Associations Part 2

     In a country where life expectancy is currently 67 years and was less than 50 around the time of her birth, Chamaly, a 57 year old villager from the Purbaborsha Village, Bangladesh decided to start the Ananda Moy Woman's Association. I didn't get an exact translation, but I believe the name comes from a famous Bengali spiritual leader, who's name means bliss-permeated mother. Started in December 2008, and presently with 28 members, the idea behind it was  to form a group that could establish the rights of all women in the village would create an abuse free environment.

Chamaly (right) speaks to the group.

     Chamaly was an anomaly from all the women that I talked to. Where most groups limited the age of their members from about 20 to 45 (mostly so that the members would be of sound mind and body), here was a 57 year old, who was not only a member, but the Chairperson. Asking the question "How old are your association members?" often turned into a lengthy group discussion (do you remember the day Bangladesh won it's independence? how old is your oldest child? were you already married during the big flood?), but Chamaly proudly stood up, took off her reading glasses, and told me her age. She was also one of the few people in the country I saw wearing glasses!

     She told me that as a child she had little interest in going to school, but now she wanted to learn everything. Teach us anything, we are willing to learn! Her village was one of the better educated of the ones I visited. Out of 19 people at the meeting 5 could only write their names, 5 had gone to 5th grade, 2 to 8th, 6 had completed their SSC or 10th grade (including Chamaly), and one, Herarai, the Treasurer had finished her HSC or 12th grade. I'm not sure all the women felt as strongly as Chamaly did about bettering themselves through education, but they clearly valued her strength and wisdom.

Ananda Moy Woman's Association,
Purbaborsha Village, Bangladesh

     The group meets every month in a shed made from corrugated iron sheets, built by the Grameen foundation to house community meetings, to discuss current problems within the community. Through the help of NGO's the women are learning about health and sanitation issues, training on income generating activities, and most importantly, what their rights are as a woman in Bangladeshi society. Due to the high illiteracy rate and the remoteness of many villages, most woman don't know what rights they have in society, and when they do learn them, are usually powerless to make use of them. There is no access to the judicial system when a woman feels trapped in her home or has no means of transportation out of her village. This women's association is starting to change that. Starting at home, and keeping within the confines of their culture, Ananda Moy is slowly stamping out domestic violence by engaging all the involved parties and their families in discussions. Bringing out in the open the atrocities and unfairness, and educating everyone of their rights in the process.

The Power of Associations

Traveling around rural Bangladesh, I got the opportunity to meet with several women who came up with an interesting way to solve their problems and deliver justice to those whose culture were failing them. They formed associations, because they found that in numbers they had much more power than they did as individuals.
I spoke with women from 11 different Women's Associations, which were developed of their own initiative, although assisted by an NGO for logistical things, like information on how to open a bank account, or how to get organized, or in leadership training. Some were recently organized, and some had been around for a few years. Most were formed to tackle similar issues: domestic violence, early marriage, dowry. Some had more specific goals, like the case of a woman being raped by her father-in-law or a village that needed to get the local prostitute to either change her line of work or to get out of town. Most problems were dealt with the same way, discussion with the person causing the problem and the affected families.
Before the formation of the group, women most often accepted their victimization as fate. Taking abuse as something that goes with the territory of being a married woman, not something that could be stopped. They felt powerless against their husbands, who controlled every aspect of their lives.
The women were able to not only organize themselves to curb the violence against them, they were able to pool their resources and save for the future. Most of the associations had each member contribute some amount money, anywhere between 20 to 50 Taka a month (about 20 to 50 cents) which would be saved in a bank account. The money could then be used for things like hospital costs if one had to be rushed to a hospital during child birth, or if a family couldn't cover school fees for their children. One association was pooling it's money in order to build a pond to cultivate fish to feed the village. 
Most of the time when a woman earned an income, she was forced to turn the money over to her husband, thereby losing any economic power to make decisions for her family. Here, she had not only the power of her own savings but those of her group members. She no longer had to stand alone and suffer. She now had the power of an association.

Immersion

I'm still traveling into unknown territory, but here's a link I found inspiring:
TED talks: Jacqueline Novogratz: Inspiring a life of immersion




While I was trying to get my career on track and sending resume after resume out to every job listing I qualified for, I realized that there were certain websites that I was continually being drawn to and there were the ones I felt I had to look at in order to get employed. These were the bookmarked pages I looked at everyday that listed all the new architecture job openings in a 50 mile radius. They all said the same things: they needed someone with at least 3-5 years experience, that knew AutoCAD, ArchiCAD, or Nemetschek Allplan, knew how to put together a set of construction documents, and that were flexible, creative, and were ready to work for an amazing firm that had exciting projects. Mostly they wanted someone who could sit in front of a computer 12-14 hours a day and not complain about it.
There were two firms I found that I did find interesting: one that had a link to a project where they built a school in Nepal, and one that was building a Convention Center in Rwanda. The firm with the project in Nepal, I found out later, that this school project seemed to be a one time deal. It was a project they were happy to do, but they were busy building super cool modern designs here, and weren't going to put more energy and resources in to other charitable projects. The firm with the project in Rwanda had a different approach. This firm, I thought had potential. They put together a conference and a gallery opening showing the project and making a big deal about the collaboration between the two countries. But when I looked more deeply into it, I found out that the project wasn't giving much to the Rwandans except for an expensive building to somehow take care of after the Germans designers and the Chinese construction workers had gone.
I was slowly losing faith. I wanted to work in architecture. I wanted to have projects I found meaningful. I wanted to provide shelter and schools and community centers for people who really need it, but I couldn't find anyone else who was doing what I wanted to do.
That's when I realized I needed to live a life of immersion. I needed to follow the projects that meant something to me. I needed to stop listening to all the people giving me practical advice on jobs I should apply for. This meant I was on my own. That I had to find the projects and find the funding and find the people who think the way I do, all on my own. It's a scary road to go down, but it's a lot more fun than banging my head against the desk trying to  apply for a job that would leave me bored and frustrated.
I challenge you to follow your dream and fully immerse yourself into the unknown. You'll be surprised at all the bliss you'll find.

Architects as problem solvers

While I'm traveling in places that may have an internet connection, but not likely at the same time that I'll have a continuous power source, here's an interesting article I came across to for you to look at until I return with new from Bangladesh.

It's called the Architecture of Disaster Recovery: A Call to Arms for Designers from the World's Most Vulnerable Regions. I found it in the Solutions Journal and it talks about how there are too few designers out there that are adequately trained in disaster recovery.

When I studied Architecture we learned how to design structures that would hold up against things like wind, earthquakes, heavy snowfall. But it was assumed that we would be building houses or high rises similar to the ones all around us. We thought about designing cool looking buildings that had more to do with sculpture than survival. 

There are a few schools that have studios or seminars that deal with real world problems, the article claims, and one that offers a Master's program in what it calls Sustainable Emergency Architecture.  As people start getting more interested in looking at long term solutions for keeping the world suitably housed in sustainable way, we need the academic world to pick up the pace.

For more on the subject read the book the article was based on: Beyond Shelter: Architecture and Human Dignity (Marie J. Aquilino, ed., Metropolis Books, 2011).