Building Bridges

"Have you ever seen a devout Muslim man hug a young transvestite in high heels and full make-up?
Ever heard a group of people singing their National Anthem into microphones and having it translated simultaneously?
Ever been in a group of HIV workers discussing how to work with the belief that there is "no such thing" as homosexuality in some of their communities?
Remember the first time you saw someone react with shock when a colleague disclosed that her husband has two wives?
Ever worked in a group of thirty people, from three continents, in five languages, over two weeks?
If you can answer YES to any of the above questions, it might be because you have been part of an international exchange at one time in your life.”
Charlie Weinberg Puntos de Encuentro

The quote above is from a participant in Building Bridges, a series of workshops facilitated by Exchange in May 2002, bringing together facilitators from Africa and Nicaragua to share understandings and approaches in the fields of Sexual and Reproductive Well-being and Domestic Violence. Workshops in Nicaragua and the UK gave African ‘Stepping Stones’ trainers and Nicaraguan organisations, Association of Men Against Violence (AHCV) and Puntos de Encuentro (Meeting Points), hands-on experience of each other’s approaches, and a chance to share, compare and analyse the methods and principles behind their work

Approaches to sexual and reproductive well-being, gender and domestic violence

Stepping Stones is a life-skills training package on gender, sexual and reproductive well-being, communication and relationship skills. It tackles these issues by bringing men and women, young and old, together as individual peer groups, as well as all-together in whole community meetings. Created in response to the AIDS crisis in Africa, Stepping Stones is now being widely adapted and used in over 40 countries in Africa, Asia and beyond. Marked changes in gender stereotypes have been witnessed by users of the package. 

The Association of Men Against Violence and Puntos de Encuentro, are both engaged in dynamic work on domestic violence, gender and diversity in Nicaragua. They draw on experiences from the Sandinista revolution and a history of popular education and feminism. AHCV has built a nationwide movement of men committed to challenging Machismo and redefining maleness without violence. Their programme challenges homophobia and violence against women, helping men to realise that they can be ‘real men’ and gentle at the same time. 

Puntos de Encuentro are a feminist organisation involved in multi-media work addressing gender, power and violence. They combine a popular teen ‘soap opera’ - ‘Sexto Sentido’ (Sixth sense), dealing with issues of sexual and reproductive well-being, gender and violence, shown on prime time television; a feminist magazine ‘la Boletina’ that has the biggest circulation of any magazine in Nicaragua; and youth training camps to train facilitators on gender and power.

Although Stepping Stones and the programmes in Nicaragua grew from different beginnings, they show marked similarities both in their ways of working and in their long-term goals. The ‘Building Bridges’ exchange was an opportunity for African and Nicaraguan facilitators to learn from one another and to build on the strengths of everyone's experiences in very different contexts, in order to improve everybody's ways of working.

Initial learning

A number of reports and reflections on the exchange are in the process of being produced by participants, but some initial lessons include:

The value of working with the whole community For Puntos de Encuentro and AHCV a central value of Stepping Stones was that it worked with the whole community. In Nicaragua they tended to work with groups of men and women and particular institutions such as schools and the army. Although they had a good deal of success linking up these different efforts in Nicaragua, the idea of working within particular communities was a powerful way of looking for more sustainable changes. On the other hand it was recognised that it was much harder to engage a whole community where HIV and AIDS were perceived as less of an emergency.

The value of a thorough gender analysis Stepping Stones practitioners recognised the thorough gender analysis of the Nicaraguan organisations, that linked male violence and homophobia with the devaluing of women. It was important not to start workshops with the assumption that everyone has a heterosexual orientation. At the same time it was important to find creative ways of working with issues of homophobia where homosexuality was illegal or stigmatised, without, in such settings, having adverse effects on HIV and AIDS work. 

The value of reflecting on principles Stepping Stones practitioners also appreciated the roots of the Nicaraguan approach in ‘popular education’ and appreciated the opportunity to reflect on the theoretical side of Stepping Stones to strengthen their own work.

The importance of linking personal and social change All the approaches were trying to connect personal change with wider social and institutional change. The Nicaraguan organisations clearly recognised the neglect of issues of interpersonal power and gender during the revolution and were interested in linking political change with issues of power in relationships. The Stepping Stones practitioners recognised that in tackling HIV and AIDS effectively at a local level was important, there was more at stake beyond the dynamics of one particular community. The multimedia approach of Puntos de Encuentro went some way to addressing the link between personal and social change, recognising the need for public spaces for debate and exploration, and awareness and training around interpersonal power relations.

Additional lessons included:

• the value of exchange in itself. Sharing and comparing ways of working made for engaged analysis and reflection
• the need for adequate measures of impact 
• the need for support and guidance for facilitators. Facilitators needed support to deal with conflict and difficult emotional issues and also to be aware of the power and influence of their own role

Follow up to the exchange will include exploring ways of supporting a networking process to support facilitators working with participatory approaches to gender and sexual and reproductive well-being. A full report of the workshop and a range of reflections from the organisations involved will be available soon.

The exchange visit was funded by the Exchange Programme and developed by Dr Sheena Crawford of Edinburgh Resource Centre Ltd, Dr Rob Vincent of the Exchange Programme and Dr Alice Welbourn, author of the original Stepping Stones manual. The programme was also facilitated by Gill Gordon of Reproductive Health Alliance and consultant Aubrey Maasdorp in the UK and Ruben Reyes, Charlie Weinberg, Humberto Abuanza, Monserrat Fernandez, Karla Melendez from Puntos de Encuentro, and Patrick Welsh and Xavier Alejandro Munoz Lopez from AHCV.

More learning from practice