Jagriti International

Desert Post Weekly, February 21, 2002

Women awakening

Judith Salkin, Features Editor

Untapped power is like a coiled spring: You know that the potential energy is there, to be released when the spring extends, but whether it releases its energy in one quick burst, or slowly, in a controlled fashion, the energy can be harnessed and used. Women all over the world are beginning to understand this concept and release the power within themselves.

In Nepali, "jagriti" means awakening. Jagriti International's website says it is there to "Awaken and enhance understanding and respect for the different ways of life," "Awaken and expand the potential of women to make a difference in their lives and the lives of others," "Improve the quality of life for women globally," and "Share knowledge and resources with women throughout the world." Rather than going into a foreign country and attempting to imprint American culture and ideologies upon indigenous cultures, Jagriti International supports local women's groups. "We believe that the local women have a much better idea of what is needed in their country than we do," says founding member, Michele Andina. "Our goal is to assist them in making a difference in their own country. It's not up to us to tell them how to do it." Andina says that in her own life, she is in the process of awakening to the power she possesses. And that female awakening, both personal and collectively, will be the topic of her keynote address at the Cathedral City Chamber of Commerce's 2002 Athena Awards and Distinguished Speaker Luncheon on March 1 at the Doral Resort in Cathedral City.

"I'm going to share my own journey," she says of the multi-sensory presentation she calls "Women Awakening to Their Power and Waking Up the World." "At the ripe old age of 50, I'm just beginning to understand the power that women have within themselves. I'm going to take the women in the audience on the journey that I am making in my life, and hope that they see the power that they have in their own lives." Andina is an anthropologist and international health consultant who was one of the 15 original members of Jagriti International. In 1998 a group of American and European women traveled to Nepal to meet with local women's groups and learn about the work that they were doing. While there, the eyes and hearts of the women on the trip were opened to the brutal conditions that women often face in developing countries.

"I was trained as a pediatric nurse-practioner," Andina says. "Because of that, my focus was enlarged to look at the women who are the mothers of these children. I was trained to initially focus on the child, but you cannot have healthy children without healthy mothers. A woman has to be able to care for her children and to provide for them. That's what Jagriti is trying to do."

A personal point of view

Andina began to relate what she was learning about women around the world with what she was learning about herself. "Based upon my own inner journey and awakening to my power, I've learned that you have to be passionate about what you are involved with," she says. "As women we have to wake ourselves up to the world around us. We have to come from the sleep-walking position that most of us are in during our daily lives to the waking world. And once we are truly awake, we can do anything. When our focus is clear it is amazing what we are able to accomplish. For years I was in that sleepwalking position and only now am I beginning to awaken."

Although Andina likens the awakening process to rousing oneself from sleep, she also describes it as fighting ourselves. "When we're fighting, it's because we're not in the right 'space,' not where we were meant to be. But when we are in that right space, that's when everything in our lives starts to become clear and things begin to fall into place," she says. "The awakening process is occurring everyday, in places and to women all over the world. For me, my personal awakening was to see the power of women."

That began to happen for Andina on a trip to Islamabad, Pakistan in 1996. "I visited an Afghan women's center and found myself in a room with 15 or 20 young Afghan women who were between 15 and 22, and they were telling me what the Taliban had taken from them," she recalls. "They were there to learn English because they could no longer go to school in Afghanistan. As I talked to those young women, I thought about my own [then] 19-year-old daughter, whom I had recently sent off to Georgetown University. I cried as I listened to their stories and that was a significant turning point in my life. I knew that I was there for a reason."

Shifting positions

What Andina learned through her visit to Islamabad and later in Nepal, was that the reason women's positions and power in the world was increasing is because men in societies around the world are becoming less important. "As the fear of women increases, as men become more marginalized, that 'requires' them to use more force in the way they treat women," she says. "I think that there has been a major shift in the notion of true equality and we are just beginning to see that idea emerge. In many traditional societies, as men lose their value [to women], the women's value in society becomes a threat to men."

Hands-off assistance

Andina talks with passion about her personal journey, and the Jagriti International's mission to help indigenous women's groups. Jagriti, she says, has a policy of not interfering with local customs. "The local women know more about what they need and what will help them than we do," she says. Referring to Afghanistan, she continues, "The burqa was never the real problem. Many women wear them because of modesty. What they really cared about was the fact that they could no longer go to work, study or go out without a male escort. They were crying because they could not become doctors or teachers."

To help local groups, Jagriti provides skilled volunteers, assistance in organizing women's groups and help in setting up files and small start-up grants, but does not interfere with the objectives of the group. "I've worked with women in countries such as Sierra Leone and Senegal," she says. "It's not my role to try to get them to change their traditions. It's not for me to interfere with their customs or religion. They have the local knowledge. Everyone has their own best way of doing things, but it may not be what we think is right or our way of doing things.

"We're not USAID or the World Health Organization. We don't have an agenda for these women. What we do is to give these grassroots organizations the tools they need to grow."