Since June 2020, the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) and MIT D-Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been working to develop the project “RISE: Resilient, Inclusive & Sustainable Environments – A challenge to address gender-based violence in the small-scale mining sector”
To comprehend the difficult challenges women gold miners face in Antioquia, Colombia, ARM and MIT D-Lab researchers conducted one-on-one interviews and focus group discussions with mining engineers, human rights lawyers, community leaders, and the women miners themselves.
In honor of International Women’s Day, we are launching a series of short videos featuring the voices of the people who generously participated in this research to inform a feasibility study and an in-depth gender analysis.
Our hope is that these mini-videos will provide viewers a glimpse into the day-to-day reality of women miners, revealing the gender-based violence they experience along the gold supply chain and the environmental degradation they are forced to navigate in the mining communities where they live, work, and raise their children.
The first video features Maria Margarita Gamarra, a mining and metallurgy engineer and Local Project Coordinator for MIT D-Lab’s Inclusive Economies Program, an ongoing program in two gold mining regions in Antioquia, Colombia.
The second video features Erika Garcia, a mining law specialist.
The third video features small-scale gold miner Aida Luz Mosquera of Bajo Cauca, Colombia.
