More than 45 women from Antioquia, Caldas, and Huila, departments of Colombia, met to share their challenges in their work as artisanal women miners and their experiences of gender-based violence, in order to seek joint solutions to improve their quality of life.
“It is already very difficult to make room for yourself in an activity that is considered a man’s business. Whenever you go to speak to male miners, they don’t take it very seriously at first because they think you don’t have the authority to talk about a subject that they have been doing for their entire lives. That’s when the woman has to say: I am also capable, I know, to start to be empowered, at the same level as them”.
In this space, women’s recommendations were also compiled to incorporate a gender perspective and measures to mitigate gender-based violence in the Fairmined Standard 3.0. There, women identified their needs as women miners according to environmental, labor, and organizational issues, among others.
This event is the official launch of the Latin American Network of Women in Artisanal and Small-scale Mining, with the participation of women committed to achieving gender equity and sustainability in mining regions.
“This training has been wonderful for us. It is important to be here because we have learned clearly the types of gender violence and issues about women miners. It is important to replicate this knowledge with other women and to make it known that there are many ways in which we are being violated. We have to make ourselves seen, show that we know, that we have laws that protect us, that we are not less than anyone else. Raise our voice, come out of anonymity without fear and empowered. To say: here we are, we are learning, we are getting trained.”
This initiative is part of the RISE project funded by USAID and developed in partnership with the MIT D-Lab.