WORKING WITH YOUNG WOMEN ON PROJECTS IS THE BEST UNTIL......

 One of the things we do very well at www.plomuna.co.ke and we have enjoyed doing it for a long time is supporting community projects to come up with implementation teams. For small grassroot organizations without huge budgets, having people who are dedicated to a mission and vision just long enough until money starts to come in is always a matter of life and death. On one hand you want to inspire them enough to see that suffering and sacrificing is part and parcel of the process- on the other hand you want have to at least provide the basics so that they do not drown in despair and hopelessness. 

In 2019 when supporting one of our clients in a remote rural village in Western Kenya,  any time we called a meeting for community members to discuss the project and the CBO we were about to launch, more than half of the people that showed up were women. A spectrum of women, aged between 20 and 65 years old. The difference that stood between these women was who had been married in this community the longest- The wisdom and respect among them came from who had been here the longest, gave birth to children and successfully raised them. A good number were starting their life in the community, with just one or two toddlers while a good number came from fully developed homesteads where their sons had built their own Simba's(Small traditional hats built for boys immediately after circumcisions' to show they are now adults and can't sleep under the same roof with their parents)  and the daughters had been married and several cows brought home for dowry...

If you work with rural communities like we do- you would realize how the age difference among women plays a role in projects uptake and the ultimate success or failure of it.

But this post is about working with young women on projects and community based organizations- We have seen the huge difference young women can bring and the down side of the same that we would like to share-

1. When young women ( By young - we mean 18 to 34 or 35 years old) loves something- they give it their all. If you marketed an idea and or project to a group of young women and they bought into it- they do it with their hearts and often, they have no space for doubt. Such powerful attribute for a starting project or Community based organization is a game changer. On an interview with a 29 year old female that was working with a project we supervised, we asked her - what she liked about the project- Her answer was more of a personal feeling----"I like it here, people are friendly and supportive, Just feel like am home with people that love me and appreciate me." For young women it's always almost not about materials benefits, but more about how they feel about a project and the people involved.

2. Young women do not relocate on short-notices....They are one thing you can be sure that will be there for a year or two or even longer....For a young woman to move, she must plan, she must think about the kids, the parents, the neighbors, the source of water and so many other things...This allows for consistency and dependability. On another project we were supervising- A community school, we had constituted a team of 70% young women and 30% young men in 2018- Again because more young women were available and interested, than young men that came, Recently while meeting the team for progress assessment, it was interesting to meet close to 50% of  the 70% of women we originally engaged still around and working as teachers and in various positions, non of the 30%  of the original group of young men was present. All had left.... As we inquired about what happened, the stories of how the young men left were intriguing .

   - In most cases they never gave a notice, one left to Mandera to work as a teacher- That was over 400Kilometers away. Another young man poached one of the donors in the projects and took off to start their own project, almost sabotaging the original project. Another young man left to Kajiado for greener pastures. Another left teaching to focus on bricks making and other ventures....But the women, the big change was that they either had their second or third child now and even found a bigger reason to stay when their children started attending the school where they worked. In span of five years a lot had changed, but the women had remained______

3. Young women, do not remain young----They evolve and become more realistic and adaptable as the projects change and evolve. One lady in a project we are working with, started as a cleaner, later changed to become a cook and today she works as sales person in the farm department of the project. We have seen women evolving and shifting more quickly and easily than the young men in projects and grassroot organizations. From the young women teams we constituted, we observed that majority of them avoid direct confrontation with the projects leadership, they tended to be willing to shift from one chore to the next with ease, unlike the young men, who after sometime, they became confrontational, felt that they were being used, complained when changed from one role to the next. For new projects and young community based organizations, roles and responsibilities are more fluid and sometimes they change over night depending on funding, priorities and circumstances. Having people who can switch and fit in that fluid situation is often a prayer answered - Young women do that so well.

BUT WORKING WITH YOUNG WOMEN ON PROJECTS AND AS ANCHORS OF COMMUNITY PROJECTS IS THE BEST UNTIL.....

1. They get married by men who do not understand that women have heads of their own, ability to decide what they want and pursue dreams of their childhood. Our Chief executive officer once told a story of a young woman who he had met in a community project. The story went like this- 'When I visited that village, there was this naïve young lady, who milled around, she was what you would call the alter boy of the project - if she would have been a boy- She used to help with everyday chores, being send to the shop, cleaning the classrooms, helping teachers who had toddlers while they worked. She had just completed high- school and I guess the good pastor thought having her around was a great way to keep her engaged and away from the troubles, that befall such young ladies after secondary school. She did not have any official position.... Over the years, the school and the project grew and metamorphosed into various things, there was fall out and the project collapsed. Then it was resurrected by another lady---After the resurrection, The young lady became a teacher and was now helping with real work of managing the school....One day, there was a major problem, the project collapsed again...But because things happen...It resurrected again the third time...This time and five years later- the young lady was the leader of the project....But by this time, she was married and had started a family. Over the course of two years that the young lady led the project, the biggest problem was her husband. He could take the money meant for the project and drink all of it, spent it on things that were not related to the project...When the young lady tried to raise concerns...She would be beaten and thrown out of the house...The repeated in dignifying acts or the husband that rendered The young lady powerless, was the reason she lost leadership of a school project that had grown to support 280 children in her community. Striking a balance between family responsibilities coupled with an bearing husbands completely destabilizes even the most committed, passionate young woman.

2. Mass pregnancy happens within the team. A good number of young women can for some reason decide to be pregnant at the same- time. In a school project we were managing some years back,- Out- off 13 young women working in various position, 6 became pregnant within the same year. We had under-estimated the impact of how something like this would have on the organization....The policy we had set for the organization was that nobody will loose their job or salary simply because they became pregnant.... That would have been possible for a big organization with a fat purpose...For a small organization that operated hand to mouth with an expenditure budget of less than 10,000USD monthly. It was a disaster of a policy... When the reality of the pregnancies' came and the ladies had to take their 90 days maternity break and even more days for, some with complications, ---It meant that a completely new substantive team had  to be put in place to keep things running. The expenses doubled and it collapsed the system...

The organization was devastated-----

3. They refuse to learn new ideas, let go old habits and perpetuate certain cultures that affect the project. or the Community based organization. Because they don't easily move, their imagination is limited by their limited world view...Their input is shaped by local perspectives and community stereotypes. While we have developed ideas like exchange programs, for our past clients where their staffs travelled to work in projects in cities and elsewhere for a few days or weeks to gain exposure and expand their perspectives, sometimes that has not been enough. Young women in rural communities are custodians on culture, as it's passed down to them by the older women. They become indoctrinated with what's social acceptable and what is not, they become almost obsessed and fully absorbed in such beliefs that anyone with a contrary thought looks and sounds like an alien.

 This to great extend affects how they respond to change and how they carry that change down the generations. Once they believe in something----They would not be swayed....Have you ever wondered why to this date, women are the biggest perpetrators of Female genital mutilation against fellow women?  There you are, women become fully converted to an idea and when that full conversion happens, it becomes almost impossible to un do. Maybe there is a science behind it- This can be extremely dangerous for a project or a community based organization....When its time to let go and try something new- They just never would easily move on from that which they have known and believed in...What a paradox, while they are easy to teach and flexible to adopt...When they do, they do so fully and sometimes without a reverse gear.

So yes, 

STRIKE A BALANCE---------------------- THEN MOVE

Would you want to be supported in setting up a community project somewhere in Kenya, supporting young people to be better contributors to society or looking for experienced team that can help you manage community resource your have? Talk to us info@plomuna.co.ke

PLOMUNA PROJECTS INVESTMENT LIMITED is community based development consultant company that is developing ideas and tools on how best to develop the Continents 60% population that live in rural communities. 

We provide coaching and personal development for young people

Support Community based organizations to achieve their objectives

Manage community resources on behalf of our clients.