Within the framework of the international campaign #MujeresRurales, mujeres con derechos, Brazil begins its participation in the “15 days of activism for the empowerment of rural women”. The idea is to disseminate the main Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) for 2030 and the strong connection between the actions of rural women in achieving the themes. Promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Specialized Meeting on Mercosur Family Farming (Reaf) and other organizations will share experiences, strategies and initiatives already adopted to boost the promotion of these women in Latin American and Caribbean countries . In Brazil, the campaign is led by the Special Secretariat for Family Agriculture and Agrarian Development (Sead), which is also coordinator of Reaf in Brazil in the second half of 2017.
The initiative is titled “15 days of activism for the empowerment of rural women” and will involve mobilization on social media. Participation in the campaign can be done and followed with the hashtags #mulheresrurales and #mujeresrurales – the term in Spanish will be used by participants from other Latin countries and should also be shared by Brazilians.
To disseminate the main achievements of women in the field, the action will work with the dissemination of one objective per day. Among the main achievements to be addressed are, for example, the eradication of poverty, quality education, gender equality. The campaign continues until October 15th, which is International Rural Women's Day.
SDG 3 Health and well-being
One of the main objectives of SDG 3 is to substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals, contamination and soil air and water pollution. In this role, rural women are considered protagonists in organic and agroecological production techniques. According to the organization of the national competition “Voices, images, stories and experiences of rural women”, held last month by the #MulheresRurals campaign, women with rights, more than 80% of the participants discovered the benefits of agroecology and encourage the practice in their communities.
This is the case of family farmer Armenzinda da Silva Firmino, resident of the Padre Jesus settlement, community of Vargem Alegre, in Espera Feliz (MG). Coming from a family of 13 children, she only managed to study after the age of 16, as she helped her parents in the fields and looked after her siblings. “I went back to fifth grade with the teenagers and, when the Youth and Adult School started, I finished high school. After that, I managed to take two daughters who hadn't studied either and now, once a week, I teach other farmers how to read and write”, he says.
With teaching, he realized that the field needed more attention and care. Together with 20 other women, she formed the group “Raízes da Terra”. The community joined forces and began agroecology work in the region. “We had in our heads that being a woman meant being less than men. I didn't value my work, I didn't have a plan for the land, fruits and medicinal plants I had on the land. With the group I started to get more involved and everything got better.” Since then, the women, who live in the well-known Zona da Mata, have become “seed guardians”, as they like to be called. “In almost every house you come to there is a woman drying and saving seeds to plant and exchange. Today I practice what is for well-being, because life is not to be enslaved or to be swallowed, it is to be lived with dignity”, he highlights with pride.
Source: Agrolink
