Women In Development Conference

The Peace Corps experience is determined mostly by the specific site in which a volunteer works but my recent work with the Women in Development committee gave me a chance to mix up my projects by doing some work that reaches out to all communities where the Peace Corps works. This past week the committee released a calendar featuring twelve women from all the departments of Peru where Peace Corps operates who were nominated by the volunteers they work with. In order to celebrate the women featured in the calendar we held a conference at the U.S. Embassy, which turned out to be an excellent way to recognize these twelve women and show appreciation for the work that they do. The embassy is a fortress surrounded by high walls and the entrance consists of multiple metal detectors and eight inch thick doors. I was grateful that the embassy staff was so willing to help us put on this event and lend us not only their venue, but their expertise in event planning. I can definitely say that I learned a lot about paying attention to detail and coordinating between many people from this experience.
Even though the event achieved the goals that we aimed to accomplish, there were a few glitches along the way. The embassy was an impressive and exciting venue for our conference but the high security created a few obstacles. The day started with a workshop on legal rights put on by a prestigious Lima law firm. We didn't warn the lawyers that they wouldn't be able to bring electronics into the embassy so they had to do about an hour of their presentation without powerpoints until we were able to solve the problem. Despite this oversight on my part, the workshop turned out to benefit both the women and the lawyers. The women were completely engaged and asked many questions regarding their legal rights and the process they can follow to ensure that their rights are not compromised. The lawyers seemed to be surprised by the diversity of the women present and learned a lot about the types of challenges people face in the small communities of Peru. We caught them off guard when we asked them to minimize the lawyer jargon because one of our women spoke mainly Quechua and only simple Spanish. Despite a language barrier, this particular woman from the Andes turned out to be the highlight of my conference experience. On this trip to Lima, she got to see the ocean for the first time in her life and at the end of the conference she even stood up and made an incredibly heartfelt speech in broken Spanish about her experience working with the Peace Corps volunteer who invited her. This speech was the perfect culmination for a successful event because it encompassed everything the calendar stands for. I am looking forward to putting on an even better event next year because now I know what details I need to think of ahead of time. This whole process has definitely been a learning experience and I have an incredible respect for those people who plan events for a living.
As it turned out, the man who helped us secure the support of the embassy, the use of the conference room, and the keynote speaker for our event was helping to coordinate a conference for women entrepreneurs for the two days immediately following our event. By working with him, I got invited to the much larger conference that he was putting on at the Lima Country Club and hotel. After struggling to work out the details for our tiny endeavor, I was amazed at the coordination and logistical planning that must have gone into putting on their event. Their speakers included the U.S. ambassador (who had cancelled her talk at our event), the mayor elect of Lima, the head of the Latin American division of the International Trade Commission in Geneva, and many other very impressive female leaders. The other people invited to attend mainly consisted of artisans and small business owners from all over Latin America. My favorite were the artisans from the Lake Titicaca region of Peru who charged the stage after each speaker to get a photo with each of them. I was sitting directly behind these women the entire time and they provided constant entertainment. The one downside was that they were in full traditional dress including hats making it very difficult for me to see the speakers. This conference was an excellent networking opportunity and I even got invited to the (giant) house of the president of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Peru the next day for coffee. The connections I made and the inspiration that I got by attending this conference will benefit not only my own work but, hopefully, will help to advance the efforts of the Women in Development Committee in general.