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Guatemala: Maquilas and Mayan women

By Alba Trejo

Guatemala City.- Maquilas or sweatshops now provide the most fashionable and attractive, though not abuse-free, employment in the country. There is free time to go to night schools; weekly wage makes it possible to cover basic needs; and there is no need to wash dishes, cook, mop the floor and look after children.

Guatemalan Mayan women, who had in the past worked as domestics, are very happy with the new source of employment. While employers looked for artful women in urban areas when the maquilas were established in 1990, they now prefer indigenous women.

The National Institute of Statistics indicated that descendents from 21 ethnic groups, including Kich’e, Kakchiquell, Mam, Poco mam and Kekchi’e, are attracted not only to the work shift (from 8.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.), but also to the wage (250 to 400 dollars a month).

According to the non-governmental organization Guatemalan Textile and Clothing Industry (VESTEX), average wage at sweatshops is well above that of domestics (150 dollars a month).

But, what makes Mayan women so special that employers try to build their plants close to their villages and departments? The fact that they are extremely skillful.

Out of ancestral legacy, they have special talent to make value-added clothes that are exported to the United States, Canada and Europe. The Mayans make up 60 percent of the 12-million local population.

Guatemala has the largest textile industry in Central America. There are 202 factories with over 76,000 machines and 126,000 workers. Women account for 60 percent of total labor.

When they are still small girls, Mayan women are taught how to use looms and interweave threads to make local dresses and suits. They are usually very fast working with the machine and stitching on buttons and decoration elements.

Indigenous women have found new jobs and have left domestic work behind. They are now less likely to suffer from exploitation and abuse.

The Attorney’s Office for Human Rights said that indigenous women working as domestics usually face sexual abuse because of their working conditions. Although there have been reports to the police, they have very seldom won cases.

They are also being abused at maquilas, but there is greater visibility, said Imelda Hernández, former director of a Domestics Protection Program put together by the Central Organization of Privately Employed Workers.

They often have no access to health care; suffer from overcrowdedness (over 3,000 workers in one single area); are given one minute to go to the washroom; work standing for eight hours; and are exposed to synthetic textiles that can cause allergy, she added.

They make no claims because employers threaten to fire them or close down the factory, Hernández stressed. As Mayan women live under poverty, illiteracy and poor-health conditions, they withstand this situation.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) indicated that, while Guatemala has the most important economy in Central America, its inhabitants are among the poorest in the region.

On the other hand, the World Bank announced that 57 percent of Guatemalans live in poverty and 27 percent, in extreme poverty.

Population Census data showed that only two every 10 indigenous women complete elementary education. Most of them stop studying because they have to do house chores, look after brothers and sisters, and prepare the food while mothers are out selling in the market.

HIV/AIDS: “Mary Fortitude”, a 16-year struggle

By Sandra Patricia Arturo D’vries(*)

Pasto, Colombia.– "I was diagnosed 16 years ago. I have gone through a very difficult time and have been very close to death. From the very beginning, I have thought AIDS poses a challenge to life. I usually confront death because of my profession, and I always try to support unmotivated and terminally ill patients".

"Many patients believe that special celebration dates are times of uncertainty. They wonder: what will happen next year? From personal experience, I tell them they can be HIV-positive and keep on living without thinking about death. Dreams prevail".

"I had a wonderful marriage, a nice husband and the illusion to have a baby. AIDS put an end to all that. Everything vanished when he died and I was not sure about my daughter’s final diagnosis".

"I felt relieved when the laboratory test confirmed she was not HIV-positive. Thirteen really difficult years have elapsed. I have been discriminated against and isolated. Every action has served to strengthen me and turn me into a true warrior".

"When I decided to give my testimony to the press in 1993, I became the first woman living with HIV to make such a public announcement. A year later, I participated in a meeting of AIDS patients in Brazil and joined the Pan American Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS".

Shortly afterwards, a group of colleagues agreed to set up a local association (“Mary Fortitude”) named after a radio show that asked listeners to give a name to the woman who was telling her story and had asked not to be identified.

Some listeners came up with Mary, because she was also a mother, and Fortitude, because she had endured a plight. "I have approached life differently ever since. This other name identifies my struggle and this mission became my raison d’être".

"I attended the 4th Meeting of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Cape Town (South Africa) to give my testimony. I began working with Dr. Henry Ardila at the Colombian AIDS League, implementing activities to empower women".

“Mary Fortitude” Foundation was gradually gaining momentum, training community leaders and providing guidance to people living with HIV/AIDS.

"An opportunistic disease seemed to sweep my hope away in 1997. I had brain toxoplasmosis and neared death once again. Doctors considered me incurable."

"I held on to life and thought a lot about my challenge: doing my best for my daughter and those facing a similar situation".

"I came to the conclusion that it was not fair to be abused and mistreated, and above all, see your human rights violated. I was then convinced that God had chosen me to help people".

A historic meeting

The situation of women living with HIV/AIDS has been very difficult. Dr. Ardila and I organized the 1st National Meeting of Women Living with HIV/AIDS in May 1997. It was a historic event attended by women from all Colombian departments and foreign countries. A process to empower women was undertaken after I encouraged HIV-positive women to struggle for their rights.

As these women face an unfavorable situation not only in Colombia, but also in all of Latin America and the Caribbean, our foundation has decided to organize training courses.

Supported by the State, I kept on working with a strong sense of belonging and commitment. The idea was to disseminate information about Decree No. 1543, which established rights and duties for people living with HIV/AIDS.

We have been providing comprehensive care to HIV-positive patients and doing community-based prevention work. We have managed to improve the quality of life of over 160 people under our program and another 300 have somehow benefited from the services we provide. Our best reward is to see patients smiling when they come for follow up.

The name of the foundation and mine have merged in a Latin American struggle. I have been a member of organizing committees for national and international events, such as the 2000 Forum in Rio de Janeiro and the 2002 Forum in Cuba.

We have to work in a usually hostile, conservative, poorly sensitized atmosphere, but we are pleased to help improve the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS, with such a strong social commitment.

This has been a learning process for me. Today I think I am better empowered. I have my disease under control and I have taken “advantage” of it. HIV has given me the opportunity to explore many things I had never imagined.

I have understood my own process and that of other people. I can say these 16 years have been meaningful. I have had all sorts of emotions: I have cried when special people have left us for good and I have met wonderful people.

Working for those in need is a source of satisfaction. I am happy to see “Mary Fortitude” is part of a mission that is being accomplished by a great team. I am very pleased with the fortitude and purpose God has given me.

Many people take these emotions as something ordinary. Perhaps, they can not fully assess what they mean to me, a person who has been close to death more than once. I highly appreciate the possibility to hear every day a most beautiful word: mother.

(*) The author is the director of the “Mary Fortitude” Foundation in Pasto, the capital city of Nariño Department (Colombia), and the general coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Movement of Women Living with HIV/AIDS.

Health: AIDS orphans

By Cristina Canoura

Montevideo.– Over 1,800 children are born with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) every day and 15 million minors become orphans or are somehow affected by the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

United Nations for AIDS (UNAIDS) data show how necessary it is to adopt urgent, effective measures. The number of HIV-positive children will otherwise reach 100 million within ten years.

They are children of sexual workers, injectable drug addicts or women who got the virus directly from their husbands. They transmitted it through placenta, at delivery or by breast-feeding.

These HIV-positive or -negative children have also lost their parents and are being looked after by grandparents, uncles and aunts, adoptive families or state-run institutions.

There are some 800,000 children living under such conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a joint report by UNAIDS, the United Nations International Children’s Fund and the United States Agency for International Development.

Being children and defenseless, these orphans (the so-called children of fear) are a favorite target for discrimination. They have been expelled from schools in Africa and elsewhere. Their presence at school has also been boycotted by misinformed, prejudiced parents and teachers who refuse to have HIV-positive students in classrooms.

The term “children of fear” came up in Malaga (Spain) in the early 1990s, when four-year-old Montse could not enter school because the parents of his classmates had used chains to keep him out. This has not been the only case in the country.

They asked doctors to issue a certificate giving 100-percent warranty that their children would not be affected.

Scientific evidence is not always taken into account, particularly when children are involved. HIV can be transmitted through blood, placenta, semen, vaginal secretions and breast-feeding.

No cases have been reported in the world about transmission through saliva, air, sweat, tears, urine, insect bites and domestic animals, including louse.

There is no risk in shaking hands, using poorly washed spoons, forks, etc., sitting next to an HIV-positive person, using other people’s handkerchiefs, public phones and transportation vehicles, going together to movies, football stadiums, gyms, schools or workplaces, and sharing swimming pools or water closets.

Twenty-five years after it was first diagnosed in gays, the disease under stigma has given rise to a legion of orphans.

In an effort to raise awareness about these realities, the World AIDS-Orphans Day has been observed on May 7 since 2002, at the initiative of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Association. This is an international humanitarian organization promoting global action in favor of children who are vulnerable to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

On May 7, 2002, Albina du Boisrouvray, a founding member, presented UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan with a dossier containing two million signatures of people on all continents. They asked national governments and international organizations to protect fundamental rights of HIV-positive children.

Effective treatment

As a means to stop vertical (mother-to-child) transmission, countries of the region have formulated a strategy seeking to intensify pre-natal control and give pregnant women access to tests that make it possible to confirm the diagnosis in ten minutes.

If the test is positive and the woman in question agrees, antiretroviral treatment is applied as of the 12th week of gestation, and measures are taken to prevent the newborn from getting the virus.

Although not all HIV-positive pregnant women transmit the virus to offspring, it has been corroborated that this therapy has actually reduced vertical transmission from 40 percent of cases to merely two percent.

After the first pediatric case of AIDS was determined in Uruguay in 1989, 169 children have contracted the disease through placenta, at delivery or by breast-feeding. Out of this total, 50 have died.

Most of these cases are children of divorced women or widows who have very limited economic resources or rely on food baskets supplied by the National Food Institute.

The number of vertical-transmission cases has moved from 35 percent in 1995 to two percent in 2006. This places Uruguay in the lead in Latin America, ahead of Brazil, Costa Rica and Paraguay.

Such a drop has been due to a rigorous plan encouraging women to keep their pregnancies under control and supplying effective drugs to HIV-positive patients and their children immediately after birth.

It has been demonstrated that 65 percent of vertical-transmission cases occur over labor or delivery, and the remaining 35 percent through placenta. That is why, women in labor are administered Zidovudine intravenously.

This drug is also given (orally) to newborns in the first eight hours and every six hours during 42 days. Breast-feeding is discouraged.

Children of HIV-positive mothers are under control for 18 months. If test results are negative by then, the treatment is discontinued. Those who still have the virus should be given three antiretrovirals four times a day.

The Uruguayan Ministry of Public Health supplies all necessary medicines to mothers and children under treatment at the largest maternity hospital (Pereira Rossell) in the country.

Peru: Violence map shows a stark reality

By Carolina La Madrid and Zoraida Portillo

Lima.– There is an alarming violence situation in Peru: one every two women is mistreated; two every ten are sexually abused before they are 15; and two every three children are physically and/or psychologically abused.

These are some of the dramatic figures revealed by a Violence Map that was prepared by the local Ministry of Health to put in black and white a reality that is affecting thousands of children and women on a daily basis in the 28-million-inhabitant country.

The research work was recently submitted at a Forum on Teenage Sexuality held at the National Congress headquarters.

The study is full of bad news: family violence, especially child aggression, is affecting 42 percent of Peruvian households. Most raped girls seek support from mothers.

Unfortunately, mothers do not always live up to the circumstances and blame girls for it. This was the case of Ledy, a 19-year-old mother who was raped by her father when she was 12. Her case was submitted at the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Office in Peru.

Her mother had blamed her for the rape and tried to make her have an abortion. She got so depressed that she had to stay at a mental hospital.

She managed to overcome this episode, had her baby and is now involved in teenage pregnancy prevention activities in southern Lima schools.

Ledy’s case is not an exception to the rule, however. Most raped teenagers simply become part of statistics that turn Peru into one of the countries exhibiting very high adolescent-mother rates (13 percent of girls in the 10- to 18-year bracket).

The Violence Map ratifies some previously published data: women in the 16- to 35-year bracket are the most physically abused social group.

The study also contains data from other departments. This makes it possible to formulate specific strategies. Loreto in the Amazons and Cusco in the Andes exhibit the highest family-violence rates.

Teenagers (13- to 17-years old) are the major victims in Loreto. Many children used by pimps, especially in Iquitos (the department’s capital), are part of an important prostitution feud.

A large number of children and teenagers (238 last year and 260 so far this year) have tried to run away from home in Cusco. Around 16 percent of them have been abused by parents, stepfathers or stepmothers.

With these figures in hand, the ministries of Health, Women’s Affairs, Education and Interior have jointly developed a Gender-Based Violence Coping Protocol. Dr. Lucy del Carpio said that the idea is not only to provide victims with a safe place to go, but also give them effective support and follow up.

The director of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Division at the Ministry of Health added that the instrument includes establishing support groups, emergency centers and shelters for abused women, and providing psychological support and police training to face gender-based violence cases.

Other illustrative domestic-violence indicators were made public at the event: The Ministry of Women’s Affairs-organized emergency centers had covered 2,503 children and teenager cases by October. Out of this total, sexual violence against girls and young women made up 1,037 cases.

Rosa Delgado, specialist at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs Comprehensive Care Unit, indicated that medical staff members need to be extremely careful while treating victims. We should encourage them to report their cases to the police. Fear always cascades upon them, she noted.

The Ministry of Education’s Guidance Division is focusing precisely on guardianship and support actions. Official Darcy Calderón stressed that they pay much attention to guardian selection because not all teachers have the capacity and ability required for this purpose, she added.

We discuss topics like difference between solidarity and complicity to help victims report cases that involve teachers and students. Surveys have shown that this type of abuse is growing.

Teachers can play an important role in detecting domestic-violence and sexual-abuse cases inside and outside home, she emphasized.

It was, in fact, thanks to a sharp teacher that Ledy was able to get out of hell. Shortly after the teacher realized the girl was suffering from acute depression, she discovered Ledy was pregnant and informed the authorities about it.

Economy: Step by Step

Mirta Rodríguez Calderón

Santo Domingo.– Those who like to take everything or nothing will probably object to an initiative granting loans to people wishing to establish small businesses.

These “solutions” do not change the course of history and resolve the poverty problem, which is endemic in many of our societies.

It is true, however, that individual beneficiaries, especially women, have no way to improve their living conditions other than the 3,000-, 5,000- or 10,000-peso loans they get. Cooperatives can borrow up to 50,000 pesos each. The current exchange rate is 33 pesos to one dollar.

The issue is much more complicated than it seems. Lending money to people who have very little poses many risks as there is no 100-percent warranty that the capital will be recovered.

The risk is very real in the case of extremely poor women. The situation is such that Progenera, a local NGO supported by the Netherlands’ Cooperation Agency (CORDIAC), is no longer granting loans because it has found it impossible to demand women to pay back after having bought a hairdryer or refurbished their houses.

Progenera representative Isidra Salvador told WFS that they stopped giving loans two years ago and decided to focus on marginal neighborhoods, urging residents to sell produce and handicrafts, and improving housing conditions.

Some lending organizations have been successful, however. They include the Dominican Development Foundation and the Women’s Bank (ADOPEM). Lenin Pacheco, the Foundation’s marketing manager, said that the strength of the organization lies entirely in women.

The Bank was established by European businesswomen in the Netherlands in 1975, shortly after the 1st International Women’s Conference was held. It now has subsidiaries in over 20 countries.

The Dominican Republic has six in the capital city and ten in other regions.

Last year, ADOPEM credits grew by 300 percent and deposits by 400 percent, with 60,000 people served. Although it charges 4.5-percent interest rates, its CEOs indicated their work is primarily social.

They grant loans for farmers to buy tools and machinery. As these are productive investments by qualified people, capital recovery gets easier. There are also small shop owners and hairdressers.

The Bank’s principle is quite different from that of other capitalist institutions: you do not have to show you have money to pay back the loan, but rather show that you really need it.

Needs and possibilities

There is no doubt that women need to be supported. The cost of living is going up. Food prices are following a rising trend. Those who prepare food day after day, especially in the countryside, are really overwhelmed. They are not after shoes and clothes, but after food for them and their children.

A government report on the Millennium Development Goals indicated in 2004 that 13 percent of the nine-million population was living below the poverty line and around half a million was going hungry.

Seeking to meet the demands of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank under a Free Trade Agreement, the government decided to impose new taxes on sugar, butter, coffee, edible oil, pasta and other staple commodities. The price for bread has also been increased.

People’s rejection and indignation made the President tax sanctuary houses, cars, beverages and other products instead.

Transportation carriers, however, were not happy with the move, organized strong protests and burned buses and tires. Some people got killed, and there is fear about the situation getting even worse.

A commitment

Officials at the UNDP Human Development Office in the Dominican Republic have repeatedly said that the local business community should meet its social commitment aside from profit seeking. It has, to a certain extent, adhered to the so-called Global Agreement lately.

Office publications indicate that the instrument has not been developed by a UN agency, but by a local network aimed at promoting social/corporate responsibility.

Many foreign cooperation organizations and UN agencies are helping the poorest among the poor.

The 2005 Human Development Report indicated that the main cause of poverty and low human development level is not to be found in money shortage, but in poor national political and business leadership.

Women are trying to be empowered. An organization working along these lines is called Confederation of CountryWomen. It is implementing credit-granting programs in three northern regions (Moca, Monte Plata and San Cristóbal). The idea is to reach another four municipalities in the near future.

Local leaders Juana Mercedes and Brígida Ovalles told WFS that women establish cooperatives and immediately begin saving money to request loans. They feel responsible and do their best to pay back, they added.

Out of 400,000 pesos under a lending agreement with the Community-Based Development Institute and Intermom-OXFAM in Monte Plata, 50,000 pesos are being paid back every month by 119 women who have bought fertilizers and sold rice and beans.

Women in Moca, where FAO has helped develop cassava cultivation and processing, are making and selling typical desserts, looking after tree nurseries, and planting crops.

Others are buying cloth to make bed sheets and curtains, raising animals, and preparing and selling vegetable salads.

A 40,000-peso Associate Investment Fund has helped around 60 farmers. They incur in payment delays, but only for three or four days, Ovalles stressed.

On the other hand, the Women’s Solidarity and Development Center (Ce-Mujer) was established 18 years ago and now has subsidiaries in eight eastern municipalities. It introduced the modality of urging women to have a cow and give the first calf to another member of the center who is expected to do the same in the future.

The so-called revolving funds have been successful. Women own a brick production plant in Bayaguana, 200 kilometers east of the capital and a confectioner’s. Bricklayers are work on a commission basis and a school is training carpenters and cabinetmakers. They sell so well that some women have bought even trucks!

Poor peasants are, nonetheless, finding it difficult to pay back. If we do not get the capital back, we will not be able to help other women, Fanny Beltré, the Center’s production director, told us.

And yet it moves, as Galileo said. Empowerment processes are underway, and women are trying to overcome dependence.

The Women's News Service from Latin America and the Caribbean, International News Agency, offers this weekly service. No reproduction without authorization. Any comment o suggestion please contact us: semlac@redsemlac.net