Working with women in Padang, West Sumatra, to get them to speak up about their needs as survivors of a September 2009 earthquake is tricky business, says Dwi Bertha, the executive director of LP2M, a local NGO focusing on community analysis and empowerment. Dwi talked to The Jakarta Post’s Arghea Desafti Hapsari last week about LP2M’s effort to get the local women’s voices back into the decision-making processes in post-disaster management in their respective communities. Here are excerpts of the interview.
Question: What is the point of having post-disaster management that is gender sensitive?
Answer: Women who are victims or survivors of a disaster have different needs to men, given their reproductive function and position in the society.
We recently gave training on gender-sensitive disaster management for our (mostly female) members in which they stated how the earthquake had affected them. Women here feel they have the duty to take the responsibility of taking care of their children or elderly parents, all of whom have their own trauma concerning the earthquake they endured. This puts women in higher level of stress.
Women also feel they have more domestic chores to do now than before the earthquake, with their houses damaged or toppled and basic necessities such as clean water being harder to access.
Unfortunately, most of the time, people see disasters as having the same impact on both women and men. Thus, efforts of pre- and post-disaster management have mostly failed to address women’s unique needs.
Take for example the condition in refugee barracks or makeshift tents, where families sleep side by side with others. Many have lamented their deteriorating health. There have also been events of sexual harassment. And some have felt the pressure of having to fulfill their husbands’ sexual needs in a room shared with dozens of people.
What are the benefits of identifying these special needs of women?
It’s the benefit of the knowledge. Our female members now are more prepared mentally and intellectually in dealing with disasters. They have been experiencing less stress because they have identified the things that were the sources of their anxiety.
What, then, are the ways to ensure that these different needs of women are addressed?
Women need to get their voices back into the society. They should get involved in the decision-making processes of post-disaster management, and therefore they must adopt strategic positions in their respective communities.
Padang and other quake-affected areas are nearing the rehabilitation-and-reconstruction phase. The regional government is planning to distribute the funding for reconstruction of houses through Pokmas (Kelompok Masyarakat), or society groups, which will represent 20 to 25 families. We encourage our female members to be part of these groups or other strategic positions.
What will be at the end of the road?
We want to see women’s voices in West Sumatra being counted in every decision-making process that affects their livelihood. We know that the roads are rough here with many customary leaders thinking that gender equality has been facilitated in the region’s matrilineal system. And our journey is still very long but we are getting there.
In a way, the powerful September 2009 earthquake brought with it a positive impact for women in Padang. Husbands now see how women can prove to be more useful in managing donations than they can. When the quake first hit, women were the ones who are entrusted to fetch donations from NGOs or the government because they were more meticulous in ensuring that every member of the family got what they needed.
I can say that women here now have more freedom than they used to attend late night meetings and be part of women’s organizations.
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