Professional milestone

AIESEC in Delhi University (the organization that handles my traineeship on the part of India) has launched a PBOX (Project-Based-On-Exchange) for the development sector. The idea was to realize a number of development traineeships around the same time to make the trainees arrive almost simultaneously so that to facilitate their interaction within a small yet vibrant community. Basically, PBOX brings a number of trainees together to discuss the issues they work on at their NGOs and to exchange ideas – both formally (at the learning events) and informally (at various cultural sallies).

This Monday the first learning event of the development PBOX was combined with the meeting of AIESEC’s local committee. A director of ActionAid in India was invited to talk about the causes he is involved with. The other half of the event was given to Kate and myself to present s few issues that we work on at CSR. In fact, Kate, since joining CSR has been talking about gender sensitizing programs for youth enrolled in higher education institutions. As she rightly observed middle and upper class has been left out by any sort of the development initiatives on the plea that those have capacity to manage in life – being it educational, mental, or financial base. Yet, when it comes to such instances as violence against women, the statistic convincingly shows that the phenomenon cuts across all the social strata and neither level of education nor financial wealth alter the dominant views on the subordinate role of women in the society. Therefore, gender sensitization is essential for any social group. With these considerations in mind Kate has been talking to people, including AIESEC itself and people there suggested the first learning event of PBOX become a trial forum for her aspirations. She invited me to venture into that together.

We spent a weekend on the presentation. The powerpoint slides hardly took a couple of hours, whereas in-depth discussions on gender issues seasoned with juicy mangos in between were impossible to abstain from. Inspired by a blend of personal, academic and work-related interests, two girls, British and Russian ones, staying in India and working for a women’s NGO with the respective backgrounds of social anthropology and international business studies obviously had a lot to discuss and they did. Overarching patriarchal framework in India and globally; westernized lifestyles co-existing with patriarchy; participation of women in political decision making and economic arena; experience of female vs. male trainees in India; being a Western girl in India; being a woman in India; premarital sexual relations in various cultural contexts; arranged marriages; catcalls on the streets - whatever was learned before, experienced by far and worked on up till now. Any time span did not seem enough to cut the arguments short and to present the dry residuum of the discussion. Two rehearsals hardly helped – being as concise as we could (we figured out we just cannot) we still were not sufficiently brief.

At the learning event itself we got to know there was just half an hour at our disposal – implying we had to twice cut the presentation that, we thought, we had already cut to the bone. Yet, all of a sudden a wave of determination brought us to the microphone and made us start. Immediately we got into the flow and literally panted out the presentation. Finished exactly in half an hour. Got curious questions, involved comments and encouraging feedback from the AIESECers.

Yet, only on the way home I realized what happened… After a half a year in the development sector with CSR I got the first chance to present the issues I’ve been exposed to, was reading about, was writing on, got aware at the trainings, seminars, conferences, during the talks with colleagues. I got to present them independently – meaning with Kate, yet without careful supervision and censorship of the grands. I have just figured out actually, have figured out just now, that I am able to take a stand on the issues that I had a rough idea about just some tine back. Now I can talk about them confidently, develop arguments backed up with statistics, address and question audience. The participant observation I am running in India on day-to-day basis has been fruitful: major insights are rightly captured, it seems. An AIESEC girl when giving a feedback on the presentation pointed with agitation that the issues we touched upon are a part of everyday life of any Indian girl.

I would never think of a half an hour presentation to 25 students as an important milestone in my personal and professional development, but it turned out to be. What was meant as a message to other people appeared to be a message to myself: my passion for the subject has naturally developed into expertise which in turn brings nothing else but tremendous professional and not at least personal self-confidence.