Friday, July 31, 2009

Are Women Equally Skillful with Men... or More?

The EU-Assisted Build for Peace in Mindanao Project expired last June 2009. Prior to the project ending, the staff and other stakeholders including myself came up with our sustainability plan on how the project will continue through the local stakeholders’ initiative…in the absence of the European Union program funds. As we traversed back to what had happened for the last year of the project implementation, our attention was brought back to how the project had touched the lives of women in the project sites. We admired that women aside from being the front liners of home management, they as well were able to show their capabilities in construction related undertakings where “mostly men are doing”. I remember that Gervy once had requested me to write an article about how women show there force given an opportunity for contruction related work. Hereunder please review what I wrote…

"The notion which was disproved several times that there are things that men can do that women cannot, was again proven wrong. This happened when mothers and daughters enrolled jointly in a masonry con jalousie installation training program spearheaded by the EU-Assisted Build for Peace in Mindanao Project of the Habitat for Humanity Philippines. The sub-project dubbed Angat Kakayahan ng mga Kababaihan or shortly named “Akay-Kababaihan” was organized by the Project Management Office of the Habitat for Humanity Philippines in support to the project deliberables.

Better than the charms of men, the project intended for women generated massive support from partners. The Building and Wood Workers, International (BWI) based in Metro Manila provided the funds for the Gender training component of the project while the National Union of Building & Construction Workers (NUBCW) funded the activity through the provision of training materials. Locally based supporters like the Alcantara Foundation (AF) sponsored the participants’ expenses on meals and transportation. The Kalinaw Sarangani of the Provincial Government of Sarangani extended their facilitation services in documenting the process and in identifying participants based on the criteria set forth by the Habitat for Humanity Project Management Office. The Municipal Government of Malapatan and the BLGU of Tuyan generously extended their internal facilities that served as the lecture and practicum avenues of the skills training. More of the exciting collaborative undertaking was the participation of the National Home Builders Association who extended their technical assistance in the training together with Mr. Ricardo Marin, a trainer from the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority. The women had also gone through a TESDA-standardized examination after the training and had received their certificates of competency.

The five days intensive skills training did not only made the women from Barangays Tuyan and Lumatil of Sarangani Province equally skillful with men on construction related skills, but likewise were empowered in decision making and community participation. Two decades ago, Tuyan and Lumatil were two of the sites of fighting between government and rebel Moro forces. The fighting contributed a lot to women in these areas became passive in participation and decision making. Further, among the Muslim and Blaan traditions, wives do more of the household chores than their husbands. Men do more the decisions. After their attendance to the training, they had changed a perspective. “Kung kaya ni mister, kaya ni misis (if the husband can do it, so can the wife),” said Annie Juan, one of the participants of thirty women from these two villages who were trained last November 10-16 at the Tuyan town hall compound. Mrs. Juan’s attendance to the training made her realized the essence of women’s participation as partners of men in development building.
The existence of the community center’s masonry and jalousie works in Barangay Tuyan are living demonstration of the skills they acquired. As skilled workers accredited by TESDA, women can bring in more income for their families. Habitat hopes to employ these women in their ongoing Peace Build and other future regular projects.


…well, given the appropriate intervention, in many instances, we have seen women are on the go. My salute to all women, especially to the three special women in my life… my wife, my daughter and my mama.

Likewise my salutation to President Gloria and President Cory. Today, August 1, 2009, President Cory died but she had proven her worth as a woman. She is dubbed as the Mother of Philippine Democracy Restoration. 'Til next time. SHALOM.