Women's Empowerment in Honduras

AHMEN's Rio de Agua Viva team and those of us involved in community empowerment find ourselves working with women on a regular basis.  Oftentimes, there aren't any men in the room other than ourselves.  

This is not because men are not appreciative of education and do not want their communities to thrive.  No, we do not discriminate on invitations.  In fact, we wholeheartedly believe that every classroom functions better with a variety of opinions and backgrounds.

One reason that AHMEN's community empowerment workshops tend to boast a majority female participation rate is that women in Honduras can be said to be left out of traditional educational spheres.  So one might make the argument that where society's machismo leaves women out of education for the sake of learning, AHMEN makes up the difference!

I remember hearing from the adults around me when I was a teenager back in the early 2000s that the reason that we did not see a lot of men at the free medical clinics our brigades supplied was because the men were out working.  With authority, the male leaders of our medical staff would say "The women had to bring the kids in to be seen by our teams."

While this may have been true, could we also not say that the men did not see it as their job or role in a patriarchal sphere to walk the family five miles to see the only physicians available locally for months?  Feminists understand that the domestic chore of caring for the children is considered "women's work" by the dominant culture.

On the other side of the patriarchy we understand that society prioritizes the education of men because men belong in the public sphere.  After all, what is a woman to do with an education when dinner needs preparing? 

Such regressive attitudes prevail in our modern society even in the most cosmopolitan countries.  However, their prevalence in Latin America leave women without the ability to truly care for themselves or their families. Gibbons et al. (2022) write: 

    Education is the key driver of women’s empowerment. Education reduces women’s poverty     (McCarthy, 2015), allows them better employment opportunities (Spierings et al., 2010),

    empowers them to have the number of children they desire (Poelker and Gibbons, 2018),

    improves women’s health (Alsan and Cutler, 2013), and increases their political

    participation (Fanny and Oluwasanumi, 2014; Bird, 2019). 

AHMEN's Rio de Agua Viva team believes the woman at the well, Mother Mary, and Mary Magdalen were deliberately given a voice in the Holy Bible to crumble the façade of misogyny.  We therefore work with purpose in educating women so that they do not need to wait on society to change so their children may have a better life.  Women can be the change they want to see in their communities right now.

If you agree with us, why don't you consider a monthly donation toward community empowerment in Honduras through AHMEN by visiting AHMEN.org?  Email me when you do so I can get your gift to the right cause!  If you are a more "hands on" type of activist, why not join our June 1-8 team to go work directly with the women we serve?  Either way, contact me today to learn more!

Together, we are the difference.