«Today we celebrate the opening of our CEMM Training Center (in memory of our Founder César Eduardo Muñoz Mérida) so that the women of our community breathe hope through new learning that will allow them their own and accessible businesses, as an alternative for the generation of immediate income in support of the family economy in coordination with strategic allies, for a connected and active community in times of pandemic, as César visioned «
A bit of context: “It is estimated that the pandemic will leave 118 million women and girls in poverty in the region. The reduction in economic activity affects in the first instance informal workers who lose their livelihoods almost immediately, without any network or possibility of replacing the daily income in general ”(UN Women).
Guatemalan women already experienced precariousness before the pandemic, and with the arrival of COVID19 and its confinements, women have experienced highly worrying economic and labor contractions. We are talking about women without work and without money, and who, very surely, have considered migration as a possibility. Let’s look at some data: women’s domestic work has sustained family economies, but according to ILO estimates, 70.4% of domestic workers are affected by quarantine measures, a decrease in economic activity, unemployment, reduction of hours or loss of wages; and the IOM records that, from January to March 2021, more than 44,000 Guatemalans have migrated irregularly to the United States, including women.
Therefore, the loss of their jobs has left them without many options. In addition, they have suffered double discrimination, for example, for being a woman and indigenous, and which is the group with the greatest exposure to violence – in 2020, 51,184 victims of violence against women were reported, including economic violence (MP, 2021).
Can we do something? UN Women recommends that investing in the economic empowerment of indigenous and mestizo women is key to -reconstruction better- post-Covid (2021). As such, ACD explores these possibilities through new training programs for women in a state of vulnerability and economic risk in our community, firmly believing in the potentialities and capacities of women as creative, fighter and entrepreneurial people. For this reason, since 2020 we have strengthened our infrastructure to create training spaces at our headquarters, get the tools and assets to provide opportunities! we want to express our gratitute to our Partners -FFUCM -in Tennessee and all our GofundMe donors, memorial donations, local donations and volunteers who have made this place possible, this is huge friends!. Our vision has always been to promote inclusive spaces, learning, open and at the service of the community, now with all the necessary sanitary measures.
We recall that the development of women is one of the priority objectives of the SDGs. We also thank Thriive Guatemala, with whom we have started the opening of this new phase of ACD, starting with a Florist workshop and we will surely work with many other local and international organizations for more learning and entrepreneurship opportunities. Today more than ever we need women to generate their own income!
We invite you to follow our activities through Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and if you have any initiative to collaborate, write to us at lma@acdguatemala.org
To Donate visit: https://es.gofundme.com/f/covid-education-relief-guatemala
