Nicaraguan rural women in exile have met with rural women from Costa Rica, together they have shared very useful experiences related to the issue of empowerment and well-being of families.
By: Intertextual Editorial/contacto@intertextualcr.com
Every October 15, World Rural Women’s Day is commemorated, making visible that female participation in agricultural sectors is fundamental and decisive, including indigenous women.nn“The words food security and struggle for survival come to mind,” said Ángela Nuriz Sequeira Ramires, Coordinator of the Nicaraguan Peasant Movement.nn“Rural women, a quarter of the world’s population, work as farmers, wage earners and business owners.
They till the soil and plant seeds that feed entire nations. In addition, they guarantee the food security of their populations and help prepare their communities against climate change,” stated a report from UN Women.
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Sequeira argued that since exile access to land has not been so easy since it does not belong to them, women have to rent and the costs are too high, in addition to obtaining the raw materials to be able to produce, it has been achieved with effort to self-sustain in food considered as the main item; Beans, corn, bananas, cassava, quequisque, turmeric. Always harvesting them organically without using strong amounts of chemicals.
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These exiled peasant women have met with Costa Rican women belonging to the same area of Upala in the north of Costa Rica, who have dedicated themselves to agriculture for generations and who are currently organized, as they make up an Association which is named “Association of “Women who are Friends of the Environment.
”With those who have shared experiences on how to plant ginger «since in Nicaragua there is not enough knowledge,» highlights the peasant leader. Many aspects of agriculture have been beneficial for several women in the agricultural sector, “I am linked to the countryside through my life as an agricultural worker and if I related it to my personal development, I say that as a woman I have gone through many processes to be able to get to where I am.”
I am, just as to obtain the expected fruits the earth goes through a process, as a woman and human being, every day I learn something new that makes me grow” Expressed Leydi Mendez Jiménez, member of the Peasant Movement.
Mendez highlighted that peasant women, both Nicaraguan and Costa Rican, have strengthened our ties with communication, respect and we share with complete certainty that together we are going to achieve great things, because we know about agriculture and we have the ability to make the most favorable decisions for our production.
«If I were to mention female empowerment in the agricultural sector in a single word, it would be the primary action, because in this way we provide access to the same resources as men, because when we do something we do it with high quality and care,» she stated. with security Méndez, Member of the Peasant Movement.
