Over the last few weeks I have travelled around the region – mainly focusing on the emergency responses – but the video here focuses on the launch of the women’s empowerment programme in West Papua – the Indonesia Country programme’s National Change Strategy puts women’s rights at the heart of the programme and the project in West Papua really makes that a reality.
You know, setting goals can be really important – I didn’t really ‘buy into’ the idea of setting personal goals, but after my operation I was wondering how I could get my fitness back and feel good about it. So I saw a 10k run for the UK charity cancer research near my home town in the UK and at a time when I was planning to be in the UK – so I signed up – the website encourages you to set up our own pages and invite people to sponsor you via twitter and facebook – I could personalise the messages and update the photos and many of my friends decided to support me. It felt good to have a target which would push me but wasn’t completely unobtainable.
I started training – I did a 5k run about 8 weeks after my operation – I thought I would expire, it was really tough – my trainer gave me so training schedules to do and I thought I would never be able to achieve them – fast interval running, sprints etc. And yet, slowly I started to get fitter, I practised and although I didn’t really notice it, I was getting fitter all the time. Each Sunday I added another 1k to my run and some weeks it was easy and other weeks I really struggled.
So yesterday was the day – because of the emergencies in the region I could not go back to the UK but decided to do it here in Thailand – I missed my family cheering me on and the atmosphere and the hugs – but I ran my heart out and managed to do 10k in 1 hour and 9 minutes and it felt really, really good.
There’s nothing like achieving your goals!!!
Do you know the feeling? Thats how it has felt for me over the past couple of weeks – I know that the teams in the field have been working really hard, and doing a brilliant response effort but I wish I had been there with them rather than coordinating from here in Bangkok. I feel bad that I have let the day to day work slide and thats its difficult to focus on anything but the emergency – everyone is very understanding but I know that our everyday work is important too!
So where can I get that head space? I suppose I have to take a deep breath and carry on , trying to work out on a day to day basis what is the priority knowing that in a few weeks time my head space will return!!
I started the week in West Papua launching the new Women’s Empowerment Project, along with dancing and great celebration on the beach and ended it coordinating 2 large scale emergencies – one for the Regional Typhoon in Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia and then of course the Earthquake in Sumatra and at the same time the Bangkok Intercessional is taking place – all rather surreal and many discussions of linking climate change with natural disasters.But no conclusions there!
The teams are working really hard to respond quickly and effectively – as always at the beginning of an emergency information is slow and no-one really knows the scale of the disaster and as the story unfolds we at Oxfam has to decide how to respond, what people we need, what levels of funding we might get and we need to do this QUICKLY as people will be depending on us. Already we have been able to make some distributions in Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia of what we call NFIs (non food items) plastic sheeting for shelter, hygiene kits of soap and sanitary goods and basic clothes like sarongs so that people who have lost everything as least can maintain a little dignity and start to put there lives together again. Plans are underway for a scale up of response as needs become clearer.
I am always proud to work for Oxfam and especially at time like this when we can really make the difference!
I am off to Singapore tomorrow to be a speaker at the World Social Networking Forum Asia – we are the only NGO speaking at the conference – I have a clear message – how can we use social networking to get poor people’s voices heard and increase our impact on social change?
I am looking for answers – I need to understand what all those social network gurus out there think social networking is all about – is it just about communication? or is it a platform for a change in the way people interact with each other and world…
Well I expect to come back next week with all the answers!
We all need time to reflect and certainly we don’t do enough of it – I am not suggesting we sit around debating forever but we should give ourselves the space to consider what we have achieved and how we take this forward and country and regional learning reviews are meant to be time for exactly that. Oxfam Reflects was an opportunity to bring together partners, programme staff, staff from Oxford and external participants to focus on the issue of small scale producers.
I really enjoyed the two days – we had really good data to start off our thinking (although we could have used it more), great partner input (I really should spend more time with partners – perhaps that should be the focus of my visits next year) and a methodology that helped us all work together and even challenge each other.
I learnt alot – I’m not a livelihoods expert and its good for me to listen to the language and current challenges – GM crops, carbon trading etc and also to hear real examples from the ground from partners. I also know that I and the region need to do more thinking about our livelihoods programming.
The challenge for Oxfam is always – what are we going to do less of – no simple answers there!!
I never really thought that part of my role as regional director was to be an inspiration – but this week there have been a number of occasions when I have tried to drawn on my experience and my hopes for our work in Oxfam to inspire our staff – I led a session at the regional media and communication workshop outlining our plans for digital work in our programmes – check out a video called ‘did you know 2.0′ on youtube it describes very clearly why we need to engage in the digital world – but my focus is people – the poor people we hope to serve and support – how can we listen more and enable poor people to co-create with us and get their VOICES HEARD.
Also this week is a first for the region – a joint Oxfam International Emergency Response Team fundamentals training – a number of affiliates coming together to share responsibility to ensure that the region has an effective and ready team in the event of a large scale emergency – during this uncertain time of the Single Management Structure process – it was really heartening to see the enthusiasm and commitment of all affiliate staff. Again in my opening speech I tried to focus on the people – Oxfam is about saving lives and can make such a difference in times of challenge to many people – we have all heard stories but I recently talked to Provash who is the OI humanitarian lead in Vietnam, who told me that his family had benefitted from Oxfam aid after the war of independence in Bangladesh and now he does the same for others.
Together we can achieve amazing things!
As you will know our livelihoods programmes are undergoing a change – as agreed in the Regional Change Strategy – we are focusing on developing and realigning our programmes to deliver high quality programmes which support women’s economic leadership.
Navy our Gender lead in Cambodia has been working very hard to make the words a reality despite challenges of belief and understanding from programmes staff – watch her telling the story in her own words in my trip report posted on my blog. What struck me was that Navy seemed to be very energised by the experience of piloting the PWEL (poor women’s economic leadership) approach and motivated by the learning she has had to do in order to support this approach. Get her to explain value chains to you!
PWEL programming is exciting – it isn’t about just working with women but acknowledging the pivotal role that women play in the community economy and supporting different income opportunities. As Navy describes working with women in a flood prone area in Cambodia, where rice is the main rice and the main source of food and income, when that crop fails due to flooding, women and families in that area now have more than one income stream (from honey, resin etc.) to fall back – the spin off is also that women can become empowered within the family and community…….
Well done Navy and the Cambodia team for making dreams a reality.
As you might have gathered I have been out of action for a time and as I re-read the last blog entry, I can see that you might think I had lost my marbles!! Anyway I’m back at work and if not completely raring to go, I am certainly glad to be back.
You may remember that the Regional Centre has gone through some changes over the last 6 months. Change can be painful as well as productive and as we approach the review of the structure and ways of working I am really pleased by the way that all staff have settled into their new roles and how new mechanisms for linking, learning and sharing have been established. Of course there have been some ‘teething’ problems, some confusion and more to do but generally the changes have gone very smoothly.
We of course have to keep working on our team, to try and ensure that people are reasonably happy in their work and that we are all working together to achieve our goals. However, we can’t please everyone all the time!
One thing I have vowed to do since my operation is to think more positively – to try and say YES I can do that, rather than look for the problems and reasons for why I can’t do something – difficult to do all the time, but I am sure that it will make a difference in the long run.
So come on everyone – say YES more!!
Its strange having some time to think and living in the UK again (at least for a short time) – as usually I rush in, rush around and then leave and to be honest I am not up to rushing about at the moment – a recent report from the Government here examining the relationship between professional success (what kind of job you get – where you go to University) and class and the growing gap between the classes – nothing new there, but perhaps more food for thought for East Asia…
I was amazed and horrified by the statistic that 1 in 3 children live in poverty in the UK, now of course the definition of poverty is different to one we experience in East Asia, but what a damning indictment of life in the UK and one which we absolutely not accept – if Northern societies and economies are ever to be used as role models again we need to quickly and seriously address issues of poverty and inequality here using not only the political process but drawing on Southern lobbying and advocacy experience but by shouting loudly – this is not acceptable – I am ashamed of our political inertia.
We have so much to learn from the South.
-
Recent Comments
Mark Derderian on Trying to Inspire Umair on An Introduction to the Program… Sakil Malik on About Mohammad Salim on I am Happy and Proud to be The… Sam Jet on Searching for Inspiration Yulia Immajati on Searching for Inspiration RIAM (Cambodia) on Searching for Inspiration Sam Jet on I am Happy and Proud to be The…
