Welcome to the website of MIA, Mujeres Iniciando en las Américas MIA seeks to increase awareness of the mistreatment of women in Guatemala, improve their socioeconomic conditions, remove gender bias in the Guatemalan government, promote educational programs to reduce domestic violence and femicide and promote equal treatment for women in Guatemala.
Volunteers
MIA has great volunteers in the US and Guatemala. The volunteers really make our programs happen.
Gender equality education
We deliver our White Ribbon Campaign workshops in elementary schools, middle schools, a university, and at the National Police Academy.
Corn and Oranges
Our activites take us to kitchens and markets. In Guatemala, most people are more connected to food production than we are in the US.
Cathedral in Antigua Guatemala
On our delegation trips, we take side trips to beautiful locations like Antigua, the old capital of Guatemala.
Bus Driver Widows
MIA worked with the widows of bus drivers killed at work. We have arranged microloans for several of the widows so they can create for themselves a way to make a living.
Action for Women is the YouTube channel for a film competition for aspiring directors on Violence against Women.
Every day, many women around the world are victims of various types of violence, ranging from sexual abuse to mobbing, from domestic violence to stalking to socio-cultural discrimination. Most of this violence is never reported due to shame or fear but it is a social evil.
The Council of Europe and the Italian Chamber of Deputies are involved in an awareness campaign about this problem, a problem that knows no geographic border and leaves no socio-cultural group untouched. The Action for Women competition is part of this campaign.
The winning short film will be awarded with a special screening at the 67th Venice International Film Festival 2010.
Claudia Hernández Cruz abraza a su madre, Norma Cruz, para felicitarla por haber sido reconocida como Personaje del Año 2009 de Prensa Libre.
Con sonrisas, abrazos, felicitaciones por teléfono, mensajes de texto y visitas comenzó el día ayer Norma Cruz, defensora de los derechos de las mujeres y de los niños y reconocida como Personaje del Año 2009 de Prensa Libre.
Desde temprano, tras enterarse del reconocimiento que le hiciera Prensa Libre, Cruz recibió muestras de cariño y admiración por el trabajo que realiza desde la Fundación Sobrevivientes, organización en la que lucha para terminar con la impunidad y la corrupción, en defensa de mujeres y niños víctimas de la violencia.
Al abrir un ejemplar de la edición de ayer de este periódico, Cruz expresó: “Este es un buen comienzo de año”.
Amigos, familiares, compañeros de trabajo y defensores de derechos humanos se comunicaron por teléfono con la activista. Mientras desayunaba, en compañía de su hijo Alejandro, el celular no dejó de sonar.
Atendió la comunicación de Mirna Ponce y Miguel Ángel Sandoval. También leyó los mensajes de Marco Antonio Canteo y Enrique Godoy.
Más tarde la llamaron Helen Mack; Justo Solórzano, de Unicef; y Lucía Muñoz, de la Organización Mía, en EE. UU., entre otras personalidades.
Al otro lado del auricular se escuchaba la euforia de quienes la felicitaban, y por medio de la pantalla del teléfono se leían los mensajes de alegría.
Uno de los momentos más emotivos de la mañana fue cuando su hija Claudia llegó de visita.
Entre lágrimas y sonrisas, la joven abrazó a su madre.
“Es mi mamá; siempre está conmigo. Siempre la he visto luchar, desde que era pequeña. Aunque tenemos desencuentros, sabe que tiene mi apoyo”, expresó.
Mack se congratuló con la distinción a Cruz. “Me parece excelente; lo tiene muy merecido”, expresó.
While in London, U.K visitng a friend, I had the luck to bump into the beginning of a march to celebrate the International Day to End Violence Against Women, with an emphasis on rape and male violence against women. The event was organized by the London Feminist Network.
According to the British Crime Survey (2001) there are an estimated 47,000 rapes every year, around 40,000 attempted rapes and over 300,000 sexual assaults. Yet our conviction rate is the lowest it has ever been, one of the lowest in Europe, at only 5.3%. This means that more rapists were convicted in the 1970s when Reclaim The Night marches first started than they are now. Did you know that the maximum sentence possible for rape is life imprisonment? Probably not, because rarely are rapists even reported or convicted, let alone with a realistic sentence. This situation has to change.
We march to demand justice for rape survivors.
A recent survey by the young women’s magazine More in 2005 found that 95% of women don’t feel safe on the streets at night, and 65% don’t even feel safe during the day. 73% worry about being raped and almost half say they sometimes don’t want to go out because they fear for their own safety.
In every sphere of life we negotiate the threat or reality of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment. We cannot claim equal citizenship while this threat restricts our lives as it does. We demand the right to use public space without fear. We demand this right as a civil liberty, we demand this as a human right.
The Reclaim The Night march gives women a voice and a chance to reclaim the streets at night on a safe and empowering event. We aim to put the issue of our safety on the agenda for this night and every day.
The Reclaim The Night marches started in the UK in the 1970s. In America they are known as ‘Take Back The Night’ and the first one was held in West Germany on April 30th 1977. In Britain they first began on 12th November 1977 when marches took place in Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, London and many other cities. The Reclaim the Night marches became even more significant when, in following years, a man called Peter Sutcliffe began murdering prostitute women in and around Leeds. Feminists in the area were angry that the police response to these murders was slow and that the press barely reported on them. It seemed that it was only when young student women began to fall victim to this serial killer that the police started to take the situation seriously. Their response was to warn all women not to go out at night. This was not a helpful suggestion for any woman, let alone for those women involved in prostitution who often had no choice about whether they went out at night or not. Feminists and a variety of women’s and student groups were angered by this response. So they organised a resistance of torch-lit marches and demonstrations — they walked in their hundreds through the city streets at night to highlight that they should be able to walk anywhere and that they should not be blamed or restricted because of male violence.
Over the years the marches evolved to focus on rape and male violence generally, giving women one night when they could feel safe to walk the streets of their own towns and cities.