01 March 2009

Kabul, Afghanistan: Menchita Caramat sees that many Afghan women suffer "a multiple burden". They sometimes perform "multiple roles of being a wife, mother, sister, daughter and a worker or employee" and live with gender stereotypes and the legacy of the burqa. But she believes things are changing.

"I have observed that the women are beginning to assume a more substantive role in the emerging Afghan society," she adds. "I see and interact with women in Parliament, in 'non–traditional' roles like architects, engineers and in the civil service as well as NGOs.  I believe that this is not only symbolic or token participation."

As the Programme Officer for UNV in Afghanistan, Ms. Caramat works with a number of UN agencies beyond UNDP, sitting on the UN Country Team Gender working group. She also coordinates with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and a host of Government ministries and national and international NGOs.

Her primary roles, however, are to promote volunteerism, contribute to UN programme development and management, plan and manage volunteer assignments and brief and orientate UNV volunteers as they arrive.

Managing 40-50 UNV volunteers from a variety of nations means the Filipino national has to work with great cultural sensitivity. She also notes that her gender sometimes makes her more noticeable. "I am the only woman in most road missions for our volunteer monitoring trips," she remarks.

As "a woman away from home", the UNV Programme Officer says that volunteering her expertise has helped her to learn from Afghanistan and its people. "At the same time," she expands, "I contribute my own knowledge, skills and insights and experiences from other countries that I have worked with."

"Being a woman could be a plus or a minus in a country like Afghanistan," concludes Menchita Caramat. "Minus as our gender is always being put to the test. But plus because we can serve as role models amongst women Afghans and show what a woman can do in this kind of role."

Read about Menchita Caramat's UNV colleague in Afghanistan, Georgeta Silaghi.