Advocating for Gender Equity with Perseverance and Optimism
By Daniela Bueso, Co-Director of the Central America Program
International Women’s Day gave us the opportunity to recognize and admire all the incredible women that have been part of our TWP family, and the new women leaders that have emerged through our work on the ground in Central America. This past February, our TWP team had the privilege to travel to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, where we were inspired by courageous women who continue to advocate, organize, and fight for more inclusive and equitable opportunities for their communities and future generations.
In Honduras, we visited various homes where women have adopted the improved cookstove for the preparation of meals like baleadas and tortillas for local sales. Creating a small economic enterprise for themselves and their families. Showing others how to successfully care and use their cookstove while also improving their health and bringing economic benefits to their households.
“We have worked to bring economic solidarity towards women, working in home gardens, fish tanks, raising chickens, and we are expanding all of that. We are women workers in agriculture, we are very diverse at work, and we continue to fight for that, for our rights, so that our rights are heard. So that they do not see us as insignificant, but as if we can get ahead with what we know, and if we don't know it, we will learn it to be able to replicate it”.
— Norma Elizabeth Erazo Molina, member of ADECIME in the community of La Labor, Aguachapan, (El Salvador).
In El Salvador, we had the privilege to see a new community women’s group called: “Asociación de Desarrollo Comunal Integral de Mujeres Emprendedoras” - ADECIME, in Caserio Hacienda La Labor. This group of 50 women are working as co-managers of the buffer zone of La Labor (40 hectares), where they are working on creating fire breaks, planted 200 trees for reforestation, and are protecting their water basin that supplies 3 surrounding communities. They also focus on first aid and violence against women workshops, trainings in agroecology, agriculture, and vegetable management for food security and economic solidarity, while also teaching their community members about environmental awareness, and how to properly manage their forest and water.
In Guatemala, women like Maria Gabriela Fuentes (President) and Lesbia Perez Cifuentes, (Vice-President) of La Bendicion’s women's group continue to spread their knowledge and lessons learned from the gender based violence project that they were a part of for 2 years. Always reflecting on how grateful they were to have the opportunity to participate and have the space to share their experiences and challenges as women. What an honor it is to work with such powerful women that are role models to all of us!
“Our desire is that one day we will all be respected, that we have that space, that we can all overcome our fears, our limits, from being respected as women, to how we can perform”.
