Essentially, work to improve gender relations is about relationship-building--relationship building between men and women, among men and among women, between different organizations, communities and individuals with common visions, between those who do not share common visions, between MCC workers as service workers and the people we have been called to serve. It is peace and justice work that can take a long time.

This was put very eloquently in each country:

"Time and patience changes the mulberry leaf to satin."--India

"If I plant a mango tree today, I don't expect it to yield mangos in 8 days. But I must plant the seed."--El Salvador

"I plant the seed, but I may not be there after the seed is planted to water, to weed, to harvest because it can be such a long and gradual process."--Zambia

According to what we heard, it takes a long time because unequal ways of relating are patterns of behavior that have been established over very long periods of time and have become ingrained. At a personal level, then, people have to change themselves before they can change their circumstances. At a societal level, work to influence if not change power structures and social values, which gender work implies, is a long-term process which can often be conflictual. Community building that involves power sharing can "cost a person her entire lifetime."

Encouraging relationships between women and men based on mutual respect and value should, like any conciliation work, be non-confrontational and participatory. We heard that fostering better and more equal relations between men and women must also involve patience because both learning about the situation of gender relations in any one community and efforts to bring about change take a long time; asking questions and listening; consultation and dialogue; development of trust; encouragement; a bottom-up approach, though leaders must be targeted as well; and much faith. It is a process that models the objective being sought. It is a process, though, that can also constitute a different culture of relating and this can take a long time to achieve. We met many individuals and organizations who are committed to this long-term process and who are interested in working with partners with a similar commitment.

Stephen Gonsalves of MCC India describes our mission as MCC as being a sign of the Kingdom. To continue Jesus' mission on earth, he encourages us as MCC to be involved in the process of releasing people, restoring people, being a catalyst for transformation and an advocate in promoting peace, healing and comfort. This means journeying with people and sharing in their joys and pains over the long term. It is a vision that inspires our organizational structure and our presence in countries where we are called to serve. But it should also serve as a challenge to learn about and integrate new or different ways of thinking in our presence and work.

The commitment to look at our overseas programs through the lens of gender constitutes a new way of thinking for MCC. As programs and service workers examine and reflect on their presence and work with the help of a set of analytical questions, we can learn to look at our work and ourselves in new ways.

A three-year or five-year MCC service commitment can be but a fraction of the time that it takes to bring about more equitable and just gender relations. However, our role can be to participate in planting the seed, or watering the tender shoots, and not just in the countries where we are called to serve but in our home settings as well. As we heard in El Salvador, "It is important to rescue these values and visions within each of us and incorporate them in our relationships at home, at work, in the community. Each small step we take on this issue is symbolic of our journey."

In order to participate with our partners in the long term process of transformation, we need to be able to link the efforts of individual MCC workers and MCC programs over time and maintain some kind of consistent vision for this work. A long-term commitment to integrating a gender perspective in our overseas work and to learning from our experience and the experiences of our partners is one important way of doing this.