The Gender Blog

You know that something’s really made an impact on you when it lodges in the brain and sticks with you for years, don’t you?  My “brainworm” is about the One Laptop Per Child project and I was delighted to see an update on their progress in the Sunday paper.

In October 2006,  I attended the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society in Deauville,  northern France – a three day conference attended by women from all over the world who come together annually to discuss how to further women’s participation in business and in life.  

One of the (many, many) lunchtime events featured a speaker from OLPC,  then a project in its relative infancy.  Her name was Mary Jo and she talked about the goals of the project – at its core, to create and then provide a basic laptop for under privileged children to use as an educational tool.

(Now further refined as  “… to create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children via a “rugged low-cost, low-power laptop” – “)

As if it were yesterday,  I remember sitting in that conference room, eating rubber chicken (yes, even in France) and listening to Mary Jo tell us  how computer access could transform the lives and the educational prospects of children in developing countries, how the laptop model on which they were working would be super robust, have an extra long battery life, come pre-loaded with all types of educational and games based software;  how it would have a special anti-glare screen (on which this lady had herself been working, with Intel) so that it could be used outside and yet still be visible in bright sunshine, and how it would eventually be part of a giant hub of wireless enabled laptops so that the children could access the internet.

And the price of this bit of kit?

$100, in 2006.

I’ve kept an eye on the One Laptop website since then and watched their evolution,  but Sunday’s Observer article really brought home their three-plus years of progress. Follow the link and see for yourself what a difference it’s making to the children of Rwanda and how 1.4 million laptops (not quite yet at that magical $100 each price point, but they’re getting there) have already been rolled out to children in 35 countries which include Haiti, Afghanistan, Brazil and Uruguay.

One of the best days on my recent trip to Goa was when I took my own laptop out to Rainbow House with me.  One of the other volunteers had shared her photos of the school’s sports day, and I thought the children might like to see some of the pictures.  I set myself and the laptop up on the verandah,  booted up the photos – and within seconds I was completely covered in children,  swarming over me and the computer,  completely fascinated by the screen and the images.  They played with it until the battery died and absolutely loved looking at the photos and playing games – so I can completely see how it, as a piece of technology,  does serve so many purposes for children everywhere: it makes learning fun,  it’s a new gadget and it’s a unifying tool.  As the article suggests:

“…computers can enable children to learn how to learn for themselves through playful problem-solving and that this will lead to their becoming better-rounded human beings.”

These girls are named Priya and Lakshmi – here they are waiting for the school bus at 7.30 one morning. The bus was late,  so I tested them on their English vocabulary homework while we waited – they for the bus,  me for my lift to my yoga class.

Sometimes I read something and it gives me that light bulb moment feeling wherein a number of strands of thought come together in my head, as if at the hands of a skilled weaver who can take amorphous bits of thread and turn them into a beautiful tapestry.

Last Sunday’s Observer magazine had just such a piece, which featured a cover story on model Erin O’Connor visiting a home workers’ collective for women in Delhi and reporting on their ethical clothing workshops, described in the article as an “innovative and revolutionary ethical fashion experiment”.

By cutting out the middlemen, organising the skilled female home workers and dealing directly with UK and US-based retailers, to date the members of SEWA (aka the All India Federation of Self-Employed Women’s Associations) have (my use of bold):

“ … increased our home workers’ wages by nearly 100 per cent and enabled a lot of women to come out of their homes to a SEWA centre to collect their work and meet. Then they engage with other ideas, like microfinance or education for their children.”

So then I was reminded me of my trip to Bangalore last month, when, at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s workshop on mentoring, I found myself paired with a woman from M&S (my first question: “Are you wearing their clothes?” My second: “Can you get their food in India?” The answers were, respectively, YES and NO).

Her name was Jyotsna, which is a Sanskrit name meaning something like “By the light of the new moon” – isn’t that beautiful? She is in charge of supplier compliance for the south east Asia region and we had a fascinating chat about the challenges clothing manufacturers and retailers (she previously worked for GAP) face in countries such as India with regard to child labour – and the economic need for some communities to have all members of a family in paid employment. I’ve heard a bit about M&S’s Plan A campaign from friends who work for them, plus seen the branded marketing in the stores, but it was very real to hear about it from Jyotsna, particularly when we discussed the dilemmas she faces when she visits communities who actively want to have their children at work – a stance which is obviously in direct contravention to the M&S position on child labour.

There’s a quote from Erin O’Connor in the Observer piece which reminds us that when you -

“… see an embroidered top on the high street …. [it’s] … been made by a very determined pair of hands” –

- and the thought that, depending on the source of the garment, perhaps some of that very tiny, delicate embroidery might have been done by a child’s fingers is truly abhorrent.

The article’s reference to creating a greater need for children to be educated as part of generating an awareness of how to break a cycle of poverty and deprivation, also reminded me of this comment from Plan’s 2009 annual report, The State of the World’s Girls:

“Educated girls become educated mothers with increased livelihood prospects; they also have a greater propensity than similarly educated males to invest in children’s schooling.”

More on Plan’s work soon – oh, and my fundraising for their fantastic “Because I Am a Girl” campaign has now pushed past the £300 mark. Many thanks to everyone who’s donated to date and made such a difference. Some of the women mentioned in the Observer article now earn around £40 a month (compared to around a tenner, previously), just to put that £300 in context.

This is Savita, aged 6,  whom I met on Thursday afternoon when I was walking down a small side road with my camera. She saw me taking photos of a piglet I happened upon (as one does …) and dragged me into her yard to see the mother pig and the rest of the (flock? Herd? What IS the collective noun for piglets?).

And then she asked me to take her photo – so here she is.

She’s very proud of her school uniform, isn’t she?

To add to my earlier list, I have also observed the following for sale on the local beach:

• Cigarettes (about a fifth of the price they are in the UK);
• Chess sets;
• Carved wooden elephants;
• Copies of the Kama Sutra (“it transcends language, madam” – apparently …);
• Pastries and croissants;
• Newspapers.

We are still experiencing terrible rain storms here (see photo – look at that sky!),  with rumours circulating of a further cyclone. Several people in my hotel have gone home early and the local traders are very depressed at this appalling start to the tourist season. There’s also a local authority “issue” (and apparently talk of civic bribery and corruption …) which has meant that most of the beach shacks are not yet open, so all areas of the local economy are suffering; it’s something of a perfect storm of bad news for the locals.

 I’m visiting Rainbow House later today and having tea with the little girl I sponsor, Renuka.  She is 8 years old and lives at the home as her mother (who works as a maid) could not afford to support her after her alcoholic father left them last year. I’m also hoping to learn if the cyclone damage to the school has been repaired so that we can re-commence lessons; it’s all been so chaotic out here on a number of fronts and the news is mixed.

Watch this space …

Namaste from Goa, where it is now my fourth day in residence. Unfortunately, and most unexpectedly, I have yet to see any sun, as we are currently in the grip of a cyclone, which blew in on Monday (the day of my arrival) and is still hanging about, providing strong winds, dark skies and torrential rain. All in 30 degree centigrade heat. Coastal Goa doesn’t really seem to be set up for weather like this in the main tourist season, so the resort is full of disgruntled, pale skinned visitors, roaming the streets, avoiding the puddles and roadside primordial ooze of sand, dust and cow dung, and complaining loudly at any available opportunity about how lousy the weather is and that they might as well have stayed at home.

However, whilst seeking sanctuary in this internet cafe (60 rupees, about 80p, for an hour) I have checked the BBC weather site and apparently all should be restored to “normal” by Friday. Let’s hope so.

Yesterday I had lunch at a beach shack with the rather cute name of “The Cheeky Chapatti” – chosen primarily because it had covered tables and a sort-of-roof thing going on. Whilst eating my “fishcurryrice”, I was visited by several children, all of school age, who all performed in front of me and the other tourists and then asked for money. Their performances consisted of acrobatics (cartwheels, handstands, etc), dancing and playing a small drum. It was usually a small girl doing the dancing, accompanied by a boy who then asked for the money – together with much pleading, gazing up with soulful eyes and saying things like: “Please give. I hungry”.

(There seem to be more children here than I remember from previous trips – I’m not sure why. Could be this stretch of beach, perhaps, a different time of year or perhaps something tied up with the local economy?)

The children’s charities out here strongly advise that tourists NOT give money to children, or to adults accompanied by school age children and so far I’ve only seen the Russians actually hand over a few rupees (are they more generous? Or possibly less aware?).

The whole situation makes me feel very sad and uncomfortable; the children obviously need the money and see tourists as a seasonal source of revenue (understandable, in a country where millions live on less than a few pounds per day) – but yet surely if they grow up with the mindset that they can earn a “living” out on the beach, they’re not ever going to go to school, get an education and break the cycle of poverty?

Many of the children work the beach with their parents, so it’s easy to see the continuing pattern. I also did a rough ratio check yesterday; the girls on the beach outnumber the boys by 3:1, whereas, when I walked past the local primary school the other day, coincidentally at “going home time”, the boys (in uniforms, with satchels) outnumber the girls in the same proportion.

I’ve also learned, on a more frivolous note, to not wear the necklace I bought here earlier this year at the big Anjuna market. In England, it’s just a slightly funky string of mixed semi-precious stones; here, it identifies me as the kind of easy “mark” who buys this kind of thing – and accordingly gets mobbed by every. single. seller in Goa with similar necklaces for sale.

“Please madam, lovely necklace, how much you pay?”

“300 rupees” [about four pounds]

“I show you other necklaces/bracelets/ankle chain [delete as appropriate], very good price …”

Etc.

This time last year, I was in Bangalore, India, participating in NASSCOM’s annual women in IT Leadership forum. I didn’t know it at the time, but it turned out to be the last ever business trip that I would take in my then job – so it’s particularly apt that it turned out to be both the most memorable trip of my career to date and also the most fun. I spoke on the opening panel about the business imperatives of gender diversity and also participated in Australian company emberin’s launch of their “my mentor: Challenging Indian Women to Step Up” toolkit. This is a box set of DVDs and CDs which enables women to both coach themselves and to learn from others as to the key steps and barriers which can help or hinder their career progression; here I am on the panel event where emberin founder Maureen Frank, pictured centre (and a woman so charismatic that she could found her own cult) led a roomful of 400 women in a debate around breaking the glass ceiling and crunching the pieces underfoot.

In my previous life/role, we used “my mentor” in Australia, South Africa and India and saw some amazing results amongst our women – huge increases in promotion rates, confidence levels and general happiness and life satisfaction. So I was thrilled to note that the innovative Ms Frank has taken the MM concept to another level and launched a new product, designed to support women through their parental leave. Aimed at ladies who are either pregnant or hoping to be pregnant soon, the kit, described as a “self paced one stop shop parental leave program” is a stand-alone CD, DVD and workbook kit designed for women planning to take parental leave at work.

 Key content includes:

• Before, during and after parental leave: strategies you will need to consider at work and at home in order to balance everything on your plate;
• Key advice on what to plan for, what to expect, how to negotiate, and how to communicate issues concerning parental leave;
• Practical tips, checklists, budgets and templates for busy working women about to embark on one of the biggest challenges of their careers – having a baby.

The program is a self-guiding, advanced short course and can be done in a day, a weekend or over a few weeks. It takes a pragmatic and practical step by step approach and helps you face challenges, keeps you motivated and makes your parental leave journey a rewarding and successful one.

If you would like a chance to win a copy of emberin’s my mentor Parental Leave program, enter their competition between now and 29th November by sending an email (of 100 words or less) detailing why you feel you need guidance on taking parental leave.

Send your entry along with your name, address and email to magic@emberin.com

The winner will be notified by email and announced on the emberin website on Wednesday, 2nd December 2009.

Good luck!

Today I’ve actually had one of those days on my “sabbatical” that I always imagined, when I was working, that I’d have when I wasn’t: I went to the gym and met a friend for coffee this morning, I read a magazine, I had a lovely lunch with my husband … and I then spent the afternoon baking brownies and other goodies in my kitchen.

In the seven weeks since I finished gainful employment, I can count the number of days like today on the fingers of one thumb, so it’s been pleasing to finally achieve the Nirvana of a tranquil and domesticated day. My house smells of chocolate and vanilla and lavender polish; I’ve spent no time at all on either a job hunting website or fiddling with my CV. Instead, I’ve been preparing to host a “Girl’s Night In” event tomorrow night, when around fifteen great women (friends, neighbours, colleagues, contacts) will arrive and join me for dinner, wine and conversation.

But this is no ordinary dinner party: everyone will be making a donation of between £10 and £15 per head. I’m donating the food and wine and every penny raised tomorrow night will be gifted to Plan International’s “Because I am a Girl” campaign, which works to ensure that girls in some of the worlds’ poorest countries (such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Bangladesh) are able to finish school.

Launched in 2007 by Plan UK, the campaign aims to improve the lives of girls throughout the developing world, many of whom are denied the right to an education, healthcare and a career.

This is a campaign about which I first read an article last month, on the plane on my way to California and I decided there and then, mid-Atlantic, to join in and be part of the solution in my own small, brownie-baking, way.

Here’s a quote from Cherie Blair (and there’s a link to her website on the blogroll on the right, if you’re interested in further details of her work to support women, globally):

“There is plenty of evidence that girls face greater disadvantage and discrimination in many parts of the world. For example, it’s estimated that, globally, 7.4 million more girls than boys don’t get a primary school education, and 70% of those in absolute poverty are female. So it’s good news that Plan has launched its “Because I am a Girl” campaign to draw attention to these abuses and what can be done to overcome them.”

The links that I’ve provided above in the text will take you to the relevant parts of the Plan website and, if you want to learn more, you can download their annual report or take the “Five Friends Challenge” and send e-cards to your friends to encourage them to pledge their support for girls’ rights worldwide.

The link to my fundraising page is here; with your help, we can help millions of girls out of poverty and towards a safer and brighter future.

Thank you.