Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Today's guest speaker, Abdou Sarr, Executive Director of World Education, arrived at 9 AM. We convened in the private meeting room with the curtains closed as we were told Mr. Sarr preferred the room to be secluded in that way. Abdou Sarr has been the driving force behind World Education's work in Senegal to establish the Network of Community Radios for Peace and Development in Casamance which now has 17 radio stations. After warm greetings, he presented his background of over 40 years working in development. He studied as a engineer and started with the government in the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Social Development, but felt limited freedom to work as he chose, so after 10 years, he moved to the world of NGOs. He worked for 10 years as a representative for Oxfam in Senegal and Burkina Faso and then moved on to World Education and pursued studies in social science in France.

We heard that the principle behind using community radio for social change springs from the African tradition of storytelling. The principles behind the mission of World Vision are to enable women and youth to develop the capacity to make social change, to be sustainable over time, and to promote gender equity. With the conflict in Casamance. World Education, existing for four years, is dedicated to building a blueprint for peace by bringing the warring parties together, a new strategy, and to promote peace education. Community Radio allows people to speak openly about the conflict and can reduce tension by allowing people to hear and understand the thoughts of their neighbors. To not have this understanding generates fear and misconceptions. The radio allows increased citizen participation in public affairs and increased understanding of human rights and the right to vote.

Radio shows may be multi-language, use music especially with shows for youth, and traditional music is used as part of the effort to rebuild the culture. Many shows are interactive talk shows. The stations can broadcast up to 70 km. Most stations have a management team, technical team, and managing board composed of local people. People are selected for interest. Over 400 women are in management. The other teams maintain gender and age diversity. There are training programs. Those who actually are on the air are taught to avoid using words that may target a group or cast a negative connotation and to avoid conflict such as about religion.

After hearing this story about World Education and radio we drove to the community radio station.We were again greeted by women with song. It is the Senegalese custom to always greet those you are with before conducting any business. So if a person walks in a room to present to a group of people, he/she will shake hands and greet each person individually. Karen (the former peace corps volunteer in Senegal) stated she learned this very quickly when she first arrived and went into a store to buy something and the shopkeeper refused to serve her until she greeted him properly. So there was a goup of about 30 women and maybe 10 men. We joined the and went into a room where we all were in a multi-rowed circle. We heard introductions and speeches by several men. The president of the women, the group known as Les Amazones de Santa Yalla (the Amazons of "praise god") was sitting between me and Ruth. She was asked to give a short formal presentation, but what was so interesting was that this meeting was about women and community radio and the whole show was dominated by men. We heard that women's shows are about peace, gender relations, personal reflection, and topics are addressed such as health care in pregnancy, early (child) marriage, child education, HIV/AIDS, and women's rights. The focus is on bettering the community, not individual rewards. Staff is trained in principles of journalism such as how to conduct an interview, how to speak with the microphone, how to organize roundtable discussions, and the use of digital media as well as ethics,/

After hearing more about the radio, we broke into two groups, one stayed and met with people working on the radio and the other went to the actual radio station. We saw the radio equipment and several us (me included) had the opportunity to speak on the radio. I used my best French and gave a greeting and wishes as an American pediatrician for the good health and good nutrition for all, especially the children. This was then translated into the native language Wolof. The groups then reversed. Women seemed more ready to speak up in the smaller group about the impact of the radio on their lives, but there were a few men who needed to speak as well. One was sort of irritating who stated he used to be a teacher and not very many people knew him, but now that he is on the radio lots of people know him. The women really focused on the positive social changeTheys that were occurring. At the end we had a drummer and some music. We departed and went to a restaurant for lunch.

Lunch was good, but pretty much the same thing we had been eating at all meals, fish, vegetables, rice, potatoes. After lunch we went to PFPC, the women's platform for peace, a coalition in the Casamance of 170 women's organizations. The traditional Senegalese greeting of music and song awaited us. This group had its own cheerleader, a short older woman with exuberant energy and a drum who would lead the music and later get up and dance whenever there was something in the discussion to celebrate. She was quite entertaining. The leader greeted us with "Shalom." The women introduced themselves and who they were representing and this included various geographic regions, women with disabilities and victims of land mines, people displaced by the conflict, USOFORAL with whom we had met yesterday, storytellers, and traditional women. One woman present was an elected representative to the national assembly. The goal of all present was peace, especially getting the commandants (rebels) to resume peace talks and the promotion of human rights. Senobu whom we met yesterday spoke on behalf of USOFORAL and of the action plan: 1) grassroots discussions in all villages about the conflict with proposed solutions and 2) to develop strategic discussions for peace. The women have met with the prime minister, also a woman, and prior to the last presidential election met with the candidates to learn of their platforms and what they proposed for the Casamance region. They supported the president who was elected who was one of only two candidates who did not propose a military solution. We learned about the Commission to End Violence with is providing support to victims of violence. Three women gave individual testimony of their own personal experiences with violence in the war, one stating this was the first time in 20 years she had been able to talk about this without crying. Their experiences included personal beatings, seeing family members and friends murdered and the destruction of their property. We all had tears in our eyes at the end of the stories. The women representing those with disabilities stated one woman with a sewing machine has been able to develop a sewing business and employ other women with disabilities. One village has developed a savings and loan association. The challenges these women identified included the need to involve more/all women in the regions, to have the government recognize the role of the women and to initiate peace negotiations, to have increased resources for physical and psychological effects of trauma, to develop a strong economic base. Skills the women are gaining are in areas of leadership, gender issues, networking, and conflict resolution.

We are all very moved by the personal stories and energized the by the intensity of the work these women are doing to improve their communities and individual lives despite economic, political, and violent challenges.

Back to the hotel with some time to spare before dinner. I decided to walk down the street in the direction of les possions (fish) as the security guard had informed me. The distance was about half a mile to a dock and many pirogues (boats) piled up on the beach, some at the dock. On the way I passed a beach with what appeared to be sort of a sculpture garden and clothesline with laundry on it, populated by some goats. A little further along were some children cutting open coconuts. One nine year old girl knew a few words of English and asked me my name. I told her and was speaking in French with her mother trying to explain about AJWS. When I finished, she told me she did work with the Platform for Peace, and I told her we had just visited that group. I continued walking, and when I came to the boats, there were many birds, possibly pelicans and herons. Fishing nets were piled up, people (who did not want their photo taken) cleaning fish. I walked around a few minutes, took a few pictures and started to walk back to the hotel. There was a woman with a little boy walking the same way. I spoke to her, learned she was from Kenya. She offed me a wrapped piece of candy, but I didn't have any money with me. Then I asked her what it was and she just gave it to me; it was like a very good piece of peanut brittle. I passed an emergency dispatch center with some emergency vehicles from the international Red Cross in Geneva and then some fairly nice two story private homes facing the river.

Once back I had to board the bus to drive to the Aubert hotel across the street from last night's ATM. We had dinner there in a private dining room with our guests, one of whom was Robert Sagna, a Senegalese politician who served in the government of Senegal from 1978 to 2000 and was Mayor of Ziguinchor from 1984 to 2009. He was elected to the National Assembly of Senegal in 2007. He and the other, a local high school teacher, are considered authorities on the Casamance conflict. Mr Sagna explained the background of the conflict, with the geographic separation as The Gambia nearly divides the country, and the economic, cultural and historical events leading to the conflict. The conflict reached its peak in the 1990s and is now quieter and (as noted above) the new president is more willing to negotiate. He noted that north Senegal has always been closer to and more open to the external world with trading with North Africa and neighboring countries, Mali and Ghana, that Islam entered Senegal from the north via north Africa. He also noted that President Obama in a recent visit stated he was committed to peach in the Region and has appointed a new ambassador and special envoy to participate as appropriate. Surprisingly, information about the conflict is not taught in school.

When the talk (with much more information) was over, dinner, dessert, and coffee (first evening cup of coffee offered) , we thanked our quests and departed for our hotel and sleep.