Here nobody is worth more than anyone else

They were not allowed to go out and did not have too much freedom. But now some women have changed in the community. They have had the possibility to develop and have changed through training.

“The most significant change for me has taken place at home.
I have been trained in the Training School and shared with my family all I have learned. In school I was taught to fight for human rights and I received support. We work for the same purpose, they helped me when I asked for help, they don’t leave me on my own and then things become easier.
As a consequence, my husband understands me better now, I have more freedom and I have been able to develop. They used to say ‘don’t go out’, but now there are women who have changed in the community of Rio Bravo de Suchitepéquez. We have been able to succeed and change through the education we have had. And as we share with our families, we train other people as well.
Things used to be complicated, because people said things such as: ‘she hasn’t got anything to do’. They said that I gathered people and gave conferences while sharing my time with my family. People used to say ‘what’s in it for her?’, but in those days we worked without pay. We gave away time for free, walked long distances, and everybody had to pay their own bus fees.
Maybe I was inspired by God because I felt the pain that other people felt. We suffered from exploitation and corruption in our community.
In May, I was elected as National Coordinator of the Equity of Gender Axis. It is a process of testimony and practice has helped me a lot. The moment when I mainly felt the change was in Chúa Colomba, where I saw and felt the happiness and love from women colleagues that I did not even know.
Many responsibilities have come with this change and we support each other in the organization. They come to help me when there is something I do not know; there is nobody here who is worth more than anyone else. Everybody is equal; I feel the sense of partnership.
This is the most important change for me because I have better experiences and theory; I am practicing the best of my knowledge with more communities, districts, and six regions. I feel people who elected me expect more from me, and when we met we felt motivated because of what we studied. Together we became more and I felt the strength”.