Gender Equality Nicaragua Project #20613

Equip 200 women in Managua with life & job skills

by Asociacion Centro Cultural Batahola Norte

Project Report | Nov 29, 2016
Parading for All to See (and Learn!)

By Christina Blebea | International Resource Liaison

Massiel, Mario and others share key information

As Christmas lights begin to decorate the zinc roofs of Batahola and paper snowflakes flutter in the blistering sun, at the Cultural Center we are beginning to wind down our activities ahead of our December break. It is a time to reflect on all we have achieved this year for and with the women of our community, thanks to friends and supporters like you!

Last Saturday youth promoters Massiel and Mario worked with dozens of other young people and staff from our Gender-based Violence Prevention program to organize a big celebration of this year’s accomplishments: the Cultural Center’s third-annual “Carnaval for Women’s Physical and Emotional Integrity”.

This annual neighborhood spectacle is a “visualization of all of the work that the Cultural Center has been doing to prevent gender-based violence,” explained Alberto Mayorga, the program Facilitator. “We bring together three groups: the young women and men whom we have trained as community promoters against domestic violence; the young women and men who graduated from this year’s workshops on identifying controlling behaviors in dating relationships; and the group of adult women who receive counseling and accompaniment from our psychologist, Ivania.”

These three groups band together and take to the streets. They parade through the neighborhood, equipped with signs, chants, dances, games to play with the onlookers and, most importantly, information.

“We march so that the community can see that Center is here, so they can later come and talk to us about this issue that they have to deal with daily. We also march to show that you have to denounce violence. Lastly, we march so the community can begin to understand what their basic rights are,” elaborated Alberto.

Thanks to your support, it’s working. The Center is the place where women turn to when they need assistance to face or leave a violent situation. Just recently, a woman from the neighborhood came to the Center looking for support as she tries to leave her abusive husband. Ivania now provides psychological counseling to María (name changed to protect her identity) and follows up on her progress. María’s not alone, either. Daily, women come to the Center because they know we provide a place of refuge, a safe space where they can get out of their homes and connect with others for a bit.

“People see the Center as a pillar for women within this community. They know we support survivors of violence,” Alberto proudly related.

Not only do we support women like María, but we also help them become the protagonists of the Center’s educational strategies. During Carnaval, the young women and men who were students this year in the Program took on the role of accompanying and teaching others in their neighborhood. Young community promoters, such as Massiel, explain to their friends what it means to be holders of rights, instead of objects of control or display. Mario, standing beside her, reinforces that their right to moral, mental, and physical integrity is among the most important.

In the midst of the sobering reality of the violence women face here every day, through the Carnaval María, Massiel, Mario, Alberto and countless others have found a way to celebrate women’s power to resist, grow and make positive changes for themselves and their community. Together we dance, sing and most of all, inspire those that will surely take part in the program and in the Carnaval in years to come.

The Cultural Center parades through the streets

We begin teaching about rights at an early age!

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Aug 31, 2016
Voicing What's Held Within

By Christina Blebea | International Resource Liaison

Anielka inspires a conversation around self-esteem

“I love you more than anything and I’d do anything for you. I’d deny myself to build a home for you,” a young woman reads aloud from a sheet of paper that she plucked from a box. She’s surrounded by eighteen other women, myself included, all who study a skills-building course here at the Center. This is the second year the CCBN’s Women’s Education Program is offering this personal development space to our students. She takes a breath and looks up.

“Does that sound like you? Is that something you’d say?” Anielka, the workshop facilitator asks. She’s guiding us through our journey in a month-long Personal Goals workshop. Today, we’re focusing on love and power.

The young woman smiles shyly and you can see first loves and hope and promises flash through the eyes of the women around her. An older woman next to her pipes up: “no, teacher, you can’t think like that! If you really do love that strongly then you also must love yourself and take care of yourself and fight for your dreams!”

Anielka smiles. The psychologist has been working at Batahola for around five years now, facilitating workshops such as these, which are made possible thanks to donors like yourself. The idea is that in order to identify your personal goals, you first need to build up your self-esteem, get to know yourself well, admit that it’s good that you should go after these goals, and recognize the structures and powers that are preventing you from attaining them.

“It’s an existential methodology, but one that also involves fun games and is very participatory. We try to integrate the framework of rights into the daily situations that these women find themselves in, the roles that they assume both inside and outside of the house,” Anielka reflects.

“Who here was told by their family that as a girl they should not express themselves?” Several women step forward and then back. “Who here feels unsatisfied with their body?” Several more shuffle to the center of the circle.

Thanks to you, we’ve created a safe space where women feel free to share their stories, stories that are echoed among the majority there. Ages range from early teens to aging grandmothers, but the same phrases of violence and oppression are repeated.

“We want these women to recognize their violent situations as just that. Before, they saw these situations as normal, but since they have entered this process, they are able to give it a name and say, “yes, I live with violence” or “yes, I lived with violence”, in all of its different forms.”

The women end each session in a cathartic way: a circle of affirmations, hugs, or sometimes just a crazy dance party.

“I see these women leave with more confidence in themselves, they express themselves more, and they recognize that they have rights. I feel very satisfied because as a woman, I am fulfilling my commitment to other women to inspire them to reach their goals.”

A few workshops in, and the very same young woman who wouldn’t answer the question in our first session declares that she wants to open up her own beauty salon. It sounds far-fetched, coming from her sixteen-year-old mouth, but it’s what gives the eighty-year-old on her side enough confidence to declare that she wants to open up a bakery. The safe feeling within this circle of women and our newfound knowledge and self-respect soon pull our dreams out of our minds and into the space: “I want a Master’s degree”, “I want to practice natural medicine”, “I want to start my own restaurant”.

Thank you for accompanying Anielka and her circle of empowered women.

"Is this a phrase that you might say?"

The circle of women reading about the rights

Links:

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Jun 1, 2016
Steady, long-term accompaniment yields lasting change

By Christina Blebea | International Resources Liaison

Together we are creating new leaders

“When women learn to strengthen their self-esteem, we can accomplish our dreams.” Ivania has helped accompany women here as the Empowerment Program Psychologist for the past five and a half years and has seen first-hand what they have accomplished. She recently shared with me how she became a passionate advocate for community outreach and accompaniment. The first step lies in critically studying the situation she and other women find themselves in.

“We live in a country where women are made invisible. From childhood, we’re taught that women should be submissive and that marriage is the most important goal to achieve. We’re rarely taught to develop our potential or to seek professional goals.”

Before coming to the Cultural Center, Ivania worked with women facing violence to help them navigate the Nicaraguan legal system and find justice. She recalls that her role was based on resolving issues as fast as possible and then sending the women on their way.

Over her time at the Cultural Center, Ivania has become focused more on steady, long-term accompaniment. “It’s not like in my past job, where we were just this bright shooting star for others, that burns brilliantly and then fades away as quickly as it came. Here we are a constant light.”

She holds leadership and self-esteem workshops for particularly vulnerable women in Batahola. Many are economically dependent on spouses, parents or other family members, which limits their options and puts them at risk. The close-knit groups she organizes focus on providing a safe space for women where they begin to recognize their rights, reflect on what it means to be a woman and a citizen, and then learn from others in the group.

“These women have never thought about their own dreams, they’ve just given their lives to their children and husbands. That’s okay, and my focus is on helping them think ‘Ok, I’ve reached this point, and that’s valuable, but now I can achieve more’.”

Through your continued support – that steady, bright light – women leave the Cultural Center empowered with new knowledge of their selves, their surroundings, and their future goals. They find value within themselves and then turn to spread that word to their neighbors. They enroll in higher education or embark on a new professional journey. And as the women have made changes, Ivania has changed as well.

“These women see me as an example, as both a psychologist and a woman. Thus, I’m constantly striving find balance and be well both in my professional and personal life. I’m showing how I care for myself, how I accompany others in their long, human process of discovery, and how I fight for justice.”

Just as Ivania accompanies the women in our program, through your gifts and prayers you provide constant support to help our program grow stronger and reach more women with life-changing reflection, self-esteem and skills building spaces. One way you can do that more easily is through recurring monthly donations -- if you haven't seen that option yet, check it out here. Thank you for accompanying us on this journey!

Meditating on what it means to be a woman

Ivania celebrates with the Courageous Women group

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