Basic Project Info:
Women’s Empowerment and Violence Reduction Project
in the Communities of Loma Linda, Nueva Alianza, and Santa Anita
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
 “Combating violence against women requires challenging the way that
gender roles and power relations are articulated in society.”
United Nations Dept. of Public Information, February 1996
18 WORKSHOPS
Peer-led. Leadership development, consciousness-raising,
self-protection and solidarity.
75 WOMEN
Rural working women, ages 16 to 65. Mothers, daughters, grandmothers, granddaughters.
3 COMMUNITIES
Worker-owned coffee-growing communities in
Southwest Guatemala.
photo courtesy Ida Benedetto
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN GUATEMALA
Since the year 2000, over 3,000 women have been murdered in Guatemala and less than 2% of cases have resulted in convictions, making Guatemala “the most dangerous place for women in all of Latin America”. In 2008 the United Nations ranked Guatemala worst in the entire Western hemisphere in terms of gender-related development, based on low levels of female literacy, schooling, earning power, and life expectancy. Guatemala also has the lowest percentage of women in congress in the hemisphere (8.2%).
OUR RESPONSE
A series of 18 peer-led empowerment workshops with 75 women in the agrarian, worker-owned communities of Loma Linda and Nueva Alianza, carried out by trained women members of the Santa Anita community. Workshops focus on leadership development, social and political education and empowerment, and violence reduction. Specific topics include indigenous identity, discrimination, history of feminism, domestic violence, and women’s legal and human rights and how to demand them.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
The project budget is US$9,000. Donate now on-line or by check. Read the full project proposal, experience the audio slideshow, and track project fundraising progress. Make checks out to Café Conciencia with “women’s project” in the memo and send to:
Café Conciencia
18 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
THANK YOU! |
