In July 2016, the Lebanese NGO ABAAD-Gender Equity Resource Center (link in English) and Promundo launched the Ra Program in Beirut with the support of the first Womanity Prize , from the Womanity Foundation (link in English). Adapted from our Program H, Program Ra encourages men and boys to challenge gender-based stereotypes, question traditional ideas about masculinity, and contribute to ending all forms of gender-based violence in Lebanon.
Tala Noweisser is a School Counselor for grades 5-12 at Wellspring Learning Community School in Beirut. The Ra Program began to be implemented at this school for the first time in October 2016. In the following interview, Tala talks to Promundo about her work, her observations on gender norms among Lebanese youth, and the implementation of the Ra Program at your school.
Tala's interview is the first in a series of three in-depth interviews that Promundo is publishing this month with Ra Program champions in Lebanon.
(This is a translation of the original English version of the interview)
What is your role as a School Counselor at Wellspring Learning Community School?
I am there to meet the needs of students and parents. I go to the classrooms and observe the dynamics of the classes to see what we need to address, such as academic difficulties and social issues. I also collaborate with teachers to integrate their observations and feedback about how students are doing in different subjects, because they may do well in some, but they may also be absent or struggling in others. I meet with each student regularly and observe them during breaks to see how they are doing throughout the day. If there are any concerns, I contact parents to let them know we are noticing an issue and to ask if there are problems at home in order to better understand where the student is coming from. We also meet with parents to share feedback and get background information.
What are the challenges that men and boys have faced in Beirut?
There are challenges for men and boys to express themselves freely. They express themselves, but I'm not sure if it's the way they really want to show themselves. I think some of the students, especially in the Wellspring Learning Community, would like to be heard or perceived in a different way, but they probably only do that in private rather than in public. In the classroom, if we asked boys to express their anger, they would do so violently. They wouldn't do it verbally because that would require them to express how they are feeling. This is the norm we observe at school. These norms make communication difficult and do not help boys achieve their goals. We can easily see that they are angry, but they cannot get their message across about what they want to change. They just show their anger without communicating it verbally.
Why is working with men and boys important to you?
I believe in raising awareness of the reality that we all have feelings. We experience various emotions at different times, depending on the experiences each of us goes through. It is important to encourage self-expression to make it acceptable. We want men and boys to stop suppressing emotions, storing them up inside. This would complement recent movements to empower women and girls to speak up and express their opinions.
What impact do you notice when boys suppress their emotions?
You start to see boys exaggerating the things they do and imposing themselves even more. You see boys engaging in bullying, projecting themselves onto others, and blaming people for what they are experiencing in the moment. Many have anger deep down. Some choose not to show it, becoming passive-aggressive. Other times you see reactions that don't make sense until you talk to them. I believe that the lack of vocabulary to indicate what they are feeling has a huge impact on boys' behavior. It is important to not only be aware of different emotions, but also to teach the words to describe the feelings. We tend to think that we only experience “happiness”, “excitement” or “anger”, but there is a whole range of emotions that we feel and boys don't have the words to express them well.
Can you describe your partnership with ABAAD, Promundo and Fundação Womanity to implement the Ra Program in Wellspring?
At Wellspring we have a course called “Service as Action”, where we develop a program with students to serve the community we live in throughout the year. Since Service as Action is an academic requirement, we wanted to have professional people in the field to guide us through different activities and topics, and give students and staff different perspectives.
Our Service as Action Coordinator contacted Anthony Keedi, Engaging Men Program Manager at ABAAD, and invited him to visit the school and lead a session on gender for our Year 11 students, which we thought they really enjoyed. Having a guest speaker has a different impact on students because the guest offers a new perspective and approach. It shows diversity and enriches the experience. Having this partnership with ABAAD is important and has many benefits in terms of moving forward.
What do you hope youth achieve through participation in the Ra Program?
I hope that they become more confident about the different experiences they go through and that they understand that it's not a problem to feel these emotions, because they are there. There's no harm in expressing yourself: if I have to say what I'm feeling, it won't affect me negatively. The program will help students to be more productive. I want them to know that gender roles exist, so they understand how to manage different expectations, and to be able to speak up if there's something that needs to change, so they don't feel like they have to conform.
Wellspring is very diverse as we have students coming from completely different cultures and ethnic and religious backgrounds. The enormous diversity is very enriching because students learn from each other. There are still many different languages spoken in Wellspring. We want to raise awareness that things are done differently in different cultures and teach how to accept and manage differences and prejudices, expressing our own opinions and emotions, but also respecting those of others. I can absolutely see how this project will have a positive impact for our students.
Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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