Highlighting the virtue inherent in, and benefits of empowering people (rather than simply delivering aid) -
(Excerpts:)
COLOMBIA: Women Empowered by Restoring Desertified Land
By Helda Martínez
NATAGAIMA, Colombia, Jan 2 (IPS) - Indigenous and rural women from southern Tolima, a province located in the heart of Colombia, are lending a hand to the bleak land around them, with the aim of simultaneously recovering the ecosystem and regaining their own dignity, in a community effort that is changing their environment and their lives.
Manos de Mujer (Women's Hands) is the name of the non-governmental organisation working since 2001 in Natagaima, a town some 100 kilometres south of the provincial capital, Ibagué. Nine hundred women of the Pijao native community plant ecosystem-friendly seeds to grow natural crops without the use of agrochemicals. ...
Source: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49875
(Excerpts:)
...in Natagaima, the women involved in the project are not discouraged by these 'minor' achievements. Because what's important for them is the knowledge they've gained and the real improvements their efforts have brought to their environment and lives. On the day that IPS followed a group of these women as they performed their daily tasks, they couldn't stop talking about all they've learned about agriculture and ecology.
Environmental improvements are not the only good thing to come out of the initiative: women have also been empowered by their work.
"Women feel empowered by the confidence they gain going out to work in their crops, working on their own, knowing they can be self-sufficient. And that's probably the best thing about this project," [Javier Múnera, an economist who manages and organises activities in Manos de Mujer] reflected.
Environmental improvements are not the only good thing to come out of the initiative: women have also been empowered by their work.
"Women feel empowered by the confidence they gain going out to work in their crops, working on their own, knowing they can be self-sufficient. And that's probably the best thing about this project," [Javier Múnera, an economist who manages and organises activities in Manos de Mujer] reflected.
COLOMBIA: Women Empowered by Restoring Desertified Land
By Helda Martínez
NATAGAIMA, Colombia, Jan 2 (IPS) - Indigenous and rural women from southern Tolima, a province located in the heart of Colombia, are lending a hand to the bleak land around them, with the aim of simultaneously recovering the ecosystem and regaining their own dignity, in a community effort that is changing their environment and their lives.
Manos de Mujer (Women's Hands) is the name of the non-governmental organisation working since 2001 in Natagaima, a town some 100 kilometres south of the provincial capital, Ibagué. Nine hundred women of the Pijao native community plant ecosystem-friendly seeds to grow natural crops without the use of agrochemicals. ...
Source: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49875
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