Zach SiddallED3 -- Muhanga District, Southern Province
Muraho! My name is Zack Siddall and I am one of the threenew GAD representatives from the most recent Peace Corps group Education 3. I,along with my fellow ED3’ers Chinelo Nwosu and Sarah Epplin, are very excitedto join the already sterling line up of PCVs on the GAD committee. We lookforward to bringing an onslaught of new ideas and fresh energy to thenationwide GAD meeting this month in Kigali.
Before working with the Peace Corps here in Rwanda I wasblessed to have amble opportunity to do gender equality work with my previousemployer Habitat for Humanity. Through Habitat I worked with a program calledWomen’s Build which focused on breaking down the stereotypical gender roles sooften associated with the construction field of work. With the exception of afew males, such as myself, providing moderate amounts of technical support theentire Habitat house was built by women. The comradely and confidence thatblossomed between the women I had the opportunity to work with over that 2-3month window of time it would take to build each house was amazing. At firstthese female volunteers would hang on my every word. By week two I was demotedto the coffee and donuts errand boy. Then I recall one time while working on ahouse (about a month in) I reached down to grab my hammer only to find it hadbeen stealthy stolen from my tool belt by a female volunteer who not a monthearlier confessed she had never touched a hammer let alone even thought ofbuilding an entire house. Now she was swinging away, knocking 8 penny nailsinto hard pine like it was a hot knife through butter.
I hope to bring some of that Habitat mentality here toRwanda. Rwanda is a beautiful country and now, here in 2012, is the best timeto be doing gender work in this rapidly developing country. Every day women arebreaking down the traditional gender roles in Rwanda. You see more and morewomen entering the work force and obtaining higher degrees of education. However,Rwanda (and the rest of the world for that matter) still has a long way to gobefore everyone is truly treated equally. That’s where we come in. During myservice I intend to focus my GAD work on building partnerships. Whether that beon a nationwide scale by building relationships between Peace Corps Rwanda andother NGOs/the Rwandan Government. Or simply working on the village to villagelevel by connecting people through cooperatives and creating gender equalitydialog sessions. I’m very excited to join this wonderful project and I lookforward to the good work that will happen in the weeks to come.
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