During my nightly runs or walks (depending on how hot it is of course) I am reminded how different the interactions between men and women are here compared to back home. I am the only woman in this area out exercising. Only men and boys occupy the soccer fields and basketball courts (Note to self: Les Cayes could use a "Girls on the Run" program). Men are very upfront (quite rude actually) and will make smooching/ kissing sounds as I run by. Sure catcalls happen in the US too, but after 3 and a half weeks living in a large city in Haiti, it's becoming apparent that interactions between men and women are very different here.
I really got to see this with my clinic work in Les Anglais last week. Since Julmis and I had patients go through an educational questionnaire with us on how to prevent transmitting or being infected with STI's in the future, I learned a lot about the culture between men and women there. Many women don't have control over their own reproductive life and start having babies before they get to grow up themselves. Many women contract STI's from their significant other, but are too fearful to tell their boyfriend/husband because they are sure their significant other will blame them, when in reality the significant other is probably at fault.
What upset me most though during those educational sessions was the lack of acknowledgement from the men's side about how harmful some of their practices are to the women they are with. Many would question me - "But I don't understand how I got this STI, the last time my girlfriend was tested at this clinic she was negative.""Wait when we asked how many partners you've had, we didn't mean how many girlfriends. How many sexual partners have you had?" "Well too many to count of course. Why?" Awesome. This conversation happened more than once. The men could not seem to understand that by having many partners they were contracting the diseases from these flings, not their girlfriend. And because of their infidelity they were now putting their girlfriends, their pregnant wives, etc at risk for serious infections.
Now don't get me wrong. I am not saying every Haitian man is awful. For instance, I loved working with Julmis. He is soft-hearted enough that he often got just as mad as I did at the men and was even sadder than I was, I think, upon hearing some of the situations our female patients were in. Dr. Cleonas is great. He treats his female co-workers with respect and has brought up the topic of needing to improve education for women more than once. But overall the culture here is different than back home. Much more patriarchal than I would like it to be.
PEPFAR is spending loads of money on ARV therapy for pregnant mothers for Preventing Mother to Child Transmission (or PMTCT as it's often referred to in the literature). I question why that same amount of funding is not also being poured into education. Why funds are not being put towards promoting a culture where men value women and want the best for them. Once this happens I think there will be lots fewer new HIV + cases amongst pregnant women; there will also be less pregnant women period. Which will mean less children per family. Thus a smaller chance of children becoming malnourished because mom is able to feed all of them, because there are merely less mouths to feed. I think you can see the point I am trying to get at. Lots of good could come from empowering women here in Haiti. But I think in order to effectively empower women, to let them take control of their reproductive lives, let them have better health outcomes... we need to start with the men.
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