Last March 21st to 22nd, I attended a workshop and orientation on the topics of Gender sensitivity and anti-sexual harassment. This was promoted by the Human Resources office in which it is one way of enlightening and giving knowledge to the city government personnel and they can also promote this to their respective offices. I personally has somewhat enjoyed this workshop because of the previous GAD or Gender and Development related seminars that I have attended in which I remembered a few activities that is also applicable to this one.
On the first day was the Gender Sensitivity topic wherein we had numerous activities involving 3 to 5 groups where we perform and accomplish various tasks provided by the resource speaker such as acting out the roles of the mother and father in the family. It was more on interaction with the attendees and was less on the lecture so I was very attentive that time lol.
The second day was on the Anti-Sexual harassment which was started by defining the exact meaning of the term sexual harassment. There was discussed the different perspective and on how it can be distinguished as such. Again there were also some group activities done including acting out a few scenarios where the sexual harassment happened not only on the females but also on the males. I was happy that it was opened to us attendees that this affects both genders. It was just lesser cases recorded for the males because of our culture on men being ‘macho’ and more dominating.
To conclude, it was the seminar that I really enjoyed and participated with by sharing my own inputs as well as appreciating the ideas presented by the other attendees. I just hope they would apply it not only in the office but also in their homes and let others, be it relatives or friends or colleagues, know of its importance.