ZANGOC Gender Equality Team (GET)

First let me refer you to Hyun Park’s blog about the establishment of the ZANGOC Gender Equality Team (GET) http://ycicanada.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/gender-equality-team-of-zangoc/. It brings me great pleasure to write this continuation blog because that means that there has been progress that needs to be shared.

In July, two scholarly YCI Youth Ambassadors, three committed individuals from ZANGOC member organizations and 1 dedicated YCI intern (that’s me!) came together to draft a proposal to the ZANGOC Executive Committee (EXCOM) about the rationale behind establishing a GET, the objectives of the GET and the structure of the GET consisting of 11 members: 3 people from the ZANGOC EXCOM, 7 people from ZANGOC-Unguja member organizations and 1 person from ZANGOC-Pemba member organizations.

The proposal was successfully approved by the EXCOM in mid July and we were given the go ahead to proceed with formation. At the end of July Mr. Mzee Ali Haji, the ZANGOC Executive Secretary, appointed a GET Coordinator from within the ZANGOC EXCOM, thus establishing the first official member. The GET Coordinator is Ziredi Abdul, she is fabulous and very committed to moving the GET forward.

When I came back from vacation the end of August, I was very surprised and extremely happy to hear what had been accomplished within the two and a half weeks that I was away:

• Ziredi and Shaib (the YCI Volunteer Manager in Zanzibar) met to discuss the recruitment process
• Letters were sent to all of the Unguja member organizations on August 23rd calling for applications. Applications deadline was August 27th. Fifteen applications were received.
• Pemba was informed about the GET and was asked to appoint a representative from one of the four members in Pemba.
• Ziredi and the Executive Secretary met to discuss who the remaining two GET members will be representing the ZANGOC EXCOM. 

I returned from vacation on Sunday August 28th and on Monday August 29th a team of four sat down and reviewed the fifteen Unguja resumes and shortlisted candidates based on gender experience, leadership experience, research and advocacy experience and experience in social justice issues. As a group we shortlisted ten applicants, needing only seven, and set interviews to take place on Friday September 2nd.

Before the interviews began, we created a score sheet in order to help make a final decision on the seven Unguja members. The decision on the seventh member was close but after some discussion amongst the four interviewers, we came to a decision on the final member, which I think was a good decision.  The interview process was very interesting for me, having never been the “interviewer.”

September 9th was the first official GET meeting with 10 members; the Pemba member was not present due to travel costs. However, we hope to be able to bring her to Unguja for gender training and GET meetings, on a quarterly basis. I feel that the meeting went well, even though there are still a lot of administrative kinks to be worked out but. A great discussion took place amongst members on how the team will operate and what kinds of activities are required in order for the GET to meet its objectives.

Only a few of the resources I was given from the Ministry

Yesterday afternoon, I had a productive meeting at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Youth, Women and Children Development. I met with the Gender Unit which is funded through the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Within this Unit, I met with the Gender Program Coordinator and Assistant Coordinator who gave me some great tools on gender mainstreaming and guidelines on gender monitoring and evaluation. I was also given a contact to two gender companies in Dar es Salaam which the UNFPA hired to train the Gender Unit on auditing and mainstreaming. Either Ziredi or I will contact these companies to inquire about training rates because this is definitely the next important step for the GET if it intends to be a successful team, which I hope it will!

Zanzibar in Mourning

On the morning of Saturday September 10th I was laying in bed enjoying my late start to a relaxing day. At 9:30am I received a text message from the YCI Volunteer Coordinator here in Zanzibar notifying me that in the early hours of the morning on Saturday, a ferry carrying (what was then thought to be only 650) passengers capsized and sank en route to Pemba Island. The YCI Coordinator is originally from Pemba and if you recall my blog about my business trip to Pemba in July you will remember that he still has many relatives living in Pemba, of which some were on board the ferry.

At 9:30am on Saturday, the YCI Coordinator, along with thousands of other Zanzibari's stood waiting outside the Mnazi Mmoja Hospital in Stone Town while doctors read out the names of the survivors and posted lists on the walls. Unfortunately, this same mass of people were also waiting for the bodies of those found dead to be brought to the football fields near the Mnazi Mmoja Hospital in Stone Town for identification.

Crowds of people wait to identify their loved ones

Apparently, the original number of passengers on the ferry was said to be 650 as that is the maximum capacity of the ship. However, many families were returning to Pemba after celebrating school holidays on the mainland so I can only imagine how many bribes were paid at this point to ensure that everyone got a spot on the ship. This means that countless people were unregistered on the ships manifest, thereby making it that much more difficult to conduct a proper search and rescue.

The number of people found alive and the number of people found dead add up to more than 650 people meaning that the ship was terribly overcrowded with both passengers and cargo. Currently, there have been nearly 200 deceased found in the water through rescue searches or washed up on shore in Nungwi  (the northern tip of Zanzibar -- also a very popular tourist destination). The number of people found alive in the Indian Ocean, clinging to anything that floats, is currently at 606.

Authorities are concluding that the cause of the accident was engine failure due to overcrowding of a ship that was in poor condition to begin with. The ship set sail from Dar es Salaam in mainland Tanzania and stopped at Unguja Island (Zanzibar) to pick up more passengers and cargo before departing to Pemba Island. From what I have read online, it was at this stop that some passengers began to be worry about the state of the ship with so many people. Some people tried to exit the ship in Zanzibar out of fear but, apparently, the ladders were pulled up quickly leaving only a few people to exit the ferry in Zanzibar on a gut reaction.

Who is at fault? "Mohamed Aboud Mohamed, the island's minister of state, said that investigations are focused on why a ship licensed to carry 600 people was allegedly carrying more than 800" (The Telegraph).


Three days of mourning for the deceased and their families began on Sunday and fundraising efforts began today (Monday September 12th). Since many Zanzibari's have lost multiple relatives, including children, from this accident, fundraising efforts are going to provide emergency relief as well as support for families who cannot afford the cost of funeral services or to families who cannot afford to provide for relatives who have lost primary caregivers.


Please, if you have any contribution to make to this tragic accident (no matter how big or small), please visit the following website for more information on how you can help and how your donation will help those in mourning.

SAIDIA ZANZIBAR  --- Website for donations

In terms of the number of deceased this accident was fairly small unfortunately, not making many headlines and breaking news stories in international media. However, this disaster is greatly affecting the lives of countless people in Zanzibar. So please, make sure to "share" my blog on your facebook, twitter, or other social media sources in order to ensure the news of this accident is shared around the world. "Share" my blog by clicking the social media icons at the bottom of the blog.


Sources and Further Reading:


Daily News Online (Tanzania) - September 12, 2011
CNN - September 11, 2011
France 24 - September 11, 2011
The Citizen - September 12, 2011
Capital FM News (Kenya) - September 10, 2011
BBC World News - September 10, 2011

Vacation Part 4 - Namibia

Everywhere I go on this continent I am always amazed at the beauty I see, both in its physical landscape and in its people. It's no wonder that foreigners come to Africa, fall in love with its beauty and stay for years.

Namibia was amazing. In Swakopmound, Namibia on the coast of the country was the first time I saw sand dunes and I was absolutely blown away . The desert is the most amazing landscape I have ever seen, the rolling sand dunes seemed to go on for miles...and probably do! When the Intercape bus dropped me off in Swakopmund on a Saturday afternoon, I was taken aback by the lack of people and the general deserted feeling of the town. Swakopmound is a small German town with a population of only 42,000 and on the weekends the town basically shuts down so it wasn't until Monday that I actually got a feel of the city but on Sunday I had enough adrenaline filled activities to keep me busy...let me recap!

Sunday August 21

My day started early as I woke up ready to hit the slopes...I mean dunes! The previous day I had booked myself on an expedition to go sandboarding, an activity that kinda scared me considering I have only snowboarded twice in my life and that was many years ago! Of course it turned out to be an awesome activity and I had a really great instructor that was encouraging me to try bigger dunes as I got more comfortable directing myself on the board down the dunes. The only thing about boarding down bigger dunes is that you have to walk up the dunes to do it all over again which is not an easy task; its too bad they don't have chair lifts in the desert!  Nonetheless, I think this experience may have sparked my interest to take up snowboarding when I get back to Canada in December!

Waxing my board...getting ready to go fast!

Almost time for the first run...secretly scared at this moment

But it wasn't so bad at all!

Sandboarding lasted about 2.5 hrs after which time my guide took me to the beach and prepared a small lunch of cold cut sandwiches. After this I went back to my hostel and wasted no time jumping in the hot shower a) to warm up again [who ever claimed the desert is hot is lying!] and b) to wash off the sand that was literally everywhere!

After this I waited around the hostel for about an hour to be picked up in the Desert Explorers van to start my quad biking adventure which was such an amazing adventure! When I got there there were so many people and I wasn't sure if we'd all be going out together which would seriously hinder my chances of going fast! Fortunately, one of the guides said that as soon as we get out into the dunes they will split us up depending on who wants to go fast, medium, slow or very slow (thank god!). At first I think I accidentily went into the medium speed group but this turned out for the better. My guide ended up stopping us after about 15 minutes because there were people that were lagging behind in our group. He quickly took them out of our group to join the slow group and the remaining 3 of us went full throttle through the desert; up, down and around sand dunes...it was such an adrenaline rush, I didn't want it to end. At one stopping point my guide said to me "I love you on that quad bike!" My response: "me too!!"

Me and my Green Machine

Beautiful desert view

The full pack of bikers

Monday August 22

The previous day I decided I didn't get enough of the desert and on Monday I traveled out to Walvis Bay area which is close to Dune 7, the highest dune in the the coastal region at 130m. Naturally, I felt so inclined to climb to the top of Dune 7 which didn't take as long as I had anticipated when I was standing at the bottom looking up! Dune 7 was so steep that I was literally crawling up it with both legs and both arms in action. The hardest part about climbing up sand is that for every step you take the sand drags you down again so you are exerting more energy then usual. The view from the top was well worth it though.

Wednesday August 23

Since I hadn't spend much time in the town of Swakopmound, I planned to that that on Wednesday. However, at breakfast on Wednesday morning I met an American guy who was going quad biking and I was raving to him about how awesome it is. Somehow, he twisted my rubber arm and convinced me to go again. It really wasn't that hard to convince me since all day on Tuesday I was wishing I could relive my amazing day of sandboarding and quad biking that I experienced on Monday! It turned out that the second time around I had the same guide and he took us on a different route which including going to the very tip of some sand dunes and driving straight down them! What a great guide he was! And apparently, the same guide that took Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie out on their adventure when they were last in Namibia...pretty cool!

Thursday August 24

I headed back to Windhoek the morning of August 24 because my bus was scheduled to leave Windhoek to Johannesburg on Friday afternoon. I had been told to go to a place called Joe's Beerhouse in Windhoek because they have amazing game meet. I pictured it some what like "Carnivore" in Nairobi but Carnivore is still much more impressive. However, at Joe's I did have some amazing lamb shanks which was wayyyy too much food but so delicious!

At the end of the day, I will give the little that I saw of Namibia two thumbs WAYYYYY UP!