What Can You Bring to the Table?

women dancing at the Pakistan/India border

I've been working at Mercy Corps since returning to Portland. They just moved into a beautiful new building on Front Ave. and are having opening events on October 9th. I'm the 'launch monitor' (no, launch not lunch). It's my job to get invites out and rsvps back and organized, etc. for all the launch events. RSVPs come in as emails or voice mails. When people have questions, it's part of my job to respond and help them out. It's not rocket science, but then again, I'm not a rocket scientist, am I? I'm an urban planner. Spreadsheets and bullshit are my game.

So...I got a phone call from a donor wanting me to call her back and help her decide which events she should attend. It seemed like an easy task, so I didn't hesitate to call her back. It took about 20 seconds to help her decide to attend the launch party versus the ribbon cutting. It's free cocktails versus boring speeches. The choice is obvious. Then she starts telling me about her recent hiking adventures with a local retired-person hiking group. Clearly she's bored. Lucky for her, so am I. We talked for 15 minutes or so about hiking around Oregon. Then she asks if I'd heard the President's speech on NPR. I hadn't. So, we discussed that a bit.

Eventually we got back to talking about the event and Mercy Corps. This is where she caught me totally off guard and things took an unfortunate turn:

Donor: So, what are the big issues Mercy Corps is working on now?
Me: (long pause) Well, Pakistan and...uh...DRC...
Donor: DRC is....?
Me: Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire
Donor: Oh, OK, yes, what are the issues there?
Me. Well...there's...uh...rape. A lot of rape. And...uh...war. War. Yeah, quite a bit of war. So, rape and war, really. Not good things, you know?
Donor: Oh...no, uh... no

This is when she asks me what I do for Mercy Corps exactly and the conversation ends.

Of course, as soon as I hung up the phone I could think of a million different things going on that Mercy Corps is working on. One of the things I find most exciting is women's empowerment. It has been shown that one of the best ways to improve the lives of everyone is through educating girls and women. Beyond the significant contributions women can and have made to society, everyone deserves an education. And everyone deserves to live in a world free of gender based violence and discrimination. But do I talk passionately about any of these things? No. I blandly throw out rape and war as if I'm trying to think of what I need from the grocery store. Rape and war. Pickles and onions. What is wrong with me?

Mercy Corps' new campaign on women's empowerment is One Table. "What can you bring to the table?" they ask. For me, apparently not much. But, maybe you can bring something?

Check out these sites:

http://onetable.mercycorps.org/
http://www.halftheskymovement.org/