Alayna Wool

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Snapshot
Programmatic Focus:
  • Leadership Development
  • Gender
  • Health Education
Country:

Guatemala

Participating Communities:

Rabinal

Partner Organization:

FUNDENOR

Artistic Medium:

Mixed Media

Workshops for Women's Empowerment
(10/01/2009 - 12/29/2009)
Project Planning
Background and Needs:

The department of Baja Verapaz was among the areas most targeted by the military during the Guatemalan civil war, due to its large indigenous population. Although the war officially ended in 1996, the repercussions of this bloody era persist, with continued discrimination against indigenous people. Communities struggle to meet basic needs such as clean water, access to healthcare and education. With only a 50% literacy rate and a significant number of non-Spanish speaking indigenous people, development organizations in Baja Verapaz are challenged to establish productive communication and engage groups in addressing local issues.

World Neighbors Polochic (nka FUNDENOR) is a community development organization working in Baja Verapaz. In order to improve socio-economic well-being in Baja Verapaz, World Neighbors Polochic directly supports several indigenous women with scholarships.

Collaborative Goal:

To build capacity within the community to use art for social change.

Project Objective:

By the end of the year, participating scholarship recipients will have increased knowledge regarding gender issues, e.g., equal rights and violence against women.

By the end of the year, participating scholarship recipients will have an increased ability to replicate workshops regarding gender issues, e.g., equal rights and violence against women.

Project Description:

These women's workshops are intended to complement the monthly workshops I facilitate. (See "Scholars in Action.") These workshops, however will go more in depth than the others because they address extremely sensitive issues such as women's rights and violence against women. The workshops will incorporate art to empower the participating women to learn about the issues and propose solutions.

Partner Organization Collaboration:

I will be working closely with Ezequiel Tot and Rosalia Asig from World Neighbors.

Planned Activities:

Equal Rights Workshop:  We will discuss the roles of men and women in daily life. This will include themes such as what limitations are put on women and what change is realistic.

  • Icebreakers and warm up exercises in order to make everyone in the group comfortable with herself and others in the group.
  • Each participant will construct an item out of wood, like a bookshelf, to prove to the women that gender roles are flexible and that a woman can just as easily do something that society deems only a man can do.

Violence Against Women Workshop

  • Open with icebreakers and warm-ups.
  • Create a tree of dreams.
  • Discuss different types of abuse - family, domestic, physical, sexual, mental, etc.

Project Resources
Images
Results & Reflections
Results & Impact:

I think these workshops have been successful in broaching sensitive topics, and much of the success had to do with the use of art as a vehicle for discussion.

I ended up facilitating the workshop on violence against women first. It was a two day workshop held in Coban. I started out by teaching the women to make journals so that over the period of the workshop they would all have something to take notes in. We made a tree of dreams, which was an effective way of focusing the participants' minds on what they want for their lives.

In beginning to discuss various types of abuse, such as family, domestic, physical, sexual and mental abuse, the participants broke up into small groups to come up with definitions of the various types of abuse. We then joined back up to discuss the similarities and differences in their definitions. The women then worked individually to draw different examples of abuse, which we all discussed afterwards. The women then returned to their small groups and looked through newspapers to create a collage of various types of abuse in the world.