Experiences Women
In Mexico the refugee women founded their organization "Ixmucané", which is a mythological Maya name. The women started with many educational, organizational and productive activities. Most of these were continued in Guatemala.
Since tour years COMADEP no longer only works with the ´retornadas´, (returned refugee women) but also with other women, like the women of the organization ´San Franciscanas´. Despite the fact that these groups never had to flee, they have equal needs as the ´retornadas´.
In theory all these projects sound great, but in the end only one thing counts: what happens in practice! In which way do these projects mean a concrete improvement to these women's lives?
Little babies are looking curiously over their shoulders.
They are like little kangaroos, their little head pops out of the colorful
typical bags that the women have tied to their bodies. Concepcion is next
in line. She puts the maize on the scale, pays some cents and with a big
swing she starts the motor. The maize is mixed with some water and within
a minute she collects a sticky white mass coming out of the machine. Ready
to make some tortillas!
Caal two hours. Now she´s done in a few seconds
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Due to their poverty most Qeqchi´ people, like here in Santa Teresa, depend mainly for their living on brown beans, herbs and maize. No meal is consumed without a little pile of tortillas, the typical little pancakes made out of milled maize. A little while ago the women in Santa Teresa always used to mill the maize by hand, on a stone! Three times a day. Most Qeqchis´ have very big families and some women were scrubbing the maize up to three hours a day.
"Milling this mass by hand took me two hours"
¨It was very rough work and very tiring¨,
says Concepcion as she shows the milled tortilla mass in her little bucket.
Milling this same amount by hand would have taken me two hours. Now with
this mill I'm done in no time!¨.
Suzanna, another Q´eqchi´ woman standing in line, agrees:
¨Now I can go and mill whenever I want, three times a day and it only
costs 20 centavos per pound. I have much more time left for my other work
in the house and can take it a bit more easy. Milling by hand on the stone
was really hard¨, she says.
one had a little mill at home, like this women
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COMADEP has placed different mills in several small villages just like Santa Teresa. The projects are an initiative of the women's association San Fransiscanas, one of the two women groups that COMADEP is supporting.
San Fransiscanas is a women's association that works in the territory of San Fransisco, that consists of several villages. None of them had ever had a women's organization and Floridalma Chang was, and still is, its first president.
She started founding the organization completely
blank. First the government wanted to politicize the organization but
the women refused. ¨Thanks to COMADEP (which is supporting San Fransiscanas
by organizing projects and taking care of the funding) we can work independently.
Now after 3 years San Fransiscanas is working in 6 villages and since
June 2003 was recognized as an official association.
for the women. They have to fight for their rights
because the men still want to dominate them
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According to Floridalma the situation of the women in the villages was bad when she started her work with San Fransiscanas. "When we first went to the villages, the women didn´t dare to show up at the meetings. Only the men would speak and the women would be full of shame. Now it is completely different. The women always join the reunions and say more often what they want."
In Guatemala many men are very macho and don't grant
woman their rights or don't recognize the importance of their work. A
big problem is domestic violence and in many cases it is accepted by the
women. ¨When we started many of the women didn't even know it was
a crime if her husband would hit her or would not give her any money for
food. We tried to make the women more aware about their rights and about
the law¨, says Floridalma.
"Who do you see?"
But still many women were having problems with their
self esteem. Therefore San Fransiscanas conducted, with the support of
COMADEP, a course on this issue. ¨Many women were very scared to speak
out loud. We tried to let them realize that their voice is important and
worth of being heard. We did practices. The women looked into the mirror
and they had to say who they saw. Besides, each of them had to walk right
in front of the whole group. We asked them: are you proud of who you are?
Are you proud of being woman and indigenous?¨, the president explains.
Santa is a Q´eqchi´ woman from San Jose Pinares and she benefited
from these courses: ¨Yesterday I translated Spanish to Q´eqchi´
at an important meeting. There were over 500 women listening to me. In
the past I would have never dared to do anything like that. The projects
of San Fransiscanas helped me to gain more confidence and to participate
more. ¨
more self esteem and show up at reunions
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their rights and are recognizing their value
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This is exactly one of the main goals of the projects: more wide and frequent
participation of women in society. A good example is ´La Participación
Ciudadana. ¨With this project they are learning that they have the
right to vote and how to vote consciously without letting themselves being
manipulated and pressured.¨ This is a big problem in Guatemala. Often
the 'indígenas' are being tempted with money or psychologically
manipulated to vote for a certain party. In this way, out of poverty and
ignorance, they are exploited and used politically.
conducting courses to vote consciously
www.comadep.org
Contructed by:
Cinemotion Rising Art
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