Día de la Mujer (Women´s Day)

During the past few weeks my office at Hogar de Cristo has been celebrating women in honor of International Women´s Day on March 8^th. Before explaining how we celebrated the day, here are a few of the statistics of women in Ecuador that I learned in these past few weeks:

·         8 of every 10 women in Ecuador have suffered some kind of gender-based violence

·         In the province of Guayas (where Mount Sinai is), a majority of the women have suffered violence from their partner:

(Recreated and translated from Herencia de los vulnerables)

·         90% of women who have suffered gender violence do not separate from their partner in Ecuador

·         In October 2011 alone there were 14,337 reports of intra-family violence in Guayaquil

As a woman in Mount Sinai it is difficult to report cases of violence and rape. Many don’t. Many that try never see any results. Many women are trapped in situations of economic and emotional dependency in their relationships. 

I can do nothing in my volunteer year to address the cultural and structural issues that enforce patriarchy. I actually feel pretty hopeless and helpless some days visiting neighbors and working on workshops at Hogar de Cristo. But in celebrating International Women’s Day I felt hope. Seeing all of the female community leaders fighting for a better future for their children spending the day with their daughters was inspiring.  We celebrated the recognition of our worth, our power, and our rights as women this week. 

With one of the community presidents

Celebration at San Felipe

A couple weeks early we had our own “jornada de mujeres” at the nearby San Felipe Neri school where two Rostro volunteers teach. The day consisted of songs about women, a drama performance entitled “In Her Shoes” performed by teens, and a short documentary film of the women of Mount Sinai. I by accident signed up fellow Rostro vol Miguel during our team meeting to sing and play guitar – he was great, the women gave him a standing ovation! The drama performance had a husband and wife who magically switch places (sort of like the movie Freaky Friday). In this exaggerated performance, the man comes to understand the suffering of women (and mothers) in a machista culture. At the end Alejandra asked how many women in the audience could relate to the difficult life of this woman and the initial maltreatment by her husband. At first only a few shy hands raised, but slowly almost every single hand rose. We concluded the day with a film. That week we met with different community groups of women and female community presidents and filmed responses to questions like “what rights do you have as a woman?” or “why are you valued?” etc.  At the end each group of women wrote a response to “Somos mujeres…” (We are women…) and in unison read it out loud. One example is: “Somos mujeres felices, respectadas, valorizadas. Somos mujeres poderosos” (We are happy, respected, and valued women. We are powerful women). It was cute to see how excited and then embarrassed each woman got when they saw their contribution to the film.

Celebration on the boardwalk

Hogar gave out frames with titles 

A few photos of the exposition

On the actual day, March 8^th, we traveled by bus with Hogar de Cristo employees and many women of Mount Sinai to the center of Guayaquil to celebrate. On the boardwalk was a concert and tents from many Ecuadorian foundations (including Hogar) that work with women in many different capacities (empowerment programs, microcredit, etc). From there we went to a nearby museum featuring the art project of another international Hogar volunteer. It was an exposition of photos of the women of Mount Sinai holding signs saying “Soy una mujer…” (I am a…woman). For instance “I am a fighter;” “I am a woman created in the love of God;” “I am a woman of character who survives the circumstances of life.” Most of the women featured in the exposition were at the museum for a presentation. It was very powerful to hear them speak on how they have learned and believe through this project that they are valued and loved – especially since I know about 75% of the women photographed.

Happy Women’s Day to all of the women in my life who have taught me, accompanied me, and shaped me!