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My office
My wee office (which i\'m never in! It\'s all about the outside in this job!) So it's been a week! Starting with a cyclone and ending with well, it hasn't ended yet...so who knows! (Fri and sat is the bangladesh weekend for all you confused people).
Where to start? So the office is grand. Not just because its somewhere I can finally start working and settling into, but also because the people I work with are universally some of the most wonderful, determined, friendly and humourous people I know - vital characteristics for doing this job methinks. I feel I am learning as much from observing their way of dealing with things (dealing with suffering people with professionalism and compassion, coping themselves with the frustration of things like not being able to offer people spare plastic sheets to fend off the storms, coping with dealing with the people suffering etc) as I am by physically doing the work myself. So what is my work, I hear you cry?! Well, I am a Community Services Assistant and work with a Burmese guy called Tun Nyo and a Korean woman called Soo-Eun. We are responisble in part for overseeing the implementation of social services within the camp (and work closely with partner organisations like another social develoipment
ngo setting up vocational training centres, MSF and the Gov of Bangladesh). In practice this means that daily in one or other of the two camps, we meet with a long line of individuals who come to us with their cases of domectic violence, arbritray arrest, difficulty divorcing, food ration issues, registration as refugee issues etc. The three of us sit, and with a person from the portection team, work out ways to help solve these problems around the constraints of government rules, tight finances and resources and local cultural norms. It's hard but incredibly interesting work. In a situation without a set legal framework, its dynamic but also frighteningly multi-interpretable. This works both ways, in our favour and not. Work is being done on trying to support the refugees setting up their own form of council that can deal with such cases that dont require the legal intervention of the gov of bangla. The things i have seen already are startling. A woman and her son's tutor beaten by a gang who accused them of having an affair, a woman who was given paracetamol tablets to feed to her 21 yr old day baby perilously ill with a fever,
and on and on. People come to our little open veranda-type room, safely tucked out of sight, and relay their stories to us as the electric fan whirs round its creaky circumference, sending mosquitoes and paltry amounts of cool air down. Some look to us (mistakenly) as the ultimate authority (dependency is a real issue), others as people potentially able to add strength to their claims, and others just to be able to tell their story - unsure of what they should do and who they should see. Encouragingly, the rate of reporting of sgbv (sexual and gender-based violence) cases is high. I think I heard someone say that. Otherwise, it's worrying - for the amount we hear from women pushed to the edge is large, and if they only represent the minority....
All is not lost, or too doom and gloom. There are ways out and there is now room to wiggle in the gap that has been given us by a bigger budget and a slightly relaxing of policies by the gov. I am eager to get stuck into a project and am looking into setting up a safe house for abused women who need somewhere to stay
Soap-making
One of the new initiatives in the camps. Here women from vulnerable families (e.g. single female-headed households)work in the mornings for a 4 months shift to make laundry soap and in return recieve extra rice rations. The soap is then distributed amongst all the refugees in the camp making it a nice inclusive exercise, if not quite self-sustaining (refugees are not legally allowed to make an income, so they can't sell their wares). for as long as their case is being sorted out by us and the gov reprensentative (known as the Camp In Charge - CIC). It's all the little things...or rather the big things that are made little here in the overwhelming presence of so much that is wrong.
I might also be running some leadership workshops for women...and be lending a directors hand to a local youth play! it's all good.
Wwell this has been a long one, but i think it was necessary to explain what i am actually doing out here - and not lounging on a beach as some people dared to suggest he he. My apartment may be pretty nice, but it just has me and my few belongings rattling around..although i bought some speakers with blue lights on (thats for you matt!) and my ipod is a saving grace (thanks for all the uploading dad!). I felt pretty cool with my , albeit a bit-of-a-brick, ipod, only to be ousted by everyone here who has the latest design from dubai or something. fine! forever destined to be a little bit behind. sigh!
well, toodlepip until the next time.
i'm off to eat fish!
love yous
Iona x
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Anna
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you're the best
hiya hon, it's anna here, thanks for that explanation. i did want to know what you were up to over there. it seems like you've got into the swing of things there and it's great that everyone's so nice and upbeat. take care of yourself sweetness and keep up the good work, i'm sure it's really appreciated. you're the best hon xx