{"id":208,"date":"2014-03-06T16:11:50","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T16:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entremundosrevista.wordpress.com\/?p=208"},"modified":"2015-09-30T20:15:01","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T20:15:01","slug":"women-in-ngos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/uncategorized-es\/women-in-ngos\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in NGO’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emily Ellis<\/strong><\/p>\n

TRAMA Textiles: Amparo de Le\u00f3n de Rubio and Oralia Chop\u00e9n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The word trama, or thread, can also mean \u201cfood\u201d in Spanish. For the 400 indigenous weavers supported by TRAMA Textiles, the thread is just as essential to their livelihood as food. Following the devastation of the Civil War, many women found themselves without any means of supporting themselves. TRAMA was founded by two weavers,\u00a0 Amparo de Le\u00f3n de Rubio and Oralia Chop\u00e9n, in an effort to create a weaving cooperative that would enable the women to sell their work in Quetzaltenango and abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the modern world, it is very difficult for these women to make a living,\u201d Amparo explains. \u201cTRAMA gives them a way to earn a liveable salary, and gives them pride in their culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the benefits of selling work through TRAMA is that the weavers can reach a wider market, since TRAMA exports textiles to stores abroad.\u00a0 In addition to this, the women can be assured that they will not be swindled \u2013 that is the farthest thing from Amparo\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I do is for these women – I struggle for them, and for their children,\u201d she says flatly, summing up the 30 years of her life she has dedicated to TRAMA. \u201cIt gives me a great happiness and satisfaction in my heart to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"allison\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mentes para el Futuro: Alison Kempson Aparicio<\/strong><\/p>\n

Physcotherapist Allison Aparicio moved to Quetzaltenango from the USA with her husband, a Xela native. In 2012, she founded Mentes para El Futuro, an organization which provides psychological support and educational services to families of the 650+ children who attend the 15 de Septiembre Public School in Xela. Learning disabilities and traumatic home-life are major problems among the children in the school; it is all the teachers can do to keep order in the classroom, let alone provide individual attention to troubled children. That is where MPF comes in.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to get the kids to college, and they don’t have that goal for themselves,\u201d Allison says.\u201c We want to help people understand the importance of education – as things are now, they don’t see a future for their kids, and we wish to change that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gradually, the counselling, tutoring, and social services that MPF offers has made profound differences in the lives of the children and families of 15 de Septiembre.\u00a0 But Allison is modest about the young organization\u2019s success. \u201cThereupitic work is like riding a wave,\u201d she says. \u201cYou go where it takes you.\u201d The students and families of 15 de Septiembre are undoubtedly grateful that it brought her to Xela.<\/p>\n

\"miriam\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Proyecto Miriam: Juana Maria Tax Saquimox, Coordinadora de Becas Primaria y Secondaria<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMiriam is the name of our founder,\u201d Juana Maria Tax Saquimox, Scholarship Coordinator at Proyecto Miriam, explains. \u201cBut there is another meaning. In the bible, Miriam was a woman who escaped from slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a fitting named for an organization that strives to free women from the bonds created by a lack of education, poverty, and domestic violence. Founded in 1996, Proyecto Miriam offers 34 scholarships for women (most of whom are indigenous) who live around Xela and Guatemala City. The scholarship program can be truly life-changing for the beneficiaries.\u00a0 Juana, who received a university scholarship in 2004, is a perfect example. \u00a8Without Proyecto Miriam,\u00a8 she says. \u00a8 It would have been impossible for me to attend university.\u00a8<\/p>\n

Earning an education can be extremely difficult for women, due to the cost, familiar responsibilities, and the long distances to universities. PM strives to accommodate them in any way possible; the fact that most of the organization\u00b4s employees are former beneficiaries is proof of its success.<\/p>\n

\u00a8It is a struggle to change your life,\u00b4\u00b4 Juana says, reflecting on the endeavours of PM. \u00a8But it is possible if one is given a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Primeros Pasos: Maria Elena Xuruc, Clinic Director<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Maria Elena Xuruc, Clinic Director of Primeros Pasos (First Steps), has only been working for the organization since 2013, she has had years of experience an administrator of NGOs. \u00a8Working with Primeros Pasos has been one of my most challenging positions,\u00a8 she says. \u00a8But also one of the most interesting, since there is such a variety of projects.\u00a8<\/p>\n

Primeros Pasos was founded in 2002, with the aim of offering health care to the remote rural communities of Palajunoj Valley of Quetzaltenango. PP has since expanded to offer a variety of services, including mobile clinics, women and children\u00b4s health education, and secondary education scholarships. Although PP offers essential medical services to those who would not be able to access them otherwise, at the heart of its work is the prevention of future problems. PP places a particular focus on the health education of women and girls, a demographic at a high risk for teenaged pregnancies, issues of sexual health, and domestic abuse.<\/p>\n

\u00a8Here in Guatemala, culturally speaking, girls are considered to be of less importance,\u00a8\u00a0 Maria\u00a0 Elena explains. \u00a8But they are the women of the future. It\u00b4s important not only to improve their physical health, but their mentality and self-esteem, so that they can in turn educate their children.\u00a8<\/p>\n

The necessity of these services is indisputable, and it is difficult to say how many lives have been improved, or even saved, by the\u00a0 simple health screenings and educational workshops offered by PP.\u00a0 Despite the organization\u00b4s success, Maria Elena knows there is far more to do. \u00a8We\u00b4re working very hard,\u00a8 she says firmly. \u00a8And we have our steps strongly directed towards where we want to go.\u00a8<\/p>\n

\"Jocelyn<\/a><\/p>\n

Jocelyn Bates and Valeria Ayerdi: Director of EntreMundos and Editor of EntreMundos Revista<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although EntreMundos works with a multitude of projects, the advancement of women\u00b4s rights is a top priority. \u00a8It has always been a mission of EntreMundos to foster female leadership,\u00a8 says Jocelyn Bates, director of EM since 2010. In an organization where most of the team are women, as are most of the contributors to the magazine,\u00a0 female leadership is certainly in evidence.<\/p>\n

Besides publishing the bi-monthly EntreMundos Revista, EM also runs capacity building workshops, as well as IT Training and Community Tourism training programs. Jocelyn says that in the seven years she has lived in Xela, she has seen a considerable increase in the number of women attending such workshops and becoming managers of businesses and organizations. \u00a8It\u00b4s a fairly recent development in Guatemala,\u00a8 she explains. \u00a8EntreMundos trains people from over\u00a0 100 organizations in our capacity building program, and we are seeing more and more female management and coordinators. Especially in our IT training, we have seen a real turnaround in the amount of women who taking initiative and training themselves, and becoming the go-to members of their organizations.\u00a8<\/p>\n

According to Valeria Ayerdi,\u00a0 editor of the EM Revista, increasing the number of women in leadership roles is a matter of building their self-confidence. \u00a8Some women hesitate because they think writing an article for the magazine or being a manager is a man\u00b4s thing . . . .. but once they try it, they do amazing work.\u00a8<\/p>\n

EntreMundos offers a wealth of opportunities for women to express themselves.\u00a0 But according to Valeria, struggling against a system that oppresses women is a slow process.\u00a0 \u00a8We as women should commit to ourselves and to other women to let our light shine so bright that no one can put us in the shadows again . . . women have died fighting against this discrimination. It\u00b4s up to us to take a stand.\u00a8<\/p>\n

With women like Jocelyn and Valeria as role-models, the number of women that EM helps to reach their potential is only bound to increase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emily Ellis TRAMA Textiles: Amparo de Le\u00f3n de Rubio and Oralia Chop\u00e9n The word trama, or thread, can also mean \u201cfood\u201d in Spanish. For the 400 indigenous weavers supported by TRAMA Textiles, the thread is just as essential to their livelihood as food. Following the devastation of the Civil War, many women found themselves without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-es"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/mujeres-3.jpg?fit=667%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ljt7-3m","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4291,"url":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/culture\/the-fight-for-fair-textiles\/?lang=en","url_meta":{"origin":208,"position":0},"title":"The Fight for Fair Textiles","author":"EntreMundos","date":"26 julio, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By: Kari Lindberg Using the backstrap loom passed down from her grandmother to her mother and now to her, Carolina del Lopez sits on her dirt floor and passes wooden instruments through her weaving. 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