Candidature Scora RA for the Americas
Motivation Letter
Dear Selection Panel, My name is Gabriela Cipriano and I am a 23 year old medical student from Perú. I am thrilled to present my candidature for the position of Scora Regional Assistant of the Americas. To tell you a bit more about myself, I was born and raised in a traditional catholic home. Because of this, discussing sexual and reproductive health topics was restrained and if I persisted, I would get scolded for it. Despite of that, I had always felt comfortable to talk about these issues which was a blessing, so to speak, coming from such an orthodox background, but little did I know that I had a long way ahead to becoming a real advocate for sexual and reproductive health. I had limits for certain topics, for example, I would declare: I accept the use of contraception but not abortion; I proclaimed to everybody that I was a defender of women, yet I judged women who had gotten pregnant without planning and blamed them for it. Of course, this is all behind me now. I was 20 years old when I went to my first Scora activity and since then I have not stopped. Something about this committee immediately drew me to it, perhaps it was the warmth of the members, the “never judge anyone” vibe, or maybe, being together with such an heterogeneous group of people that did not follow the heteronormativity nor had the orthodox Catholic values so rooted in Perú and the Americas in general. At this point, I was very eager to break from the bad parts of my upbringing, I wanted to know the other side of the world, to know the people I was told to keep away or pray for them for being wrong for their feelings and identities. It was then that I realized that I was ready to become a true advocate and a true human being. Through so many trainings, meetings, workshops I learned to disregard my prejudice, my fears, and my refusal to everything that was out of my personal values and embrace my change of heart and mind. I grew into an understanding, loving, non – biased young woman that will fight until the day she dies for those who are discriminated and considered still to be second class citizens for close – minded remarks. Three years later, I can honestly say that this committee has changed my life in so many ways. To point one out, it allowed me to see more clearly the situation we are living right now in the Americas. I am a woman and for that, my culture still sees me as a powerless being that can be modeled to the will of those powerful. I have been harassed, been brought down for having a different opinion and voice, I have experimented violence all due to this strain called Machismo that continues to smother my region, my country, myself. I want to become Scora Regional Assistant of the Americas because Scora gave me the necessary empowerment and tools to say NO MORE and take the bull by the horns. I used to say: when I am a grown up, I will change the world. Guess what? I have grown up and have acquired the sufficient courage, time and leadership to assume this great challenge and face it the best way I can. I wish to take the lead so I can teach and give back everything Scora has given me to my pairs, for them to also take the lead in their countries, cities, families. This, in order to make the Americas a stronghold of gender equality, a region where choice is prioritized above everything, were sexual and reproductive health and rights are fully accomplished and a safe space for its inhabitants to develop fully and joyfully. Thank you for reading my candidature and for this opportunity. Should you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Yours sincerely, Gabriela Cipriano Flores
Plan of Action COLLABORATIVE WORK WITH SCORA IT AND REGIONAL TEAM - Work in synergy with SCORA IT for the planning, organization and development of regional and international campaigns. - Establish dynamic spaces for idea exchanging with the other RAs, SCORA D and LRA for strengthening our ways to achieve common goals. - Increase the region’s participation in Scora X Change by focusing their programs in issues that pertain to the region such as machismo and heteronormativity , also, be an effective link between the OC and the Scora Director for the evaluation of the applications. - Availability for meetings with the SCORA IT, Regional director, NORAs, LORAs, etc. will be prioritized. - Work hand in hand with the Regional Team by assessing the current situation of the Standing Committee regionally; elaborating together objectives for the term and reaching solutions together. This will be done in the two first months of my term if elected. - Support new NMOs that have recently been established, with the help of the Regional Team, such as Trinidad y Tobago; help and reinforce the development of Scora in relatively new NMOs such as Saint Lucia, and propitiate the establishment of new NMOs especially in the Caribbean and Central America. - Facilitate pre RM and RM workshops, sessions, capacity building spaces and serve as facilitator to other international meetings.
EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT - Elaborating and/or standardizing guidelines, manuals, etc. of regional campaigns, projects, activities taking into account the culture and costums of the determined place where the guideline will be implemented for maximizing our impact. - Policy making development with the help of NORAs regarding their unique situations and providing feedback for the creation of policies for the General Assemblies. - Have a contact database of Alumnis, past RA, past directors who are actively involved in Scora to improve communication and enabling their help, advice, participation, etc. in the activities we will be endeavoring. - Work together with the LRA to have ScorAngel representation within the American region, for example, the WPATH Congress in Argentina, November 2018. - Reach sustainability by fundraising through allied organizations such as Ipas and other organizations, for ensuring more participation with the necessary tools for our ScorAngels of the Americas. - Produce with the IT practical assessing tools for our campaigns, projects and activities in order to truly analyze the effectiveness of our effort and that allows us to study what is good, what needs to be improved, what needs to be reassessed. All of this for a high quality work. - Continue with NMO of the Month for motivation and reinforcement of commitment. - Continue the communication with the NORAs, LORAs and active member by the use of Whatsapp groups, the facebook group, skype and hangouts meetings and by having a contact database of them. - Register activities, projects, etc. in social media applying an effective marketing strategy
CAPACITY BUILDING REINFORCEMENT AND CONTINUATION Capacity building is the main focus of my plan since I consider it to be fundamental for the development of the region and an area where we can visualize by firsthand the goals and outcomes, making capacity building the most rewarding and empowering area in my humble opinion. - Continue to host trainings in Regional Meetings to make the most out of the fact it is a space where most NORAS, LORAS and active members from the region are simultaneously - Bring and adapt trainings such as B.E.A.S.T, H.E.A.T, IPETs to region - Webinars, online meetings and online debates which topics will be chosen by the members and will be delivered monthly - Follow up on LACMA. We have already hosted to Lacmas and have 45 new trainers on access to safe abortion topic; therefore, the NMOs that have had the workshop must deliver a project for September 28th and join for a regional campaign. THIS IS A MUST. - Host a third LACMA preferably in Central America or the Caribbean since their politics towards abortion are very restrictive. - Hold SCORA X CHANGE within the Americas region with participation of at least one NMO of each sub – region (North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean) - Call for international programs, organizations, for high quality capacity building spaces.
EMPOWERMENT AIMED AT GLOBAL PRIORITIES It is crucial for the region to realize what is still lacking in our development, what are the obstacles that always rise up in our line of work but also rescue what projects, activities, initiatives, etc. that have been born in the Americas were successful and how the outcomes were fantastic! This, in order to assess both situations and propitiate empowerment within our members, especially gender empowerment for everybody to be able to take the lead and not be misrepresented. - Elaborate a map of needs of each NMO and organize it by most to least urgent - Identify common obstacles NMOs find for the realization of their activities (for example, latent machismo) so to come up with a joint solution and address this in a collaborative, nurturing space. - Have trainings and/or spaces for communication skills, for adaption of programs to be culturally respecting, for receiving the necessary tools for joint strategy – making along with members of the community, etc. - Aim for the empowerment of vulnerable groups such as women, LGBTIQ+ community, indigenous community, etc. by adapting our projects to their needs and conceptions. - Lessen the use of not biodegradable material and paper usage to lower the contamination caused by the materials we use for our different activities.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!