An interview with Dinia Amador, Troilo community, Nicaragua
Historically, rural women have been among the most excluded groups in Nicaragua due to the patriarchal and sexist culture that continues to predominate in all areas of life in the countryside. The achievement of a life of dignity for women and youth depends on the social empowerment of women and the safe and equitable access to land.
Rural communities experience many environmental, social, and food security challenges. These problems are reflected in, and have an impact on, the lives of adult and young women. Through surveys carried out in the rural communities of Goyena and Troilo in the years 2011 and 2015, families identified food security and social inequalities, particularly gender inequalities, as their highest priorities.
In response to these needs and challenges, ViviendasLeon works with women in our HCT Human Training program, teaching for individual emotional healing and reducing gender inequality, to improve self-esteem and confidence among women. The family farms then become a way to apply these new emotional skills that result in economic independence and food security, while magnifying their self esteem through successful outcomes.
During our most recent HCT program, Dinia Amador, a young teenager and daughter of Paula Hernandez, completed the program with her mother and received the delivery of material for the construction of her farm. Paula and Dinia are currently harvesting a great variety of vegetables, some of which Paula uses for her and her children’s consumption. The rest is planted in fruits such as hibiscus flowers and papaya, which Paula transforms into soft drinks that she sells from her home.
Dinia Amador:
‘I participated with my mother in the training program workshops. It was a good experience full of learning that helped us transform our lives. We studied topics such as self-esteem that helped me mature to recognize our rights as rural women. I learned to be responsible for my studies, to help my mother work on our vegetable farm….
In the summertime, between the two of us, we water our farm and maintain the plants. The responsibility of our home today does not fall on my mother alone. We have learned to respect ourselves and each member of our family. We now share work both in and outside the home. These values will help me when I am older, while today I know that cultivating the land is an inheritance that I will not leave behind. I have learned that I can create an income myself and not depend on a man to do things for me.”
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