Four months in Honduras

La Paz

Yesterday we went to visit La Paz, a small village about two and a half hours from Tegucigalpa. It's a real pueblo, much smaller than the other ones I have visited so far. It has a church and nice little park, (typical for all the Central American villages and cities), but not much more than that. Chickens were strolling around and cows were herded through the pueblo on dusty dirt roads. It had a very laid back feeling to it and was pretty idyllic, I liked it a lot.

chilling out in the shadow on a hot day

in the center of the pueblo, a part of the park and the church are visible

At the only restaurant in town, watching Real Madrid-Dortmund

great place

We had come there to have a meeting with represents from Oxfam and women from different networks and organizations connected with CEM-H and supported by Oxfam. It was an opportunity for the women to tell the represents about their progress within the networks, their experiences and their future goals. Once again I have to express how impressed I am by the amazing women I get to meet here, and how the stories they share really impacts and humbles me. They are so strong and so very brave. To stand up and talk straight from their hearts, to tell all of us about their struggles, the violence, the abuse, but also about the success and how far they have come. And it really is a beautiful thing to hear about their hopes and goals for the future. They are so supportive of each other, rough backgrounds have scarred them but they are still very warm and loving in an unobtrusive manner. I know you are probably sick of me repeating myself in every post, but I just have to give them credit. I wish you all could meet them in person, because they are truly amazing. It is also extremely obvious how important organizations as CEM-H and cooperations like Oxfam are to the women and the society. Because the women does not only improve their own quality of life, they really do improve the society in general.
They expressed their gratitude to Oxfam and to CEM-H but most of all to my awesome boss Suyapa, to which many of them have had a long and close collaboration.

a lot of adorable babies

this woman is so strong, her story is of abuse and overcoming it, now working for womens rights (she also has 12 children)

many familiar faces from other workshops and meetings

sharing experiences and stories, a way of healing

this woman has a very dark past, including being mutilated by her nephew (half of her hand was chopped off) but is now after much struggling in a better place

one of the represents of Oxfam taking in the information from the women

woman speaking with her sick granddaughter in her arms

mother and daughter

she made her own little spot on the floor

The women have not only improved their economical situation thanks to such things as micro companies, maybe more importantly they have also learned to voice their opinions, to demand their rights, to occupy a place in the public sphere. They have gotten help to overcome dark incidences and difficult situations. Some of them are now actively working within human rights, to educate and support other women. They told us about actual attitude changes concerning gender issues in their societies. They told us that women now possess high decisive positions where before they were completely dominated by men.
Sadly, there is still a LOT of work left to do in the area of attitudes and gender issues in the society. I can't believe how women actually are being treated here, some stories are truly awful. The first immediate reaction I get when I hear these things is almost like a reflex, like self-defense. I don't want to believe that this is the reality of so many girls and women. A part of me doesn't want to know, it wants to just push aside the brutal truth of reality. It is tough to let the reality get to you, but it is also so very important. There is no way anything is going to change if you live in denial and turn to easy answers. The nature of reality is ugly and complex, but we can't hide from it.

the oxfam crew

two amazing women, my boss to the right

After the meeting was finished and lunch was over, we took the car and drove on cricked dusty roads to a small house outside of the pueblo. The women wanted to show the small business that they had started, making cornmeal and ground coffee. Thanks to the economical support, they could buy a grinder and produce these products in a faster and more efficient manner. Before, they used stones, grinding everything by hand, which as you can guess was hard and time consuming work. They now can sell bigger quantities and get more free time. I hope that business will continue to flourish for them.