Aurélie, Conflict Studies and Human Rights CECI,
Guatemala
Research Officer in Gender Equality
For me, one of the biggest challenges was the pressure to meet expectations and successfully achieve our objectives. I found remote work to be more difficult than I had initially anticipated. Additionally, since I worked solely with CECI and not a partner organization, I felt an even greater sense of distance and detachment from the country.
As I mentioned in my first article, my role was to develop tools and recommendations related to gender equality—all of which had to be in Spanish. However, my supervisors preferred that I focus on the concept of positive masculinities. Given that CECI upholds values of equality, I started by presenting recommendations to improve their tools on positive masculinities, as their existing framework was heteronormative. I then decided to expand on this idea by developing a manual on positive masculinities and their impact on men who have relationships with other men in Latin America.
In truth, choosing this topic was a risk. First, CECI had not previously included LGBTQ+ individuals or people in same-gender relationships in their projects. Second, in Guatemala, I was unsure how my colleagues would react, given the sensitivity of the subject. However, that is precisely why I chose it—CECI has been advocating for equality for 60 years, and I saw no reason why we shouldn't create something for the LGBTQ+ community as well.
In the end, this internship truly allowed me to apply my research and analytical skills to develop a resource that can be valuable not only for Guatemala but also for CECI as a whole.