mothers, girlfriends and/or future wives.  Unfortunately, many of them have witnessed domestic violence first hand or know of someone who has.  Fortunately, the general consensus was that this type of behavior is unacceptable and shouldn’t be tolerated in their generation.  I can’t say definitively if we managed to outright change the thinking of these youth, but I know for sure that we planted a few positive seeds for the future.

Film: I want to tell you that I love you.