mapinduzi2014
New Member
- Jan 19, 2014
- 2
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The following email captured by our sources was written by an employee of HKI Tanzania to the president of HKI-New York;
Dear Kathy,
I am a female working with Helen Keller international for a number of years now, I am sending this email using a phony email address I have created to conceal my identity due to sensitivity of the matter I am trying to communicate.
Sometimes this year you circulated an email urging staff not to tolerate any form of discrimination in our working environment, moreover you added that if one feels that his/her grievances have not been attended to, should directly write to you as a complaint for further action. Let me briefly explain my case that perhaps is also affecting many of us working in the Tanzania office.
Many of us have different stories to tell with regard to a kind of management we have here at our office. As you might be aware currently the management comprises of two individuals Marjon Tuinsma (The CD) and Christina Nyhus (the DCD). This has been going on for a long time, no local staff is involved in decision making/planning for the welfare of the office, in my view, foreign consultants e.g. David lacoste ( finance consultant or Judith Hernandez (HR consultant) are more trusted than local staff. Various decisions are made involving these individuals and or none is involving local staff, I find this rather discriminatory since we do have local staff that are contractually senior staff but are never involved in any way.
There have many cases of segregation in its different forms; let me just explain a few cases;
1. Sometimes last year HKI office was broken into and robbed, all local staff were recalled back to Dar es salaam including those In the field office, at that time the management comprised of Christina, Marjon and one local staff, to my surprise the local staff was temporarily removed out of management team and considered a suspect, Christina mentioned in a management meeting that in this case everyone is a suspect, her and Marjon together started interrogating staff one by one in the CD office. (This means everyone was a suspect except Marjon and Christina), everyone was disappointed by this move. In another briefing meeting Christina said, if we( her and Marjon) realize that you knew something and you never told us we will deal with you accordingly; because you ' Waswahili' have a tendency of not saying the truth or hiding things( I found this comment rather discriminatory, because people are different in their own ways.
2. I personally have been a victim of racial segregation (this is of course the main reason why I am writing this email). I recently met my supervisor Christina Nyhus in a meeting that I was called to explain about my program schedule, my supervisor thought that the plan was not smart and that I had to revise it, as I was trying to defend my point she uttered among other words that ‘you niggers will never learn', to my surprise the country Director MS Marjon Tuinsma kept quiet and never took any action, I walked out of the office disappointed and my whole week was distracted.
3. In another case "one administrative assistant (name withheld), was pregnant, one early morning she felt dizzy and fell down at a bus stop about 400M from the office, she called the driver for help, as the driver was coming out of the gate he met Christina who asked where he was going, after he explained the case, Christina called the sick admin assistant and told her ‘don't expect to live a luxurious life very time' she stopped the driver from going there. This was rather disappointing because vehicles are used by both of them Chritina and Marjon for other purposes including taking children to school, going to the beach and safaris, everyone wwas shocked to learn that an office car was denied to a person with emergency in working hours.
Madame President, I and I believe the rest of the staff do have a lot of cases to share, many staff have resigned at the time when they are needed the most. There are countless cases of racial, gender and workplace discrimination, it is my humble request to you that you send an independent inquiry team to investigate on the matter. I do believe that all these are not the values of Helen Keller international; neither do they promote the Helen Keller spirit.
Thank you and best regards.
Florida
This email led to a publication by the daily news of 15th January 2014 (see attached)
Mapinduzi comment:
---- It is quite shocking to see that even after 50 years of independence some of our compatriots are still in the shackles of racial discrimination and dehumanization, indeed something has to be done-----
Dear Kathy,
I am a female working with Helen Keller international for a number of years now, I am sending this email using a phony email address I have created to conceal my identity due to sensitivity of the matter I am trying to communicate.
Sometimes this year you circulated an email urging staff not to tolerate any form of discrimination in our working environment, moreover you added that if one feels that his/her grievances have not been attended to, should directly write to you as a complaint for further action. Let me briefly explain my case that perhaps is also affecting many of us working in the Tanzania office.
Many of us have different stories to tell with regard to a kind of management we have here at our office. As you might be aware currently the management comprises of two individuals Marjon Tuinsma (The CD) and Christina Nyhus (the DCD). This has been going on for a long time, no local staff is involved in decision making/planning for the welfare of the office, in my view, foreign consultants e.g. David lacoste ( finance consultant or Judith Hernandez (HR consultant) are more trusted than local staff. Various decisions are made involving these individuals and or none is involving local staff, I find this rather discriminatory since we do have local staff that are contractually senior staff but are never involved in any way.
There have many cases of segregation in its different forms; let me just explain a few cases;
1. Sometimes last year HKI office was broken into and robbed, all local staff were recalled back to Dar es salaam including those In the field office, at that time the management comprised of Christina, Marjon and one local staff, to my surprise the local staff was temporarily removed out of management team and considered a suspect, Christina mentioned in a management meeting that in this case everyone is a suspect, her and Marjon together started interrogating staff one by one in the CD office. (This means everyone was a suspect except Marjon and Christina), everyone was disappointed by this move. In another briefing meeting Christina said, if we( her and Marjon) realize that you knew something and you never told us we will deal with you accordingly; because you ' Waswahili' have a tendency of not saying the truth or hiding things( I found this comment rather discriminatory, because people are different in their own ways.
2. I personally have been a victim of racial segregation (this is of course the main reason why I am writing this email). I recently met my supervisor Christina Nyhus in a meeting that I was called to explain about my program schedule, my supervisor thought that the plan was not smart and that I had to revise it, as I was trying to defend my point she uttered among other words that ‘you niggers will never learn', to my surprise the country Director MS Marjon Tuinsma kept quiet and never took any action, I walked out of the office disappointed and my whole week was distracted.
3. In another case "one administrative assistant (name withheld), was pregnant, one early morning she felt dizzy and fell down at a bus stop about 400M from the office, she called the driver for help, as the driver was coming out of the gate he met Christina who asked where he was going, after he explained the case, Christina called the sick admin assistant and told her ‘don't expect to live a luxurious life very time' she stopped the driver from going there. This was rather disappointing because vehicles are used by both of them Chritina and Marjon for other purposes including taking children to school, going to the beach and safaris, everyone wwas shocked to learn that an office car was denied to a person with emergency in working hours.
Madame President, I and I believe the rest of the staff do have a lot of cases to share, many staff have resigned at the time when they are needed the most. There are countless cases of racial, gender and workplace discrimination, it is my humble request to you that you send an independent inquiry team to investigate on the matter. I do believe that all these are not the values of Helen Keller international; neither do they promote the Helen Keller spirit.
Thank you and best regards.
Florida
This email led to a publication by the daily news of 15th January 2014 (see attached)
Mapinduzi comment:
---- It is quite shocking to see that even after 50 years of independence some of our compatriots are still in the shackles of racial discrimination and dehumanization, indeed something has to be done-----
