21 Jul Women Empowerment Workshop

Today I attended a meeting with some women from different communities. The women had to walk for 2 hours to get there and I was very surprised to see these women on time after passing through steep mountains and two rivers! WOW! Anyway, the meeting was being chaired by TEXAL and another organization. The keynote speaker was a very popular and important woman in Ecuador, Lut Haro.

I had a translator and I must say the talk was very inspiring. It was more of a motivation talk and kind of trying to get women to get out of their bubble. Lut Haro spoke of her story of being almost sold at 14 to marriage and how she ran away. Now, she’s a very important person and a holder of a Masters degree. I can see that the women have no hope and it hurts. They are not used to be talking in open as they have no authority to do so and that is what they were being encouraged. I participated too, and spoke about how it upset me to see women who are not motivated and yet we are the mothers of this earth. After the meeting the women were paid $7 for attending the meeting and treated to some lunch at the local restaurant. It was great to see the women eat hot food and smile. Also most had brought with them samples to show me and I fell in love with the technique. The woman who made it has invited me to their community on Saturday where I will go and see more of the technique. She told me they had prettier bags and I could see a mixture of that technique and the basket weaving going well together.