The Challenge
Nicaragua is the third-poorest country of the Americas, with income per capita at $453 per year. The majority of Nicaraguans take home even less than that amount: 45% of the country’s income goes to the wealthiest tenth of the population, while only 14% goes to the poorest tenth. This poverty affects women and children the most. With food prices having risen nearly 50% since 2007, many have little money left over for other necessities, like medicine, clothing, and transportation. http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nicaragua.html
Our Own Challenges
Cultural barriers exacerbate these economic pressures. We, the women who have founded Comunicada, have experienced marginalization and inequality between men and women in Nicaragua first-hand. In our own lives, we have confronted barriers of all kinds: cultural, educational, and above all the barrier of poverty. These barriers limit the lives of women in our country, especially in rural areas.
Confronting poverty, the lack of educational opportunity, and cultural barriers that affect women’s quality of life is a great challenge because of long-standing traditions and an entrenched culture of machismo in the communities where we work. In our experience, especially in rural areas, many women do not have the autonomy to pursue further education-- even to improve their own earning capacity. As a result, they remain at the mercy of their husbands, who have these rights.
Motivated by these experiences, we feel that we must create educational, economic, and cultural programs that develop women’s capacity to participate more fully in the development of their communities and learn what resources are available for defending their rights.
