My experience at FOWODE

This is my personal experiences at Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) during a three-week internship in July 2012. I relay my experience with FOWODE projects and how they fit into the greater mission of the organization, as well as how these assignments and l experiences relate to where FOWODE is moving in the future. 

http://www.slideshare.net/FOWODE_1/documents

My major assignment was drafting FOWODE’s gender policy which would be an addendum to the human resources manual that governs staff at FOWODE. Originally, based on my research, I thought this document was going to be a 20 page report on how FOWODE does gender in the larger community, including overviews of all of their projects, past, current and future but it turned out to be an overwhelming task. I reviewed the organization HIV/AIDS work place policy and the Human Resource policy and once I understood the general format that they were looking for, I began to research women’s rights organizations and other Ugandan organizations to see what was currently being offered, and where the global standard was heading.  

I specifically put a section that states ‘promotions would be intrinsically linked to performance reviews and criteria’. Although it seems more of a general human resource policy issue, I found in my research that without this provision, whereas all staff can get promotions women are often overlooked if these promotions are not based on written qualifications and demonstrated work.   Looking at staff overtime graph and seeing firsthand how much FOWODE employees work, I felt the need to add a provision encouraging family and privates lives by limiting work weeks to 40 hours. I was not completely sure how that would fit into FOWODE’s operation, so I added several options for encouraging well-rounded employees, including flexible working hours, overtime pay, and earned vacation time for all overtime worked.  I created a section concerning parents that I thought would be utterly liberal and may even create tension with the staff. I was very happy with all the things that FOWODE already provides in these terms, especially for lactating mothers. Women are given time off each day to breastfeed for 4-6 months. This would never happen in the United States, and I consider it very progressive and good for mothers, families and the community as a whole. Overall, I was pretty happy with how the first draft turned out, the willingness of the employees and also their willingness to let me attempt to write it and run a meeting even though I was only an intern.

I participated in the joint listening in of the 2012/13 national budget speech that was organized by FOWODE for various civil society organizations. I found it interesting that so many NGOs gather to listen and discuss the upcoming year’s budget. They come together and share information, excitement and disappointments over government pronouncements for the next financial year yet most non-profits in America suffer silently alone as they are emailed their government contributions (if any) for the next year.

“Many people in the U.S. think that if Uganda needs help, they need food, clothes and mosquito nets. If someone asked me now, I would say Uganda is striving to create more infrastructure, better education and healthcare for its citizens and better working government officials”.

The budget speech was really interesting and informative for me. It helped me learn and think so much about how Uganda does development and where FOWODE fits into that scheme.Many people in the U.S. think that if Uganda needs help, they need food, clothes and mosquito nets. If someone asked me now, I would say Uganda is striving to create more infrastructure, better education and healthcare for its citizens, and better working government officials. By infrastructure, I mean roads, access to clean water, access to loans, and systems to check and balance those in positions of power. That budget speech helped me think about things more deeply, such as, “Yes, growing more tea for export will bring in more for the gross national product, but people also need to keep growing food to feed the population.” Or “Taxing alcohol does raise money for the government, but how will that negatively impact rural farmers who grow the products that make the alcohol?” Not to mention that they are raising the tax on cosmetics, which seems trivial, until you realize that these taxes only impact women, who are expected to wear makeup in the workplace. 

 

Whereas in Uganda issues, such as better roads, seem to be constantly on the budget, year after year without improvement, America seems to flip flop continually about what projects are important. One day insurance companies are mandated to cover birth control; the next Planned Parenthood is getting defunded entirely. Although we were included in many staff meetings, the big budget meeting was the most insightful for me as an outsider in Uganda. I got to see in detail how the government makes priorities. It was also really great for Julius to come speak with us after the budget was announced to explain things and answer questions.

I also had a chance to visit Kibaale district where FOWODE implements her programs, my time in Kibaale was an invaluable experience. I was able to see a different side of Uganda than the busy city of Kampala. I got to see the road conditions for myself; only then could I really understand what the Village Budget Clubs were up against, and how their struggle with infrastructure issues really affects their lives on a daily basis. Even after all of my research, I only had a true picture of the VBCs after I visited a group of them and was able to watch the process unfold. I will say again how impressive this program is, and how impassioned the participants are. Not only do the VBCs bring real, measurable changes to the community and government, but the members become empowered and are changing their own lives as well. I have never been particularly interested in politics or the democratic process, but seeing the villagers come together to fight for themselves has inspired me to be more involved as well.

I thought the support by FOWODE would be greater, but the community members seemed to be taking charge of the clubs and their mission themselves. This is what will keep this program going far into the future. They are pushing to get more training so they can train others without needing FOWODE’s assistance. They want cameras so they may conduct monitoring visits on their own. They have maintained operational budgets by offering microloans,

Their ideas about financially sustaining themselves are ingenious.  This is not just flattery. The VBC program is innovative, and more than that, it is effectively furthering FOWODE’s mission. My time in the field was a highlight of my internship.

My internship coincided with FOWODE’s Leadership building Camp. I attended it for two days and I was instantly impressed with the professionalism of the young women as they gave speeches and seemed to be genuinely working to learn the concepts presented for the day. However, I think it is important that while FOWODE trains these young leaders, it takes extra care to vet each speaker beforehand, and only hire teachers who are also completely in congruence with FOWODE’s mission and vision. While people are learning about gender issues for the first time and looking up to these people, it is imperative that they are getting accurate and empowering information from them. It upset me to see someone in authority that just perpetuated the stereotypes and traditional gender roles that FOWODE is attempting to transform.

Overall, my time at FOWODE was short but eye opening. Being able to learn about how they are engaging in women’s issues in Uganda also helped me to look at Uganda’s culture and traditions, not just from a feminist or American lens, but from a humanistic one. I got to spend time with the staff that explained the culture to me and shed light on some of the differences in Uganda that I did not previously understand. Although the programs are amazing, FOWODE’s staff is really the greatest asset. They are dedicated to the women’s movement; it was apparent in the way they talked about their projects and where they wanted to see the organization go in the future.

               

I was able to get a feel for what it would be like to work for a non-profit full time, and a taste of what professional writers do. In the end, I appreciated that I was able to make the projects what I thought they should be so that I could learn through experience and not just follow a set of instructions. There was a lot to learn in such a short and I am excited to continue following FOWODE’s work in Uganda.

               

By Trinity Overmyer