Gender Equality and Fair Trade Promotion Project
gender equality

Gender Equity and Fair Trade

On her return from Nicaragua, our colleague Estel Malgosa explains how the project to strengthen the capacities of women and young people and to promote their empowerment is going. This project started at the end of 2016 and is being carried out by AlterNativa3 with the support of the  Terrassa City Council.

The Guapotal region is a mountainous area made up of small communities, and is the area where the Augusto César Sandino Fair Trade Cooperative (COMULACS). Families in the region make their living from agriculture and, for the most part, from growing coffee, a product that is harvested once a year. Nicaragua's rural communities have social and traditional dynamics that are marked by the seasonal nature of the coffee economy and by the presence of strong gender inequalities, which they all refer to as "gender inequalities". macho culture. Women are therefore in a more vulnerable position than men: the man is the head of the household and usually makes the decisions that affect the whole family, wife and children. Women usually work at home and, at harvest time, both at home and in the fields. Even so, rural women do not have economic independence, which makes them more subject to men's decisions.. In addition, the same gender inequalities mean that many young men do not take responsibility for their children, leaving this responsibility to the mother and her family, which represents an additional burden on the family unit.

Young people are another vulnerable group, as a large part of them do not continue their studies due to the difficulties of access, economics and opportunities. Without studies, their life projects are to work in the countryside (if they do not have their own land, they have to work in the fields). macheteros on landowners' farms, a very hard and poorly paid job) or migrate to the cities in search of better living conditions (especially in neighbouring countries such as Costa Rica).

In this context, the assembly of the COMULACS cooperative in 2015 saw the need to carry out a project to strengthen the capacities of both groups and to promote their empowerment. The project that started at the end of 2016 consists of a series of activities with the same groups (in total 3 groups depending on the communities) where training is offered through participatory methodologies on gender equity, where the following is worked on. self-esteem, leadership and decision-making. In addition, a social diagnosis is being carried out with the participation of all the beneficiaries. This diagnosis has a double function: on the one hand, the beneficiaries become researchers (they reflect on their social reality, what the main problems are and how they can be solved...) and on the other hand, it is a process that allows them to empower themselves, that is to say, to gain confidence, self-esteem and to be aware that they can improve their situation. AlterNativa3 has been able to attend some of these activities.

Among the problems detected in the participatory diagnosis is the economic dependence of women and young people. From this point on, the idea is emerging to develop an economic activity for themselves: they want to grow, roast and sell Fairtrade coffee and coffee from small producers in their own communities and the surrounding villages. Quality coffee leaves Nicaragua through exports. The coffee that the producers keep is the coffee that they cannot sell because of the poor quality. The only coffee that is sold to the shops in the towns and cities of the department is that of the big landowners, but not of small producers who guarantee the human rights of the peasants, no child labour, care for the environment and promote gender equality.

This project is carried out by AlterNativa3 with the support of Terrassa City Council.

If you want to know more about our project visit us at AlterNative3.

- 16-01-18

0
    Your shopping cart
    Your shopping cart is emptyBack to the shop