Leebert Campbell and male leaders in Gender Training are exploring issues of power, using a 'rock' exercise. - CONTRIBUTED
Thursday February 23, marked the closing of a two-year pioneering project carried out by Women's Media Watch (WMW). Sponsored by the Canadian Gender Equality Fund, WMW trained more than 40 male leaders in gender awareness which involved them exploring masculinity in Jamaican society and gender-based violence.
THE JAMAICAN deejay bellows his love for women and roars about his rock-hard masculinity. But, that Thursday evening at the Alhambra Inn off Upper Mountain View Avenue, the deejay's unwavering adoration of the female was challenged. Poet, musician and participant in Women's Media Watch's male leaders training programme, M'bala, performed a piece entitled 'DJ Love', hacking away at the gender values often perpetuated through dancehall. The poem asked, amongst many other things, how deejays could claim they loved women and not bathe with their baby mother's rag.
It questioned how they could label themselves lovemaking dons, able to please all women, and in the same breath describe their lovemaking skills as the violent 'ramming' of women and wanting to "hold them at gunpoint."
GENDER VIOLENCE
This type of breakdown and questioning of Jamaica's gender norms, values and expectations, focusing both on masculinity and gender violence, was the aim of a two-year workshop programme facilitated by Women's Media Watch. WMW is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to reducing violence in Jamaica, especially sexual violence and violence in the media, and to promoting a balanced gender approach to the analysis of the media in all its forms.
Thursday's event marked the end of the Women's Media Watch 'Forging Partnerships with Men, Addressing Gender-Based Violence' series of workshops with male leaders from a slew of non-governmental and public sector organisations throughout Jamaica ranging from grassroots community organisations to the Jamaica Constabulary Force. The 42 males who participated in the series, some in 2004 and some in 2005, each received a much-deserved certificate.
The programme, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has impacted the wider society through its participants. At the programme's closing event Patrick Prendergast, of CARIMAC UWI, told the audience how participants like himself and Rev'd. Stephen-Claude Hyatt of the Family Life Ministries have joined forces with other participants and noteworthy men like Dr. Peter Weller of the University of the West Indies, to form an initiative', a major project aimed at addressing and resolving masculinity issues in Jamaica and the region.
The participants also spoke on the impact the workshops have had on their professional and personal lives. Owen Ellis, who wears many hats including one as popular comedian 'Blacka', spoke on the impact it has had on the way he grows his four boys. He also told the audience that since he has partaken in the programme he has written the majority of his 30-odd 'Blacka's Box' articles, published in the STAR newspaper, on gender issues.
Lawman Lynch, youth leader with the Kingston and St. Andrew Action Forum told how the experience has impressed upon his own life. "I have attended training programmes by non-governmental organisations and others in Jamaica and overseas, and this training programme by Women's Media Watch is by far the best because of its content, methodology and the expertise of the trainers." Lynch and others say that they have since incorporated much of the training style into their own work.
ENORMOUS IMPACT
Indeed the participants will carry on the empowering messages they have picked up along this journey. This obvious and enormous impact has raised concerns about the frequency and sustainability of this and like projects. One participant pleaded for continued funding from CIDA. Terry Ann Gilbert Roberts of CIDA later announced the organisation's immense approval of the WMW series' outcomes, and promised that CIDA would work diligently to ensure its continuation.
The event was also attended by Professor Neville Duncan of the University of the West Indies and Dr. Noel Watson of the United Nations Development Programme, Civic Dialogue Project. Judith Wedderburn of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and CUSO, other non-governmental organisations, were thanked for their contributions to the effort. WMW members, particularly Hilary Nicholson who is the organisation's training coordinator, were extended much appreciation.
