Gabrielle Halcrow (SNV Bhutan) gave praise to IRC for sharing the story about the female masons in Kerala, at the previous regional learning workshop hosted in Dien Bien in January 2011. She did this in a DGroup discussion while reporting on the “Governance for Rural Sanitation and Hygiene” workshop of SNV Vietnam’s programme in August 2011.
Published on: 14/09/2011
Gabrielle Halcrow (SNV Bhutan) gave praise to IRC for sharing the story about the female masons in Kerala, at the previous regional learning workshop hosted in Dien Bien in January 2011. She did this in a DGroup discussion while reporting on the “Governance for Rural Sanitation and Hygiene” workshop of SNV Vietnam’s programme in August 2011.
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“In SNV Vietnam's programme the partnership with the Women's Union has been an important factor in supporting women to shift the priority for sanitation and increasing the recognition of the role of women in this sector. While gender is not “just about women”, it is gender issues that define roles and relationships and can be barriers to women’s effective involvement in sanitation. Through successfully mobilizing its network from the province to the household the women’s union is demonstrating a strong link between generating action for sanitation and increasing the involvement of women, for whom it is a priority. The Dien Bien Women's Union district’s representative in a recent review reported that at the household level: “Women take a key role. Normally it’s only women that start the discussion [about sanitation]”. Further to this, the women's union reports that their members’ understanding of sanitation issues has improved which is key, in their words: "if a women really believes in sanitation, she will convince her husband". They are increasingly being proactive about discussing sanitation and latrine construction with their husbands and encouraging their neighbours to also build latrines.
Finally I wanted to share a story inspired by the success of the female masons in Kerala, India shared by IRC in the previous regional learning workshop hosted in Dien Bien in January. Following this with the support of the women's union, the team actively sorted out and included female assistant masons for the first time alongside men to train them in such a way that they could be lead masons in toilet construction. These women were already involved in the sector but as unskilled labour or assistant masons were perhaps not so visible. The idea to include them was not initially met with support and required additional sensitisation.
But the outcome is that these first female masons are doing well. In the words of one, “before the training course I was an assistant mason and when I stood on the scaffold people would stare. Now I feel confident”. She is currently completing three orders to construct toilets in the programme area that she has received since the training and her income has increased by as much as 30%. She has a strong vision of how she could work as a skilled mason, she sees the potential market for constructing latrines for the rural Tay people, and in the future would like to lead her own masons team. Provincial level VWU see her story and that of the other 11 female masons as very promising and brings a “good image to address strong prejudices about women’s roles”. So thank you to IRC for sharing that story!”
Source: Gabrielle Halcrow (SNV Bhutan), email, 22 August 2011
