When I first heard about the Women’s Island Cricket Project I was intrigued. It appeared a slightly ridiculous assumption that a cricket project could have a positive impact on a group of middle-aged women in a Pacific Island setting. I had originally considered it to be an example of paternalistic attempts to force on a group of people a “western” sport that loosely had a development tag to it with a suggestion that it would empower women and girls.
I had not realised the degree that sport is an important aspect of Vanuatu life. I was shown, by my hosts, the main stadium where soccer game is played. There were goal posts in most villages that I visited that converted to Australian Rules, Rugby Union or League and Volleyball nets. The influence of Australian sport is very apparent, as the television shows were from Australia and constantly discussed Australian Rules or League. Most of the games on television or in discussion were about men’s involvement in sport. From a feminist perspective it was therefore disappointing when I visited Ifira to see the sad condition of the Netball goal posts at the school.
The danger of making any generalisation of the success or otherwise of the Women’s Island Cricket project is that the project is a very small project. It would be easy to look through rose-tinted glasses to say because the women have lost weight, and taking a more active role in their own health, and involved in a few other initiatives, the project has worked and women are more empowered. The researcher cannot conclude based on a micro-level success in Vanuatu, that all SFD programmes work well at the macro level of economies, governments, organisations, and the globalised world (Coalter, 2013). AusAID’s reports suggest the SFD projects – the island cricket and Nabanga programmes are working positively. In practice the SFD project appears to be successful but as Black (2010) comments ‘the emphasis on practice has come for the most part at the expense of critical and theoretically-informed reflection’. With Sustineo currently evaluating the SFD programmes in Vanuatu, hopefully critical and theoretically informed reflection will be two considerations of the evaluation.
6.7.1 Answering my Research Questions
My first question was: how has the Women’s Island Cricket Project contributed to women’s empowerment? As a result of participation in the project, the Ifira women are:
• Losing weight,
• Taking steps to look after and monitor their own health,
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• Improving their knowledge of NCDs and acting to make changes in their lifestyles,
• Providing leadership opportunities for the women, (Mary inviting me to the island is indicative of this, and she has been chosen as the leader in Vanuatu to help East Pak recruit RSE workers to the Bay of Plenty in 2014).
• Interacting with women from other communities.
The second question was: What have been the consequences of this empowerment at the personal, family and community level? My findings suggest the women are:
• Proud of their achievements as are their husband, (reinforced by Lucy’s comments and the Pastor’s comments to me),
• Re-learning to cook local foods in sustaining, healthier and cheaper methods,
• Learning about a range of health issues, and how to overcome them, (requesting help to purchase a blood pressure monitor),
• Learning and participating, which has led to more networking on a range of interest groups outside of village life,
• Actively supported by their husbands and families to participate in the project (the meeting, I attended, was on Children’s Day and could not have occurred without the support of family, as this is an important event on Ifira).
For women on Ifira Island, the church is very important in their lives and at the meeting I attended, the role of the Pastor’s wife was apparent. As Scheyvens (1998 & 2003) and Douglas (2002), suggest, church groups give women a socially sanctioned release from their daily lives to attend meetings. For the Women’s Island Cricket Project, I think part of the success was that the Pastor encouraged his wife’s involvement, thereby providing a model to other villagers that it was acceptable to be part of the project. Being part of the Island Women’s Cricket Committee, appears to be important for the women I shared a morning with. The protocol and discussions at the meeting highlighted that meeting other women is an important part of belonging to the group. Discussions ranged from the games, health concerns, the Independence Day celebrations, organising help for the widows and the up-coming cricket competition at Port Vila.
In the case of the Island Cricket Project, sport is used as a ‘buy-in’ for the women. The women have enjoyed being part of the project and the results also show the women are making choices about their own lives. The above points reflect how women from Ifira have grown from the experience. They have demonstrated increased awareness and self-confidence. This reinforces DAWN’s idea that women’s solidarity adds to empowerment. It is also evidence of consciousness, where women
61 on Ifira have become aware of their situation regarding their health and well-being, and they are actively seeking ways to improve or transform their lives. For the women involved in the cricket project, getting up at 5.00am. to train and improve fitness supports the idea that their involvement has led to increased self-awareness, self-worth and self-confidence. These women have actively increased their motivation, increased the amount of physical exercise, increased interactions with different groups, other than just their immediate community and this surely is a very good example of empowerment. I suggest the women are taking their own agency. This is part of the process of empowerment and from what I observed, I posit that the Ifira women have been empowered through participation in the Women’s Island Cricket Project.