20
Sep
2010
Guillermina Castellanos (far right) and other members of the Women’s Collective Protest for the rights of domestics. Hannah Pallmeyer - courtesy of La Raza Centro Legal
TerraViva correspondents
RIO DE JANEIRO: “There are no ceilings in our dreams; we want to transform young women, tell them there is a way for them to be happy,” says Elza Santiago. Santiago, 49, and Marinalva Alves, 44, live in Morro da Coroa, one of the favelas that line the steep hills of Rio de Janeiro.
But for poor black women like Santiago and Alves, the hills to climb are even steeper, because of racial prejudice deep-rooted in Brazil, “even though they pretend it doesn’t exist,” Santiago tells TerraViva at their workshop in the favela, where they sew and do embroidery work. More »
20
Sep
2010
Paula Flores with her grandchild. She has struggled long for justice after her daughter Sagrario wasmurdered. Credit: Daniela Pastrana
Daniela Pastrana
MEXICO CITY: Amalia is an indigenous Maya girl from a rural community in southern Quintana Roo, on Mexico’s Caribbean coast. She is 11, and in August became the youngest mother in the country when she gave birth to a baby girl, 51 cm long and just under three kilograms.
Amalia was raped when she was 10, allegedly by her stepfather. She did not have the option of terminating the pregnancy because when detected it was too late for legal abortion.
More »
20
Sep
2010
Chris Stein
Johannesburg: The Unifem campaign ‘Say No – UNiTE to End Violence Against Women’ has set off campaigns right across Africa.
In Sudan, a growing number of reported cases of child rape have prompted public support for changes to the country’s laws on sexual assault.
“Society will take a step towards social change and justice,” says Fatima Hashim, director of the Salmmah Women’s Resource Centre in Khartoum, and leader of the 149 Alliance, a coalition of civil society groups named after the article of Sudan’s penal code they are working to change. “It will enable women to take the cases to court and punish the criminals.” More »
