Link for Health

MADRE is an international women’s human rights organization that works in partnership with community-based women’s organizations worldwide to address issues of health and reproductive rights, economic development, education and other human rights. They provide resources and training to enable their sister organizations to meet these goals by addressing immediate needs in their communities and developing long-term solutions to the crises they face.  In Guatemala, MADRE is involved in these projects:

Farming for the Future  Indigenous Ixil women living in the Quiché region of the Guatemalan highlands endured 36 years of civil war. The Quiché region was the area most severely affected; nearly half of all recorded human rights violations – including the killing of 200,000 Indigenous People – occurred here.  Many of the women in Quiché have survived rape, torture, the murder of family members, and forced displacement from their ancestral lands.  Today, many are widows and single mothers and the sole breadwinners for their families.

MADRE is establishing small chicken and pig farms as a source of food security and income for Ixil women in Guatemala. Implemented in cooperation with Muixil, the project improves families’ diets by providing eggs and meat, generates income for women, and builds participants’ technical and business skills, in turn creating more economic opportunities for young people in Quiché. Based on a community-centered model of micro-enterprise, Farming for the Future not only brings in money; it also creates opportunities for women to learn and then teach other community members about human rights. A revolving loan fund enables the project to grow and support new community development initiatives.

Women who have never had access to credit or been able to earn income are beginning to gain economic self-sufficiency.   By earning income, women improve their status within their families and communities. They are now in a stronger position to negotiate the distribution of work in the household and provide positive role models for their daughters and sons. Nutrition is improving, which will ultimately boost maternal and infant survival rates and the overall health of the community.  Women are no longer exposed to hazardous agricultural chemicals, as the project provides an organic, sustainable alternative.  Indigenous women’s organizations are being strengthened, as groups come together to attend human rights trainings and plan future community development projects.

Workers’ Rights are Human Rights  Women are being abused and exploited in hundreds of sweatshop factories around Guatemala City. Labor laws are rarely enforced in these maquilas, where women (who comprise 80 percent of the workforce) assemble name-brand clothing for export to the US. The women are often beaten and sexually harassed by managers. They suffer life-long health problems from factory toxins and the strain of repetitive manual work.  Few maquilas are unionized, and women who have dared to organize have been harassed, kidnapped, tortured, and even assassinated.  In the shantytowns of Guatemala City, such as the Bárcenas neighborhood where MADRE works, women who labor in maquilas struggle to care for their families without clean drinking water, basic sanitation, or health care.

MADRE trains women maquila workers on labor laws, building their capacity to demand their workplace rights. Through sustained support for their partner organization, the Women Workers’ Committee, MADRE ensures that a vibrant local organization can provide women with the social support and protection they need to confront serious human rights abuses. 

MADRE co-founded and built a computer school and literacy center, where women learn to read and gain the job skills they need to transition out of the maquila sector. MADRE provides English language instruction so that women can better navigate the Internet and advocate more effectively for their labor rights at the international level.

MADRE provides public water filters, reproductive health services, and asthma treatment for women and families who have no other source of healthcare. The MADRE-supported computer school serves as a community health center, where MADRE conducts sexual and reproductive health workshops and sponsors regular community health fairs.  At the fairs women receive free PAP smears, health and hygiene supplies, school supplies for their children, and vital information about family planning, nutrition, and preventive health care.

Women who work in maquilas are better equipped to demand their rights in the workplace. The women are identifying and documenting instances of unfair labor practices and advocating for their rights through Guatemala’s Ministry of Labor.  Children in Bárcenas are being vaccinated for the first time.  Hundreds of women are benefiting from the Bárcenas computer school, gaining job skills in word processing, typewriting, and Internet research.  Women who have been denied the right to an education are learning to read and write. Currently, there are more than 500 people (mainly women) enrolled at the adult literacy center. Dozens of women who completed the program have now graduated from the Guatemalan National Agricultural School’s advanced literacy course.   Women with no access to healthcare now receive a range of sexual and reproductive health services, including regular PAP smears for early detection of cervical cancer. The women of Bárcenas are building an enduring social network needed to sustain a struggle for human rights both on and off the factory floor.

To learn more about MADRE, please visit their website, or blog.