This month, my organization, three other Peace Corps Volunteers, and I hosted a Youth Empowerment Summit in Kutaisi, Georgia. In fact, there were three other summits that took place this Spring. It was all inspired by our training last November. Peace Corps held a Training of Trainers (ToT) for 20 Peace Corps Volunteers, selected World Vision staff, and some youth in Tbilisi last November. All the Peace Corps Volunteers that are on official programmatic committees were invited to attend. Since I’m on the Gender Equality committee and partnered with World Vision, I was invited to this training. We learned the importance of clubs and volunteerism. The objective of our training was for us to hold summits for the youth in our communities on how to create and sustain clubs.
Our Training of Trainers in November 2016
During the week-long training, we practiced presenting various topics that might be useful for the youth. Session topics included: leadership skills, collaboration, volunteerism, asset identification, and more. I really appreciated that after our training, Peace Corps provided us with resource books on these topics. Our post also invested in these resources since they also translated the books to Georgian so our counterparts can also take advantage and utilize the books.
Some of the resource books that Peace Corps provided us after the Training of Trainers
The ToT was essentially organized by the regions that the World Vision Georgia offices are located in. Since World Vision works with youth and is a leading non-profit in this field, Peace Corps invited and requested them to be our partnering organization for the summits. As you may recall from this post, our Peace Corps projects are always partnered with the community’s leaders, schools, or organizations. However, my region has so many volunteers, it was decided to split my region into two groups. Thus, that is how we ended up with the four groups.
The World Vision team: the staff, the Peace Corps Volunteers, and the youth.
Thus, for the months leading up to May from November, my small group have been working hard to replicate some of the Training of Trainers elements into a Youth Empowerment Summit. The goal to create and sustain clubs beautifully complements Peace Corps’ and the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Georgia’s. Both the Peace Corps and the Ministry know that when the youth participate in clubs, they are more active citizens. The sense of achievement in clubs could easily bleed into other parts of their lives and help develop skills in the future.
Justin with his youth from his school working on the project plan to implement their travel-themed club
Together with my other Peace Corps Volunteers, we wrote a Let Girls Learn Grant for this project. We focused on developing leadership, communication, and collaboration skills that are needed for club development. We created activities that would identify their assets and their interests in creating a meaningful club. Essentially, we wanted to make sure that the event was fun as well as impactful. In the end, we invited 9 Peace Corps volunteers along with 19 youth to participate in the two-day, two-night summit.
One of the biggest challenges with trainings like these is teaching the creative and critical concepts. I’ve noticed that the youth do not have the language that American youth use- and I’m not talking about the difference between Georgian and English. Georgian youth tend to have a more difficult time understanding certain creative concepts. For example, many of them have a hard time identifying personal assets. They do not grow up in a society that values every little achievement wrapped with “you are so special” cocktail mix.
We had the youth and the Peace Corps Volunteers compete in an activity that focuses on collaboration called the “human knot.”
Most Georgian youth in schools are taught to memorize Georgian poems and recite other facts. There is little room for creative projects that imparts critical thinking. Thus, asking the youth this weekend to “create a sustainable club” was not an easy feat. For many, it was the first time in their lives that they had to truly create something original and not replicate or summarize someone’s else work. Which is why opportunities like these trainings are so important.
Our summit helped some youth to think “outside the box” to create clubs that their peers would enjoy participating. Some of the youth with their respective Peace Corps Volunteers will be implementing their clubs soon. However, most will be creating them for the upcoming school year. Thus, wish them luck on this journey!
When this article was published, a lot of chatter was going around in the Peace Corps world. In summary, many people thought (Peace Corps Volunteers or otherwise) that Let Girls Learn, as a program, was going to be discontinued. Michelle Obama started Let Girls Learn (LGL) which facilitates educational opportunities for adolescent girls in developing countries. Peace Corps partnered with Let Girls Learn and Georgia is one of the participating countries. At this point, it seems that the program will change its name only and the funds available can still be used to champion for girls’ education.
I strongly believe that Let Girls Learn is needed because it helps improve the self-esteem of many young females. Georgia is not an easy country to grow up as a girl. Girls are less valued than boys and the statistics show that this starts before birth. If fact, sex-selective abortions rates in Georgia are one of the highest in the world. In other words, Georgia is one of the countries where pregnant women choose or are encouraged to get an abortion simply because the baby would be a girl.
Many of us have heard about this practice in China and in India, but people do not typically think of Europe when they hear sex-selective abortion. In Georgia, the average number of boys to girls born between 2005-2009 was 110 boys to 100 girls. Based on how natural selection works, the numbers suggest that for every 100 boys born, there are 4.2 girls missing in Georgia during that time period (Source: eurasianet).
In September 2016, I attended a World Vision training on this very topic. The instructor pointed out how this typically looks like in families. When the wife gets pregnant with the first child, she typically keeps the child regardless of gender. If it is a girl, then they hope that the second pregnancy will be a boy. If the first born is a boy, then they feel secure in society and all is good. Things get complicated when the first and second pregnancy are both females.
If both the first and second pregnancy are girls, then a women might feel inclined to have a sex-selective abortion. The “missing middle child” is an indicator that sex-selective abortion may have occurred. Typically, Georgians have two children. More so, the common practice is to have the two children about two years apart. Therefore, if a family has a daughter as the first born child and a four-year gap between the first child and the second, it is an indicator of a sex-selective abortion. Most likely, the mother got pregnant two years after the first child and found out it was a girl. Since the family only wants two children and they desperately want a son, they abort the almost-second-to-be daughter. This is the most common pattern among families who have chosen to have a sex-selective abortion.
Yesterday, Justin and I attended a first grader’s birthday party. The first grader happened to be a sweet 7-year-old girl. I noticed that her little sister playing in the background with a balloon. I asked Justin how old he thinks the little one is and he said, “2 or 3 years old.” So doing the math, there is a four-year age gap between the first born daughter and the second born daughter. I immediately thought of the demographics of sex-selective abortion I learned in training. No joke, ten seconds later, a toast was being made by the uncle to the parents of the birthday girl. Want to take a guess of what he said? In loose translation from Georgian, “I hope one day God will bless you with a son!” Here we are celebrating the birth of this sweet little girl, but a toast is made to the unborn son.
The mother turns and looks at me and explains that in Georgia it is important to have a son and it is a sign of strength for the family. I smiled painfully and thought to myself, “this is utter BS!” I can confidently say here on the internet that this infuriates me because I grew up in a culture that favors boys over girls as well. In my family, I only have sisters. Growing up, I remember countless of men and women tell my parents, “so when are you having a boy?” My favorite was when my youngest sister was born. Minutes after she was born, the congratulations were followed by, “hopefully God will bless you with a boy the next one around.” So I completely understand why Georgian parents feel this immense pressure to produce a son. My family went through the same thing.
In fact, as a running joke, when people ask my father how many children he has, he answers, “2 girls and a girl.” He doesn’t say “3 girls” because my youngest sister was supposed to our hope for a brother/son. Thus, if she were born as a boy, the answer would have been, “2 girls and a boy.” To keep that sentence formula the same, my dad jokes, “2 girls and a girl.” It is a preemptive comic relief to avoid people to say, “where is your son?” As a young child, I picked up on this. I remember thinking that my family must not be complete if I do not have a brother.
Thankfully, my parents are loving and supporting, so they never made me or my sisters feel that way. So wanting a brother was only surface deep. Luckily, my parents never made my sisters and I feel like we weren’t good enough. The difference in my culture and the Georgian is that in my culture, the norm is to keep having babies or giving up. In Georgia, the practice is to have those pre-selective abortions. In fact, abortions are a common form of birth-control.
When there is a culture that favors males over females, it shouldn’t be a surprise that girls and women are not encouraged to be as active in society as boys and men. Thus, this is why Let Girls Learn is needed here. I’m not saying that LGL is the solution to the sex-selective abortions; it is not. I’m just saying that LGL allows girls to feel valued and encouraged to do more. When little girls hear at their birthday parties toasts to their unborn brother, they might not feel as important. Girls might not feel as entitled to have their own freedom or create their own independent path in life.
Therefore, I am passionate about creating a difference here and helping other volunteers to do the same. During my service here, I am a member of the Gender Equality Committee here in Peace Corps. It is an official programmatic committee, which means it supports the US Government’s strategy to promote gender equality, integration, and empowerment. Our committee specifically aims to increase awareness of gender issues and encourage gender egalitarianism in Georgia by being a primary conduit of gender-related resources for Peace Corps Volunteers and by promoting and supporting gender-based projects such as campus, trainings, informational fairs, and special activities.
We have supported various projects and activities. We have also created informational resources for the community or specifically for Peace Corps Volunteers. In March 2017, we did a special edition newsletter for Women’s History month. The newsletter highlighted local “Gender Heroes.” Each Gender Hero talked about how they promote gender equality in their own special way. If you would like to read it, click on the link: GenEqSpecialEditionMarch. If you would like to check-out our Facebook page, click here.
The Gender Equality Committee (GenEq) for the year of 2016-2017.
My friend Sarah visited Justin and I last month during the Georgian Easter holidays. I thought it would be more interesting to get her perspective and post it on the blog. Enjoy our first guest writer on our blog! – Rawan
I landed in Georgia around 4 A.M. to visit Rawan, thinking, “Alright, whatever happens next is all part of the adventure.” This trip abroad had been the first that I had entirely planned solely by myself, no parents to guide me or hold my hand. The focus and intention I had for myself were to have an experience that would help me learn and grow as an adult.
Seeing Rawan at the airport, excitedly waving with both hands, is a moment I hold dearly. We were both so happy to see each other after a year. Rawan and I had both worked at EMC for different departments and surprisingly, we did not meet at work. Telling people our story how we met is a little embarrassing but also funny from my perspective. The way Rawan’s husband puts it is, “I was out with my buddy having a beer, Rawan had her friend for a drink, and Sarah was out drinking with her dad.” I think the way he put it was the funniest, but really the awkward part was that my dad was hitting on Rawan’s friend. I didn’t think I could make such lasting friendships from it but look where we are now.
Honestly, I was so relieved to see Rawan at the airport. Everyone was so worried about me going to Georgia, a former Soviet Union territory. My parents, colleagues, friends had their own ideas and thoughts of me traveling to the country. I had also planned a trip alone to Berlin after Georgia so that added more concern and worriedness.
My first night in Georgia, Rawan, Justin, their friend Kate (another PCV), and I stayed at one of the nicest hostels in Tbilisi. I loved standing on the roof patio that overlooked the historical city, up close I could see the cobblestones in the old town and from afar I could see beautiful Cathedrals.
Rawan and I standing on the Envoy Hostel’s patio overlooking Old Tbilisi
The day spent in Tbilisi was calming and I hadn’t been feeling so jetlagged. I really enjoyed sightseeing, going under the Bridge of Peace, seeing the Mother of Georgia statue, and walking around the Sulfur Bath area. We only needed a half day to see everything and this is something Rawan told me prior to arriving in Georgia.
Rawan, Justin, Kate, and I on the Bridge of Peace
As she puts it something along the lines of “Georgia is really pretty and we’ll get to see things but you’ll really be coming to hang out with me.” Rawan told me a lot of things, she was good with giving me a lot of information before the trip but nothing really clicked with me until I arrived in Georgia for the full ride. I loved it though, how often could someone say they got to visit Georgia and catch a glimpse of the Peace Corp life for a few days. Rawan and Justin had to commit to two years as a volunteer and I was able to come see their lives after a year of their service and gather their thoughts and emotions.
Our view from the cable car to see the Mother of Georgia Statue.
The plan was to leave Tbilisi after half the day which felt like a week because we were non stop moving. I took my first marshrutka, bus transportation, to Rawan’s host family to spend the night. We used these long rides to catch up. We spoke some Arabic with each other. She told me of how she works for World Vision and Justin is a teacher. They were impacting the world for the greater good but life wasn’t necessarily easy. Rawan wanted me to see the real side of the Peace Corps life. We may laugh now but this is when I started to see a whole different side to Georgia like I was going back in time and things no longer were luxurious.
Rawan’s host family did not speak English but I was more shocked at how well Rawan and Justin could communicate with their host family in Georgian. In roughly a year, with 3 months of heavy Peace Corps training, she could speak better Georgian than I could speak Spanish…and I took Spanish classes for seven years. The house was small but filled with people. The grandmother was a sweetheart; she gave us a tour of the house, first to the pigs which freaked me out!
Rawan and Justin’s PST Host family’s chicken coop
The huge pigs smelled so bad and the best part, right across from the chicken coup, Rawan opened the outhouse door. Conveniently, I had to pee and when Rawan told me to go in, we laugh now, but I had this horrific look and just shook my head saying I can’t. Rawan literally pushed me in and shut the door and she was coaching me through. “Put your feet on the two blocks and just squat down” and lucky me realized mid pee that there’s no toilet paper. “Rawan, there’s no toilet paper!” “Just shake it off, shake it off.” What else was I supposed to do? So I jumped out feeling disgusted with myself and Rawan sees her host mom coming back with toilet paper and she tries pushing me and telling me to go back inside. Rawan asked me what I did and I
Rawan asked me what I did and I said “you told me to shake it off!” That was the funniest moment and we couldn’t stop laughing afterwards. In the moment was funny too but really I wanted to give Rawan a hard time. I had asked Rawan afterwards, “You really wanted me to struggle huh?” Her response, “Kind of…I also thought this would be a great bonding experience and you would really understand what I went through and the life of Peace Corps.” This was all out of love. We joked and laughed, and we got frustrated. Basically, there were highs and lows but it was just the nature of Peace Corps. It’s not easy.
At her host family, the house was so cold I wanted to cry. Her host mom saw me shivering and she offered to turn on the heat before bed so that I could be warm. Rawan said I was lucky because when she lived with them while she was going through PC training, there was no heater. I was a little embarrassed but I had to politely accept the offer. Rawan told me I was doing great, better than most people had done in PC in their first week. I didn’t believe her. I told her that I felt like I was being high maintenance. She reassured me that I was doing great and I really appreciated that. She had been there for almost a year now and these obstacles she had already faced long before I came to visit.
Rawan gave me a heads up that most likely I wouldn’t be taking a shower in the next few days or until I would get to Berlin. I said okay, these were the circumstances and sometimes you just have to learn how to deal. I’ve gone through a few similar situations and even though it wasn’t as rough as the Peace Corps, it helped me get through. In Lebanon, the electricity would go out at least 5 times in a day and you’d have to manage. I wasn’t ever one to complain but things like this can be stressors and it could be frustrating. Rawan had a sense of calmness and I told her that she had calmed down since EMC. Even though I know sometimes things got to her, she told me that Peace Corp tame the Type A personality. I remember we were in a Marshrutka and I had bought a homemade Churchkhela, a traditional Georgian candy, and I broke off a piece which ended up having hair in it. I put it back in the bag as if I was about to throw it away and
I remember we were in a Marshrutka and I had bought a homemade Churchkhela, a traditional Georgian candy, and I broke off a piece which ended up having hair in it. I put it back in the bag as if I was about to throw it away and Rawan stopped me. She couldn’t believe I was about to throw away a good piece of candy, if only I just removed the hair. I said, wow Rawan, you really did change in a joking matter. Rawan and I used to have lunch every day at EMC and she always made sure to use hand sanitizer. I liked how Rawan handled things and really made the best of her situation. She loved the Peace Corps, she said it was the best job she’s ever had and that’s what got her through tough times, reminding herself that.
I remember we were on another Marshrutka and the driver refused to return Rawan the correct amount of Laris, their money exchange. I think the driver stole about 6 Laris, about 3 USD. I hadn’t ever seen Rawan so upset and I remember her saying that she didn’t want to dwell on those moments because it would take away her love for the Peace Corps. I was really proud of her at that moment.
It was the little things. We went to Gori, where Stalin was born and raised, we saw his house, and did a little shopping. I bought Rawan a scarf that she liked and she was so appreciative of this gesture. I love that. We traveled with a group of Peace Corp volunteers to Vardzia, a monastery cave in Southern Georgia, very close to the Turkey border. Everyone was so nice and welcoming; everyone from the PC volunteers to the Georgian people, I felt so safe and comforted. We were on another Marshrutka and this young boy sitting behind us was talking to us and telling Rawan that she’s beautiful and he hands us two red eggs, an Easter tradition, and we gave him a lollipop. This special moment made our hearts melt.
Vardzia (photo credit: Christy W., current Peace Corps Volunteer Georgia)
Ups and downs, highs and lows are all part of life. I came to Georgia from Berlin and could see the change in scenery like night and day. Everyone lives different lives but we all go through things and have our own story to tell. I missed my flight back home from Georgia and I thought it was the end of the world. Rawan was there to comfort me, Rawan had PC duty, but she made sure I had the best company all day and I really did. I spent the day with a PC volunteer, Emily, who was the sweetest.
I had a mission and a purpose for this trip. I learned, laughed, experienced things, and grew as a person. I loved my trip, from start to finish. I faced challenges that I had never faced before. I got upset one day, I was overwhelmed and fatigued. I couldn’t put it into words how I was feeling but I had Rawan their understanding me. I had a lifelong friend and memory I will hold eternally. I’m so happy I got an in depth understanding of the Peace Corps life and I can’t thank Rawan enough for introducing me to all her PC friends, putting me first and making sure I was doing okay, planning the week trip, and positively reinforcing me every day. The times Rawan and I laughed together, communicated through an obstacle we were facing, or even just got excited over a new scarf, I hold those moments tightly because those small things were the greatest part of this learning experience after all.
