Written by
Milena Nebbia

 

Hundreds of women from Antiochia, Cauca, Putumayo, Risaralda, Santander, Valle, Bogotà and Cartagena have begun travelling by the rivers, footpaths and roads of Colombia to Chocò, the Pacific-facing region of the country, for the large national demonstration called to express solidarity with the women of Chocò.

 

Chocò. The occasion was the international “No to violence against women” day, and the department of Chocò in the west of Colombia was chosen as a symbol of what has been happening in the country for far too long. This department, which is one of the areas that has been affected most by the armed conflict, has a population that is mainly of African descent, with over 60% living in conditions of extreme poverty and the highest rate of illiteracy in the country, while only 23% of the people have access to drinking water and the rate of infant mortality is 94 for every 1000.

But Chocò is also the lungs of Colombia with an extremely varied and rich biodiversity, and in addition it is full of water resources, gold and other minerals. The position of the area is highly strategic and has attracted the attention of international interests, with the result that in order to maintain control of the area members of the armed and paramilitary forces force local people to leave their collective land and, possibly even worse, hold the civilian population to hostage by controlling the goods that enter and leave the area and controlling the rivers, which are the only means of communication, and the cultivated land.

 

Symbolic gestures. With their march to Chocò, Colombian women have symbolically regained control of the main means of communication in a sign of pacific resistance and in support of a country that is exhausted by the violence. This gesture is a show of strength from that part of the population that has always borne the brunt of war and injustice. Every day they are the victims of the most varied crimes, including humiliation, torture, disappearances, kidnapping, violence and murders that for the most part go unpunished.

But in recent years Colombian women have acquired a good deal of self-confidence and have courageously begun to make their voice heard. Since 1996 more than three-hundred women’s organisations from different regions in Colombia have joined together under the umbrella of Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres, an organisation set up to provide a female response to the wave of violence that ruins the daily lives of the Colombian people.  

 

A look at Guatemala and Salvador. Similar examples of this movement can be found throughout Latin America. The women of the Union Nacional de Mujeres Guatemaltecas are responsible for encouraging the local population to reflect on the genocide in Guatemala, although the road they’ve chosen is still very long: "Women in Guatemala are still afraid to take part in political activities”, Ana Maria Morzan, of UNAMG, explained. “They don’t feel they have the right to take part in the public life of the country, to vote, to be elected, and even when they do feel this, the electoral system limits them”.

Half of the women in Salvador are waiting for something: waiting for a telephone call, for the month’s money or for the return of their husbands from the United States. But the women who speak to the women in Salvador are those who have decided not to wait any longer. They’re involved in politics, in justice, in social movements, fighting because they don’t want to stop hoping, like the female education workers who work for SERCOBA, the association that provides services for the Catholic community in Salvador. Every day they visit a different community, sometimes travelling for three hours by pick-up truck before arriving in isolated villages on the coast or in the mountains, where they take part in intense discussion groups, meetings dedicated to reading and meditating about the bible, about education, illiteracy, the local economy and agriculture, health and local trades. The women who speak to the women in Salvador are trying to awaken women’s awareness of their rights and inspire the courage for new political and social involvement in order to revive the country.

 

A look at Brazil. In the biggest country in South America, Brazil, hunger and malnutrition are still an everyday reality, not just in the north, in the dry area of Pernambuco, but also in extremely modern San Paolo, among the multi-ethnic favelas that stand side-by-side with New York-style skyscrapers. Gisela Solymos is a young psychologist who for over 10 years has been fighting to improve the health and nutrition conditions of minors. Head of CREN, the Recovery and Nutritional Education Centre of San Paolo, and a university professor, Gisela is a symbol of women who believe in change: “Every day at CREN we provide day hospital facilities for 50 undernourished children and we look after the nutritional education of over 200 families. The nutritional help we offer, together with our presence in their homes, the understanding, and the medical and educational support we provide, serves not only to combat malnutrition and undernourishment but also to deal with other problems such as violence, alcoholism and relationship difficulties”.