Category Archives: Education

VOLCAN TEIDE: mensaje para Guatemala

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NO MÁS VIOLENCIA CONTRA LA MUJER, fue el mensaje que el montañista guatemalteco Christian Rodríguez envió desde la montaña más alta de España en la cima del volcán Teide de 3718 metros. La idea es hacer un llamado de reflexión de esta triste realidad.

La violencia de género tiene que ver con “la violencia que se ejerce hacia las mujeres por el hecho de serlo”, e incluye tanto malos tratos de la pareja, como agresiones físicas o sexuales de extraños, mutilación genital, infanticidios femeninos, etc. La estadística que se muestra en la imagen es únicamente en Guatemala, pero el problema se extiende a nivel mundial.

Los montañistas llevaron la bandera guatemalteca hasta el Volcán Teide, una de las montañas más prominentes del mundo, si se le mide desde el lecho oceánico alcanza la impresionante altitud de los 7,000 metros. Con lo cual, lo hace no solo el punto más alto de España y de cualquier isla atlántica sino también el tercer mayor volcán de La Tierra desde su base.

El día 19 de diciembre el guatemalteco inició el ascenso por la ruta más larga hacia la cumbre, junto con 4 montañistas más: Dos mujeres de nacionalidad española, una austriaca, un italiano, otro español y el mismo guatemalteco Rodríguez. El ascenso requirió mucha concentración por parte del grupo en la ultima parte, los vientos fuertes con rachas de más de 100 km por hora estuvieron presentes en los ultimos metros cerca de la cumbre. La temperatura durante la noche y mañana rondaron los menos 10 grados centigrados. A pesar de lo anterior, tanto el ascenso como el descenso del mismo fueron una agradable experiencia para todas y todos los montañistas ese día.

GUATEMALA 2009:

800 Mujeres asesinadas, una de cada 3 sufre algún tipo de abuso, NO MAS VIOLENCIA CONTRA LA MUJER!!

www.christianrodriguezm.com

Portlander uses plastic bottles to build classrooms, community in Guatemala

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By Matthew Preusch, The Oregonian

Laura Kutner is a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala who directed construction of this school made with plastic bottles.
Laura Kutner is a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala who directed construction of this school made with plastic bottles.

Working as a Peace Corps volunteer, Lincoln High School graduate Laura Kutner (fifth from the right in a black shirt) directed the construction of a school building in Guatemala using discarded plastic bottles. In Guatemala, Laura Kutner noticed, plastic trash was everywhere.

And in the rural Guatemalan community where Kutner was until recently a Peace Corps volunteer, there were classrooms without walls.

Kutner, a 2002 graduate of Portland’s Lincoln High School, saw a solution to both problems. Thanks to her, the village of Granados in central Guatemala now has two new school rooms whose walls are made from discarded plastic soda bottles and other litter.

Kutner, 25, came up with the idea and saw the project through. And in so doing, she learned plenty — too much, really — about plastic and a fair amount about building community.

“First of all, there is so much plastic. Everything is packaged in plastic,” said Kutner, who was in Portland last week during a break from her work in Guatemala, where she remains assigned, but to a new location and job. “I got so sick of plastic.”

Who can blame her? She rallied the agricultural community of 900 people and surrounding mountain villages to collect more than 4,000 used plastic drink bottles from ditches, gutters and trash piles.

Students, volunteers and school staff then stuffed the bottles with plastic bags: potato chip packaging and grocery sacks. As many as 250 were crammed into each bottle using hands and sticks: this to contain plastic trash while adding heft to the bottle structure taking shape.

“We all got blisters from stuffing,” Kutner said.

Stacked side by side and row atop row, bound with chicken wire and coated with a cement-sand mix, these became the building blocks for walls that now enclose two small classrooms for Granados’ elementary school students.

“For me and for the community, seeing these two classrooms standing is truly a dream come true,” Kutner said.

Kutner applied to the Peace Corps while a senior at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she graduated in 2006 with a degree in anthropology and Spanish.

Helping others came naturally. Kutner, whose mother was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 1970s, was active in Lincoln High’s service club and other charitable endeavors.

Her father, Douglas Kutner, a Portland psychologist, remembers driving her as a child to Hat Point on the edge of Hells Canyon in the far northeastern corner of Oregon, the Seven Devils range in the distance.

“She said, ‘It’s really hard to look at all this beauty when you know how much suffering there is in the world,'” he recalled. “She was 9.”

Kutner is now based in San Miguel Dueñas, one of 128 Peace Corps volunteers from the Portland area, which ranks 11th among the nation’s metro areas for producing volunteers. Oregon ranks fifth among states per capita for Peace Corps volunteers.

When Kutner arrived at her posting in Granados in April 2007 to teach life skills to children, a metal frame and roof was all there was to the roughly 1,300-square-foot school annex building. The village government didn’t have the money to finish the project.

The elementary school’s principal told her they needed the space, and could she help find a way to finish the school?

Kutner got the idea to use bottles from a Guatemalan group called Pura Vida, which was using bottle-filled “eco-blocks” for community construction projects.

“A bottle project had never been done with metal before, always out of wood, but I figured why not look into it,” she said.

The project ended up costing about $3,000, Kutner said. It was finished with the help of local businesses that donated materials and labor; the goodwill organization Hug it Forward, who sent five volunteers to Granados; and Peace Corps volunteer Rebecca Wike of Washington, who succeeded Kutner in Granados.

In the fall, the gray walls were painted a vivid orange. Welders were still finishing the windows during the inauguration Oct. 26. This month, students will begin using the classrooms.

“I think one of the biggest things I learned is to not just have faith in yourself, but to have faith in other people,” Kutner said. “The end result of what we were able to accomplish was way greater than I ever imagined.”

While it got new classrooms, the community also got a new awareness of the litter all around it.

Kutner remembers being on a bus and for the first time hearing a mother tell her child not to throw an empty bottle out the window, a common practice. Another resident has begun collecting cans and hauling them into the capital, four hours away, to collect the deposit.

And though she got the project started, it was the local community that saw it through, Kutner said.

“With development work, you have to find a real balance. It has to be something the community really wants or needs, but they also have to be able to do it themselves,” Kutner said. “Otherwise it’s not sustainable.”

Kutner, whose name adorns a wall plaque at a new library in Granados she also helped build, has eight more months in Guatemala with the Peace Corps. After that, she plans to pursue a master’s degree in international studies and environmental management, perhaps at the University of Washington so she can be closer to her family, before continuing with a career abroad.

“I miss my family,” she said. “But I feel like I come alive when I do this kind of work.”

Guatemalan Masculinity and Feminism: A Happy Marriage?

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Update of PBRC Summer Stipend | Professor Sarah England

Assessing Educational Campaigns against Gender Violence in Guatemala

The primary objective of this project is to observe and analyze educational campaigns carried out by NGOs in Guatemala City targeted at deconstructing cultural ideologies that perpetuate gender inequality and specifically violence against women. My aim is to understand how these organizations conceptualize gender, how they present their material to the intended audience, and to what degree the audience responds to these ideas, especially men. I am also interested in understanding how the members of the organizations themselves have arrived at their own analysis of gender, gender inequality, and feminism. I am especially interested in what has led men to be involved in these campaigns and what strategies they use to get other men to rethink the fundamental premises of patriarchy.

In the summer of 2009 I traveled to Guatemala City with funding from the PBRC summer stipend and began preliminary investigations on the questions listed above. Through the collaboration of the Costa Mesa-based organization Mujeres Iniciando en las Americas (MIA), founded and run by activist Lucia Munoz, I was able to contact several different women’s organizations, observe gender equality workshops designed and carried out by MIA, and interview men and women involved in the campaign for gender equality in different capacities. From this preliminary set of observations and interviews I gained several insights into the way that Guatemalan activists think about gender and gender inequality, and also came up with some new ideas for theoretical and methodological approaches for further investigation of the topic.

The two gender equality workshops that I observed were initiated and carried out by MIA based on a manual designed by the Canadian-based White Ribbon campaign. One of the workshops took place in a primary school in Zona 18, one of the poorest neighborhoods of Guatemala City with high rates of violent crime, and the other took place with university students and activists at the University of San Carlos, the largest public university in Guatemala. During these workshops students were asked to list basic ideologies about the traditional roles of men and women and to question their reality, origins, and validity as models of social comportment. What I realized from observing these workshops is that both the primary school-age students and the university-level students were quickly able to list the stereotypical gender roles and characteristics of men and women that make up what scholars call “the patriarchal bargain” in Latin America-that is the model of gender relations in which men are the heads of household, financial providers, and sources of authority while women are responsible for domestic duties, child rearing, and sexual fidelity. The university students were also quick to recognize the sexual double standard in which men are sexual subjects with a large degree of autonomy over their sexuality and sexual behavior whereas women are meant to be the objects of men’s desire and control. However, upon further discussion it became clear that despite everyone’s ability to recite the model of patriarchal gender relations and roles, the reality of their own lives was much more complex than the model suggests. Children mentioned mothers who work, fathers who do some housework, changing ideas about the ability of girls to get an education and so forth. The university students and activists also questioned the sexual double standard and its role in controlling even women who are students and public figures. Some of the male students also questioned women’s roles in perpetuating patriarchal ideologies in raising their sons and talked about the way that gender ideologies have also limited their ability to act outside of patriarchal norms. I concluded that these workshops are excellent avenues through which to gain an understanding of the models of gender that men and women grow up with and learn through their parents, peers, school, the media, etc. but also to see how their realities are more complicated and how, through various avenues, they are learning to rethink these models. However my preliminary observations suggest that this rethinking has mainly taken place in relation to the gendered division of labor, that is questioning whether women should be able to work, men’s role in the household, and so forth. What I saw less of was questioning the way that the social construction of male and female sexuality plays a large role in limiting women’s spatial mobility and justifying gendered violence.

The second method, interviews with activists, was also very fruitful in beginning to understand the various processes that have led certain men and women to rethink standard patriarchal models of gender and the barriers that they have faced in trying to act outside of those norms. Though the men’s pathways to becoming conscious of gender inequality were various (participation in the revolutionary movement of the 1970s/80s, being raised by single mothers, living with abusive fathers, having to take over domestic duties in the home), one commonality was that all feel that there are still enormous social pressures to enact machismo such that it is very difficult for men to promote and enact a feminist ideology, even within the activist community. This is a topic that I would like to explore in much more depth in future research. What are the models of masculinity that they have been exposed to? How did they develop an “alternative masculinity” and what have been the barriers they have faced in trying to enact that masculinity? Though all of the interviwees clearly articulated a belief that gender inequality is a complex set of social structures and beliefs that disempowers women and make them vulnerable to violence (structural, physical, and symbolic), a few also recognized that gender inequality not only structures power relations between men and women but also between men. Rather than seeing patriarchy as a privilege that attaches to all men, they expressed the idea that patriarchy (in the local form of machismo) not only harms women, but also harms men in that it encourages violence, power struggles between men, abusive relationships, and so forth. This is also an avenue that I would like to explore further as it aligns with much of the recent scholarship on masculinity that questions the degree to which it is a privilege or a liability both for men as individuals and of course for society as a whole.

Based on the insights I have gained from this preliminary research I plan to apply for the Wenner-Gren Post PhD Research Grant, the Fulbright Scholar Program, the American Council of Learned Societies Fellowships, and the Latin American Studies Association “Other Americas Project.” I plan to continue with the two primary methods of observing gender equality workshops and interviewing activists. My primary focus will be on extending feminist theory and methodology to the study of masculinity in Guatemala by 1) recognizing the social construction of gender and sexuality and the ways that these are linked to but not completely congruent with sex (in other words both men and women can be discriminated against for enacting what is perceived to be feminine behavior– being a biological male does not guarantee male privilege) 2) recognizing the way that gender ideologies are always linked to power 3) recognize multiple masculinities, cross-cut by race, class, and generation 4) separating out the models of gender and their actual enactment in people’s lives and 5) trying to understand all of this from the point of view of the subjects themselves, that is from the emic point of view of men and women who both live these ideologies and social structures and are trying to deconstruct them to form a more equal and peaceful society.

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In August 2009, Professor Sarah England of Soka University worked with MIA on “Guatemalan Masculinity and Feminism: A Happy Marriage? Assessing Educational Campaigns against Gender Violence in Guatemala” funded by Soka University’s Pacific Basin Research Center. The idea behind this project was inspired by MIA’s work with the White Ribbon Campaign in Guatemala City which seeks to talk directly to men about issues of gender inequality and gendered violence.

Through my research on these issues in Latin America I have realized that the majority of work being done in this area, both among activists and among academics, seems to still frame gendered violence as primarily a woman’s issue that is discussed among women about how women can cope with it. However, since men are the main perpetrator’s of gendered violence it is very important that they be a part of the conversation about how to resolve the problem alongside women. But in order to do this it is important to understand how men think about the issue, how they conceptualize gender and gender inequality, the role that their own sense of masculinity plays in the construction of gender, and how they think that educational programs can be designed that will get men to think critically about these ideas of gender.

For this project I attended several workshops designed by MIA in collaboration with local Guatemalan NGOs and educators and interviewing facilitators and participants in order to gain insight into the questions posed above.

MIA is a wonderful example of an organization that has this as its explicit goal and has been very active in creating gender equality workshops among different sectors of the population. I first came to know about MIA in 2008 when Lucia Munoz visited the Soka University campus as part of a mini-conference on violence against women in Latin America. I then traveled with her on the summer 2008 delegation to Guatemala and was overwhelmed by the wealth of information, personal stories, and contact with activists that the delegations provide. It was truly an amazing experience both intellectually and emotionally to meet so many people dedicated to improving women’s lives and hearing the personal stories of suffering but also strength. I immediately recognized that the work of MIA aligned perfectly with the goals and missions of Soka University to create engaged, global citizens and asked Lucia to help me organize a Learning Cluster (4 week intensive course) with students from Soka to travel to Guatemala for two weeks to study more intensively the question of gender violence in the country.

The trip was very successful and the comments from the students were extremely positive, stating that the trip had been a life changing experience, opening up their eyes not only to the Guatemalan reality as a whole, but also cementing their resolve to become politically engaged in issues such as gender equality. I hope that this research project will foster continued collaboration between Soka University and MIA specifically, and between academia and activists more generally to tackle such a pressing social issue as gender violence.

Philadelphia Faces Rising Toll of Domestic Violence

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By IAN URBINA

Responding to a sharp increase in homicides stemming from domestic violence, the Philadelphia Police Department announced plans this week to change how officers handle domestic abuse cases.

While Philadelphia’s overall homicide rate has dropped about 9 percent and all violent crime in the city is down compared with this time last year, there have been 35 domestic homicides since January — a 67 percent increase from 2008. The police say two additional killings are still being investigated and are likely to be added to the tally.

“It’s something we have to confront because domestic violence homicide is a crime where you know who the perpetrator is and there are often warning signs that the crime is coming,” said Patricia Giorgio-Fox, the deputy policy commissioner.

She added that 21 of the 35 domestic homicide victims had made a total of 178 calls to the police, and some of the callers had restraining orders against the individuals suspected or convicted of killing them.

The new police protocol will involve better data so that officers know when they answer a call if there have been previous reports of domestic violence from the address and whether a restraining order has been obtained.

The increase in domestic violence in Philadelphia is mirrored nationally, and experts say it is linked, in part, to the recession. In fact, data indicate that domestic violence had been falling in the 15 years before the recession took hold last year.

In May, the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation released a study indicating that 75 percent of the nation’s domestic violence shelters have reported an increase in women seeking help since September 2008. The report also found that 73 percent of these shelters attributed this rise to financial issues.

Moreover, the increase has come as services for domestic violence victims have been cut.

“Domestic violence is up, and while the poor economy that helps drive the violence is still not rebounded, states are drastically slashing funding for domestic violence services,” said Sheryl Cates, chief executive of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, a federally financed emergency hot line.

This year, California cut at least $2 million from the state budget that goes toward financing 94 domestic violence shelters and centers. California accounts for 13 percent of emergency calls, the highest of any state, according to the national hot line.

Legal aid financing in West Virginia has been cut this year by 62 percent, reducing services to help protect victims of violence, according to the National Organization for Women.

In Illinois, the legislature reduced financing for domestic violence programs by 75 percent, and scores of domestic violence shelters, sexual assault and other social service programs have been forced to cut staff, reduce hours and trim other services, the organization said.

In Philadelphia, the new efforts come on the heels of several highly publicized cases involving repeat offenders, including Willie L. Scott, who the police say shot and killed his former girlfriend in February in front of the couple’s 4-year-old daughter. The police had responded to at least 10 calls for help from the house since the start of 2008.

Federal data from the National Crime Victimization Survey indicates that domestic violence remained relatively flat from 2007 to 2008, but no numbers are available for this year.

In 2008, about 552,000 crimes were committed against women by their partners, compared with about 588,000 in 2007. The rate of such violence against women fell by about 53 percent between 1993 and 2008, according to a report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

In recent years, states have experimented with different methods of dealing with repeat offenders.

At least a dozen states have begun using GPS technology to try to keep offenders away from their current or former partners, according to the federal Electronic Monitoring Resource Center in Denver. Those states allow judges to order people to wear monitors that send a warning to the police and the victim when the individual enters an “intrusion zone” — a circle drawn around the victim’s home or workplace or her child’s school or day care center.

Commissioner Giorgio-Fox said the new regulations would take effect early next year. The policy will require police districts to keep their own detailed databases on domestic calls, indicating the nature of the call, whether a restraining order is connected to the address and whether the incident involves a repeat offender.

Dispatchers will be required to provide that data when an officer responds to a call. The department will also begin working more closely with city agencies and nonprofit organizations that offer counseling and shelters for domestic violence victims so that people with more training than the responding officers can arrive in emergency cases and try to persuade the victim to leave the premises, she said.

“All too often, officers arrive, hear from both sides and then we have little ability to convince the victim to leave,” Commissioner Giorgio-Fox said. “The next time we get the call, it’s often too late. So our officers need to be able to judge these situations better and earlier.”

Barclay Walsh contributed research. From the New York Times online edition.

RECLAIM THE NIGHT – London report

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By Daniel Velásquez / M.I.A. / GPDN

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.

Reclaim the Night 2009 from Daniel Velasquez on Vimeo.

Why the March

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.

You may read more about LFN and Reclaim the Night 2009 at http://www.reclaimthenight.org/why.html.

Guatemala será sede de campaña contra violencia

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Guatemala será la sede de la campaña del secretario de las Naciones Unidas, Ban Ki- Moon, para poner fin a la violencia contra las mujeres, por dos razones: las cifras de la violencia contra las mujeres son muy altas, pero el país ha adoptado una serie de medidas que pueden ayudar a ponerle fin.

El representante del Sistema de las Naciones Unidas en Guatemala, Mauricio Valdés, explicó ayer que los niveles de violencia contra las mujeres alcanzaron cuotas “intolerables”; sin embargo, se han aprobado normas como la Ley contra el Femicidio, la Ley contra la Violencia Sexual y la Trata de Personas, y la Ley contra la Violencia Intrafamiliar, las cuales, “bien aplicadas”, constituyen un marco legal suficiente para combatir ese yugo.

Nadine Gasman, representante del Fondo de Población de las Naciones Unidas para Guatemala, dijo que la violencia contra las mujeres es “una violación a los derechos humanos y necesita ser tratada con un enfoque integral”. “La violencia contra las mujeres es inaceptable, inexcusable e intolerable”, expuso.

El viceministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Lars Pira, afirmó que se han aprobado todas las leyes necesarias para proteger a la mujer, pero reconoció: “Nos quedamos muy cortos, porque vemos que la participación de la mujer es muy baja. En términos de salud mueren muchas mujeres al concebir hijos —tenemos uno de los más altos índices de estas muertes— y todavía impera la impunidad; por eso la Ley contra el Femicidio, que es una buena ley, no se ha aplicado como debe ser”.

“Tenemos que trabajar todavía para que las mujeres puedan gozar de sus derechos plenamente”, expresó Pira.

El representante del Fondo de Naciones Unidas para la Infancia, Adriano González-Regueral, refirió que en el 2008 murieron de manera violenta en el país 722 mujeres, de las cuales el 18 por ciento eran niñas y adolescentes.

Lo necesario, explicó, es acabar con la tolerancia social hacia la violencia contra las mujeres y niñas. “Hay que luchar contra el silencio, debe haber tolerancia cero e impunidad cero, y entonces podremos detener la violencia”, manifestó.

Actividades

El público al que se dirige la iniciativa en forma especial es la gente joven, porque, según representantes de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU), en las generaciones futuras está la capacidad de detener la violencia.

La campaña “Latinoamérica, únete para poner fin a la violencia contra las mujeres” se lanzará el 25 de noviembre en Guatemala, en el marco del Día mundial para la Eliminación de la Violencia contra la Mujer, con varias actividades, entre estas un seminario de intercambio de experiencias, una obra teatral, un acto protocolario y un macroconcierto en la Plaza de la Constitución, que contará con artistas de talla internacional, como el colombiano Fonseca y los guatemaltecos Viento en Contra.

La iniciativa durará hasta el 2015, fecha límite para el cumplimiento de los Objetivos del Milenio, ya que pretende impulsar el avance de estos por medio del desarrollo de las mujeres.

http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2009/noviembre/11/355131.html

Pide a padres no obedecer reglamento de planificación

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Por Jéssica Osorio

El ministro de Educación, Bienvenido Argueta —derecha—, habla en el Congreso sobre la Ley de Planificación.

El ministro de Educación, Bienvenido Argueta —derecha—, habla en el Congreso sobre la Ley de Planificación.

Los jerarcas de la Iglesia Católica están dispuestos a hacer valer su postura respecto de la educación sexual y llamaron ayer a los padres de familia a resistirse a las normas que impone el nuevo reglamento de la Ley de Planificación Familiar, en vigor desde el viernes último.

El cardenal Rodolfo Quezada Toruño, en conferencia de prensa, sugirió a los padres practicar la desobediencia civil, amparada en la Constitución de Guatemala, para hacer valer su derecho de decidir qué tipo de educación darán a sus hijos.

El jerarca católico fue tan contundente en su rechazo que incluso mostró un aspirador manual endouterino, que se utiliza en hospitales y clínicas locales para provocar abortos, lo cual también rechazó ante la prensa reunida en la Conferencia Episcopal de Guatemala (CEG).

“No es que la Iglesia se meta en lo que no le importa, que sea retrógrada, acompañamos a los padres de familia para hacer valer su derecho (…) cuánto van a ganar las fábricas de anticonceptivos y esas porquerías”.

Por su parte, asociaciones de mujeres continuaron defendiendo la necesidad de información para evitar que continúen aumentando los embarazos en adolescentes y la mortalidad materna.

Inconstitucional

Los religiosos expusieron que no es posible que un reglamento entre en vigor cuando tiene 20 inconstitucionalidades, no promueva la abstinencia sexual entre niños y adolescentes, y busque favorecer a compañías dedicadas a la comercialización y fabricación de profilácticos.

La inconformidad de los católicos se extiende hasta los contenidos relacionados con la educación sexual que deberán ser impartidos en los grados de primaria y la manera en que esta será divulgada en los establecimientos escolares, lo cual, afirmaron, no debería quedar a cargo del Estado, sino mantenerse en manos de los padres de familia.

Incluso presentaron una guía elaborada por la CEG denominada “Educación para el Amor”, la cual aseguraron que promueve la educación sexual de una manera responsable entre los padres de familia y docentes.

La Constitución los ampara

El Cardenal fundamentó en el artículo 45 de la Constitución la libertad de los padres a decidir, el cual habla de la legitimidad del pueblo para la protección y defensa de los derechos y garantías consignados en esa norma, y en el 47, que se refiere al derecho de las personas a decidir libremente el número y espaciamiento de sus hijos.

Quezada no anunció acciones legales en contra de la norma, pero dijo: “Vamos a apoyar a los padres de familia para improbar las inconstitucionalidades (…), en esto no se debe meter tata Estado ni nadie que atropelle un derecho constitucional”.

“Vean esta belleza”

Uno de los momentos más importantes de la conferencia fue cuando el jerarca católico sostuvo entre sus manos un aspirador endouterino, el cual calificó de aberración médica, y explicó que defiende su postura aun en contra de lo que opinen organismos nacionales y asociaciones locales. Agregó: “Hay anticonceptivos y anticonceptivos… vean esta belleza”.

La manera en que se utiliza ese dispositivo fue explicada por Estuardo Herrera, médico, quien dijo que este promueve el aborto, y enfatizó en que nadie estaría contento si a su esposa se le suministraran métodos anticonceptivos sin informarle de sus consecuencias.

Geraldine Veiman, médico, refirió que el método adecuado para evitar embarazos es la abstinencia, la cual ha reducido el número de contagios de sida. Comentó que es incorrecto entregarle un anticonceptivo a un adolescente porque su criterio aún está en formación.

Dora Ileana de Antillón, de la pastoral de la Familia, finalizó la conferencia y opinó: “Tenemos abogados, pedagogos, médicos, y no es un llamado a la desobediencia, sino a que asumamos nuestro papel como papá y mamá, y es que nadie tiene derecho de meterse en nuestra cama”.

Un análisis presentado por De Antillón indica que la planificación familiar debe estar limitada al Ministerio de Salud, pero que con ese reglamento se involucró al de Educación, lo que significa que se estará orientando a la niñez para que inicie su actividad sexual a temprana edad.

Aseguró que la Iglesia Católica tiene sus propias guías y orientaciones claras, emanadas desde el Vaticano y el Pontificio Consejo para la Familia, por medio de varios documentos.

Otros especialistas invitados por la CEG explicaron que no se les puede hablar de la masturbación como método liberador de energía a niños de 10 años ni se puede promocionar en forma indiscriminada el uso de condón.

Quezada Toruño no descartó reunirse próximamente con los encargados de dirigir la iglesia evangélica, para definir una posición en conjunto, pero remarcó que con las autoridades de los ministerios de Salud y Educación lo hará si ellos le piden cita.

Integrantes del Observatorio de Salud Reproductiva criticaron la postura de la Iglesia, debido a que en el 2008 murieron más de 300 mujeres por hemorragia durante el parto.

Myrna Ponce, integrante de ese observatorio, expuso: “Hay una mala interpretación, y se debe leer a cabalidad todo lo que conlleva la organización del Estado; no se trata de enriquecer a las entidades que se dedican a comercializar esos productos”.

Por aparte, Marco Rodríguez, miembro de la Alianza Evangélica, informó que darán a conocer su postura oficial el lunes.

Ayer comenzaron a circular varios correos de padres de familia en los cuales llaman a organizarse y manifestarse en contra del reglamento.

Educación: “Escolares deben tomar decisiones”

El ministro de Educación, Bienvenido Argueta, dijo ayer que los escolares tienen derecho a conocer sobre educación sexual para tomar decisiones en un marco de “responsabilidad y libertad”, y que estos aprendizajes se iniciarán en el ciclo escolar del 2010.

El funcionario afirmó que la Ley de Planificación Familiar establece parámetros enmarcados en lo que debe ser parte de un aprendizaje integral.

Las declaraciones de Argueta fueron externadas en los pasillos del Congreso, luego de una reunión que sostuvo con el diputado Arístides Crespo.

“Ningún sistema educacional tiene sentido si los ciudadanos no toman decisiones por ellos mismos; es por ello que lo que el ministerio garantiza es una educación integral que permita no solo conocer todo lo relativo a la educación sexual, sino también que las personas puedan tomar decisiones inteligentes a futuro”, expresó.

Argueta enfatizó: “Yo considero que los escolares tienen derecho a conocer todo lo que corresponde a educación sexual”. El ministro de Educación comentó que los cursos sobre este tema comenzarán a impartirse en enero.

Al ser consultado sobre los métodos a utilizar dijo que hay posibilidad de que sean escritos y audiovisuales, como videos, incluso estudio de casos, porque considera muy preocupante el incremento en el número de embarazos en adolecentes.

Respecto de la postura de las iglesias, el funcionario dijo: “Creo que las iglesias tienen derecho a tener su opinión”. Argueta informó que se ha reunido con la Alianza Evangélica, con la cual tuvo conversaciones, y además buscará un acercamiento con la Iglesia Católica”.

El Mineduc trabaja en la actualidad, junto con universidades, en los programas de profesionalización de docentes, además de dar capacitación.

“Yo me empecé a entrevistar con sectores que han conocido el marco de la ley y que han reconocido que esta es una necesidad”, expuso.

Normativa: Atribuciones

Funciones atribuidas al Ministerio de Educación:

– Revisar, actualizar e implementar, al menos cada cinco años, el pénsum.

– De primero a tercero de primaria debe incluir conocimiento de sí mismo y cuidado personal.

– De cuarto a sexto de primaria: reproducción humana, crecimiento y desarrollo, órganos sexuales, sexualidad y ética, embarazo, maternidad y paternidad responsable, infecciones de transmisión sexual y VIH/sida.

– Elaborar, en los tres meses siguientes a la aprobación del reglamento y después cada año, un plan de actividades para la promoción de la salud reproductiva.

http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2009/noviembre/06/353982.html

Guatemala ocupa el último lugar en igualdad de género

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POR LEONEL DÍAZ ZECEÑA

Guatemala se encuentra en el puesto 111 de 134 países evaluados en el mundo sobre igualdad de oportunidades hacia las mujeres, y constituye el último lugar en Latinoamérica, según un informe divulgado ayer por el World Economic Forum (WEF).

El informe “Reporte de la brecha Global de Género”, analiza la participación económica y las oportunidades en educación, salud y empoderamiento político.

Guatemala es el país que más abajo se ubica en el ranquin en América Latina, por debajo de México, que se sitúa 12 puestos más arriba, en el 99.

Si se compara con Centroamérica, el panorama es más dramático ya que según el reporte, Honduras ocupa el puesto 62; El Salvador, el 55; Nicaragua, el 49; Panamá, el 43, y Costa Rica, el 27.

“El Índice demuestra que lastimosamente el país, a escala global, se ubica únicamente por encima de los países árabes y africanos, aquellos en los cuales no hay garantías ni derechos para las mujeres”, comentó Juan Carlos Zapata, gerente general de la Fundación para el Desarrollo de Guatemala (Fundesa).

Zapata explicó que entre los puntos positivos resalta que el país se ubica en la posición 89 en el área de remuneración equitativa para trabajos, lo que implica que hay más equidad en esa área, aunque se sitúa en la parte inferior del índice.

“Estamos bajos, ese es un indicador que debe estar mucho mejor, especialmente, al considerar que el 50 por ciento de la población del país son mujeres, y mientras no se avance en esto, será mas difícil que el país crezca ”, agregó.

Oportunidad económica

Amanda Morán, directora del Centro de Estudios Urbanos y Regionales de la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, comentó que los datos consignados por el WEF reflejan la realidad en el país.

“Hay discriminación al momento de otorgar trabajos, y por experiencia propia, sé que hay factores que dificultan que una mujer ascienda de puesto, porque persiste el predominio masculino y hay prejuicios al respecto”, señaló.

Esto se refleja en el informe, ya que ubica al país en el puesto 110, entre 134, en cuanto a mujeres que llegan a cargos ministeriales.

“Si una mujer es indígena, la discriminación es doble y es difícil ver a una mujer de alguna etnia a cargo de altos puestos, por la discriminación”, afirmó Moran.

La Organización de las Naciones Unidas, en su sondeo de género del 2009, divulgado el lunes recién pasado, explica que uno de los principales problemas para que una mujer pobre en Guatemala obtenga trabajo es la falta de oportunidades.

“En la ciudad de Guatemala, el 40 por ciento de las mujeres trabajadoras que viven en barrios de bajos ingresos deben cuidar a sus hijos ellas mismas, lo que sugiere que no podrán obtener empleos si sus hijos no pueden acompañarlas”, expone el documento.

En la participación de las mujeres en el mercado laboral, el WEF sitúa al país en el puesto 111 de 134.

El gerente de Fundesa refirió que, muchas veces, las mujeres trabajan en el mercado informal, con lo cual no tienen acceso a los derechos laborales establecidos por la ley, y sufren constantemente por violación de estos.

Ana Gladis Ollas, defensora de los derechos de la mujer de la Procuraduría de los Derechos Humanos, expresó que en áreas como maquila se ha detectado violación de los derechos laborales.

“Tienen horarios largos de hasta 10 horas y con salarios incluso por debajo del mínimo”, agregó.

También existen denuncias de acoso sexual y despidos por embarazo, incluso dentro del sector público. “Tenemos 15 casos contra el Estado, entre ellos los ministerios de Trabajo, de Agricultura y la Universidad de San carlos”, expuso.

No hay justicia

Ollas explicó que otro tema pendiente es el de la violencia contra la mujer, ya que con la entrada en vigor de la ley que castiga ese vejamen —el 7 de mayo del 2008— solo se ha llegado a sentencia en 38 casos, en la Ciudad de Guatemala, aunque las denuncias sobrepasan de 16 mil.

“Estos casos quedan en el Ministerio Público y en el Organismo Judicial, y no hay resoluciones”, afirmó la defensora.

Explicó que tan solo en lo que va del 2009 —a julio— se han registrado dos mil 173 casos de violencia de género.

En el país, el año pasado se registraron 48 mil denuncias, aproximadamente, añadió.

Cifra

111 es el puesto en que se sitúa Guatemala, entre 134 países evaluados por deficiencias en brindar oportunidades a las mujeres, según el WEF.

World Economic Forum establece deficiencias de oportunidades.

http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2009/octubre/28/351891.html#

Canary Institute ~ Guatemala News Summary #7, 8 and 9

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Guatemala News Summary #7 | Sept 9 – Sept 15, 2009 | Compiled by Patricia Anderson

Mining

Montana Exploradora was caught trying import 100,000 kg of cyanide into Guatemala last week. The Environmental Ministry suspended Montana’s privileges to import cyanide in July because the company has failed to pay cyanide’s import tax since 2005. Montana owes more then US$20,000 in unpaid import taxes. Cyanide is essential to the leaching process of gold and silver.

Health

The National Union of Health Workers has made the decision to officially protest the lack of resources given to the public health sector. Their specific demand is that the Executive branch gives back the US$100,000 that was taken from the Ministry of Health and used for things that damaged peoples’ health. Protests are scheduled for the 11th, 17th and 21st of September. If their demands are not met, say union leaders, they will go on strike.

President Colom dismissed the Minister of Health Celso Cerezo for “inappropriate conduct and mismanagement of the health crisis.” The inappropriate behavior to which Colom was referring was ex-Minister Cerezo’s sprint out of Congress last Tuesday in order to avoid to the press. The Vice-minister of Hospitals was promoted to position of Minister. However, there is little hope that the change in face will change the Ministry of Health’s antiquated approach to the current health crisis. The health crisis is characterized by overlapping crisis of severe malnutrition, lack of medical supplies, hemorrhaging dengue and H1N1.

Adoption

The International Conference of Adoptions identified Brazil, Paraguay and Guatemala as the Latin American countries where babies are most often adopted in an irregular or illegal manner. The Conference said while illegal adoptions occur with government consent, local governments are often under a lot of pressure from adoption agencies in recipient states. The National Board for Adoption reports that before Guatemala’s new adoption law, 5,000 babies were adopted out of Guatemala per year. This year only 155 adoptions have been permitted.

Food Crisis

The United Nations’ World Food Program distributed 20 tons of power bars to Jalapa and Jutiapa last week; these two departments are home to more than 30 percent of the families most affected by the food crisis.

Economy

Even though President Colom decided against raising the minimum wage for textile factory workers, a new proposal for a “productivity bonus” has surfaced. The bonus would raise wages by US$1.75 per day. The current minimum wage in the textile sector is US$5.96 per day. Minimum wage for agricultural workers is US$11 per day. The minimum wage for textile and factory workers has remained the same for the last 14 years.

Guatemala News Summary #8 | Sept 16 – Sept 22, 2009 | Compiled by Patricia Anderson

Poverty

Unlike other Central American countries such as Costa Rica and Panama, Guatemala reports a high frequency of rabies, dengue, rubella, dysentery and whooping cough. Save the Children reports that there are 85,000 children suffering from chronic malnutrition. Infant mortality in children less than 5 years old is 78 per 1000.

Hunger Crisis

President Colom has declared a state of National Disaster in light of the food crisis and drought that has affected more than half of the country. Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico have offered humanitarian aid to Guatemala to combat the crisis that affects more than 2 million Guatemalans. Mexico, in spite of the damage it has suffered from the same prolonged drought, has offered surplus grains; Venezuela is offering large shipments of rice.

The offers come as much needed relief since the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) announced a drastic reduction of operations in the country last week. The WFP cites a lack of financial support as the reason for its pull out. The WFP asks the international community for US$17 million to continue distributing food to high risk populations of children and pregnant women. The European Union pledged US$11 million to finance a joint Guatemala-European program to bring relief to those suffering from chronic hunger in conjunction with educational programs about reforestation, water management and agricultural.

Migration

This month, the number of deported Guatemalan migrants has exceeded 38,000. More than 30,000 Guatemalans came to the US seeking refugee status during the 36 year long civil war and have lived in the United States for 10-25 years. However, a large number of those who asked for political asylum are now targeted for deportation by the FBI; authorities justify the deportations citing irregularities and lack of follow-up in their 10 year-old paperwork.

Climate Change

Ten of Guatemala’s largest rivers are 40 percent lower than their normal levels due to the longest drought in 32 years. Water levels have not been this low since 1992 with El Niño. Only 21 percent of the average rainfall was seen in August and similar levels have been predicted for September and October, the final months of the rainy season. Increased electricity prices and energy rationing are expected because Guatemala runs largely on hydroelectric power.

Guatemala News Summary #9 | Sept 23 – Sept 29, 2009 | Compiled by Patricia Anderson

Coup in Honduras

Following ousted president Manuel Zalaya’s return to Honduras, President Colom changed his stance of support for Zalaya to one of neutrality. The change was urged by Congress after de-facto president Micheletti announced that Zalaya had entered via Guatemala. Several public figures, including Rigoberta Menchu, have asked the government to publicly support Zalaya’s rightful return to power. Despite the change of the government’s official stance, Colom announced that Latin America will not tolerate coup’s like it did in the 70s and 80s.

The vice-president announced the opening of refugee camps for Hondurans fleeing political persecution under the de-facto government. Roberto Micheletti’s de-facto presidency is not recognized by any international government. Additionally, International Monetary Fund reaffirmed Zalaya as the rightful president of Honduras last week.

Mining

Mining royalties are expected to increase by 10 percent this year. As a result, the Ministry of Energy and Mining (MEM) has proposed the creation of a Collective Mining Fund specifically devoted to overseeing the use of mining royalties for rural development. Due widespread rejection of mines by nearby indigenous communities, the proposal also includes raising royalties. The MEM estimates that an ounce of gold sells for more than US$900 on the international market. The MEM proposal advising splitting the profits between the company and the State, with 75 percent of the government’s profits going to the Collective Mining Fund to be passed onto communities in the form of development projects.

Migration

The National Council of La Raza announced last week that Latinos in the United States have experienced more unemployment due to the economic recession than any other ethnic group; more than one million Latinos have lost their jobs since December 2007.

Violence against Women

In the last eight years, more than 4,300 women have been killed in a brutal or violent manner. News source Albedrío says that impunity, corruption, civil insecurity and high levels of inequality create spaces for the perpetuation of violence against women. The new 2008 laws against femicide included, for the first time, a legal definition of femicide and a prison sentence for those who commit it. However, a diagnostic study of the Guatemalan Group for Women (GGW) found that only 26 out of every 100 cases of potential femicide are ever investigated. GGW provides psychological counseling and legal assistance to women who have been victims of violence. GGW’s central work is pressuring Congress in finding justice for those who commit violence against women.

Informe: Menos oportunidad laboral para mujeres

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Nacionales / Carlos Mario Márquez  / SAN SALVADOR / Agen

Las mujeres tienen menores oportunidades de empleo que los hombres en los países centroamericanos, donde hay unos 20 millones de trabajadores, casi el 60% de las personas en edad de trabajar, con “poca calificación”, asegura un informe sobre el mercado laboral.

El 38% de los trabajadores de la región no terminó la educación primaria y las mujeres ganan menos que los hombres en todos los sectores, principalmente en el manufacturero, y sus posibilidades se frenan porque muchas tienen que cumplir una “doble jornada”: un empleo remunerado y las tareas del hogar.

El tercer informe del Mercado Laboral en Centroamérica y República Dominicana establece que de la fuerza laboral, el 61,9% son hombres y el 38,1% mujeres, lo que refleja “la mayor propensión de los hombres a intervenir en el mercado de trabajo”.

El estudio fue divulgado este viernes en San Salvador por la ministra salvadoreña de Trabajo, Victoria Velásquez, el director regional de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT), Virgilio Levaggi, y el coordinador de la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo, Juan Pita, entre otros funcionarios.

El informe incluye datos de Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panamá y República Dominicana, que en conjunto suman 49 millones de habitantes, de los cuales 35 millones se encuentran en edad de trabajar.

La ministra Velásquez dijo que dos de cada cinco personas que forman la fuerza laboral son mujeres, lo que obliga a los Estados a adoptar políticas de “mayor inclusión”.

En la región, una mayor proporción de las mujeres realizan jornadas parciales en comparación con los hombres, 39,7% frente a un 22,5%, aunque en El Salvador disminuye esta brecha (33,5% frente a 28,6%).

“La menor duración de las jornadas laborales de las mujeres es consecuencia directa de una mayor asignación de tiempo por parte de éstas a trabajo doméstico no remunerado o el cuidado de hijos”, precisa el informe.

El combinar un empleo formal con tareas del hogar, fenómeno conocido como “doble jornada”, limita las posibilidades de las mujeres a acceder a un trabajo a tiempo completo, a pesar de que muchas de las que laboran a tiempo completo sufren también de la doble jornada, resume el estudio.

Salvo casos excepcionales, el salario de las mujeres es generalmente menor que el de los hombres en casi todas las ramas, principalmente en la industria manufacturera, los servicios comunitarios-sociales y el servicio doméstico.

La participación laboral femenina es mayor en República Dominicana (45,6%), seguida de Guatemala (44,7%) Panamá (43,3%), Costa Rica (41,6%), El Salvador (41,3%), Nicaragua (38,5%) y Honduras (36%).

Los trabajadores de estos países tienen baja calificación debido a sus pocos años de escolaridad.

“La Subregión se caracteriza por una población ocupada con poca calificación, aproximadamente el 38,4% de la población ocupada no terminó la primaria”, subraya el informe.

Otros hallazgos del informe es que existe un acceso diferenciado a los puestos de trabajo más formales según la edad y hacia los 30 años se inicia una disminución de asalariados.

Además, una tercera parte de la población en cuatro de estos siete países tiene un empleo en condiciones “inadecuadas”.

http://www.lahora.com.gt/notas.php?key=57190&fch=2009-10-19