[NYTr] CUBA: Popular Education Transforms Women’s  Lives
 
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:10:05 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
IPS - Nov 19, 2007
http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=40124

CUBA: Popular Education Transforms Womenbs Lives

by Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Nov 19 (IPS) - "I have the spirit of a 15-year-old girl, and
the wisdom of a 66-year-old woman," says Felicia PC)rez, who recovered
her joie de vivre after attending a handicrafts course, and became a
promoter of urban values and the creator of a crafts workshop in her
own neighbourhood. PC)rezbs story testifies to the impact that
experiences of popular education have on the daily lives of Cuban
women, whose potential for self-realisation is often curbed by the
dominant "machismo" or who are belittled if they devote themselves to
homemaking work.

"Popular education taught me that every person has knowledge, and
deserves respect," PC)rez told IPS. "I learned that everyone has value,
and now I donbt feel inferior because Ibm a homemaker."

This Cuban woman, who lives in the city of GuantC!namo, 930 kilometres
east of Havana, has brought together a group of women through the
handicrafts classes she teaches. The members of the group all live in
the same neighbourhood, are past retirement age, and have always done
domestic work, or felt that their lives were over when they retired
from their jobs.

It is estimated that over one million women work exclusively as
homemakers in this Caribbean island nation of 11.2 million people.

The 2002 population and household census found that 97 percent of those
who gave their occupation as "homemaker" were women. Most of them had
low levels of education.

In the small workshop space created by PC)rez, far away from the
traditional environment of the home, this group of women talk about
subjects related to health, sexuality, the family, and the history of
their city, which was founded in 1796.

The group is part of the Celia project, started in 2003 by the
governmental Group for Integral Development (GDI) of the City of
GuantC!namo, which aims to stimulate womenbs participation in improving
living conditions in the city.

Initially the project targeted the low-income neighbourhood of La
Caoba, which was a red light district before the 1959 revolution.
Social problems such as juvenile delinquency, drug use and a high level
of unemployment among women still persist, Sandra Prieto, an official
with the GDI, told IPS.

"We started meeting in the courtyards and corridors, without any
materials at all," Prieto said. With the help of local artisans, they
held the first craft workshops, in order to "attract women and talk to
them about the city and its history, so as to foster a sense of
belonging."

The goal of the Celia project is to roll back the "lack of knowledge
about architectural treasures and the lack of citizen and urban
culture," said Prieto, who commented on the impact this lack of
appreciation has on migration, which increased sharply after the
economic crisis that began in the 1990s.

Contact with the Popular Education and Participating in Local
Experiences Programme at the non-governmental Martin Luther King Jr.
Memorial Centre (CMMLK) led the GDI to use popular education methods
and tools, which are "essential to working in the community, and to
connecting with people where they are," said Prieto.

PC)rez and Prieto, along with another 200 people, mostly women, took
part in the first national meeting of the Network of Popular Educators,
held Nov. 12-16 in the town of Caimito, 20 kilometres west of Havana.

"Popular education raises peoplebs awareness of their identity and the
love of what is ours, while it helps us express who we are, ethical
values, and the principles of our socialist society," Yolanda Brito,
from the LimC3n Limonero community project in JagC<ey Grande, about 150
kilometres southeast of Havana, told IPS.

"This approach is not the one true way, but it is one of the ways that
can work effectively, like a grain of sand in the building of better
things for our country," said Brito, who works in the municipal library
in JagC<ey Grande.

Popular education ideas that she came across in the CMMLK courses also
sparked a radical change in the family and working life of Iluminada
Brizuela, who is involved in the Dorca workshop in the informal
settlement of Las Tamaras, near the city of Bayamo, 730 kilometres east
of the Cuban capital.

"Ibm a different person, my self-esteem is much higher, and the way I
communicate with other people has changed," Brizuela told IPS. "Before,
if my husband told me not to go out to the government food store, I
wouldnbt go. Now, he washes the clothes, irons, cooks and looks after
our daughter."

Brizuela, 44, belongs to what is known as the "sandwich generation" of
about one million women, who had to look after their ageing parents and
raise their children, as well as take on other family and professional
responsibilities, carrying a double burden because of the machista
culture.

However, she has managed to cope with the demands of her job as a local
coordinator of Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, the
largest community-based political organisation in Cuba, as well as her
work in the Dorca workshop, where she cuts cloth and sews garments
together with nine other women, and her homemaking duties.

The Dorca project was started with a donation of sewing machines and
dressmaking materials from the Cuban Council of Churches, an
association of different Christian denominations in the country.
Members sew clothing and other textile products to alleviate the needs
of people on low incomes, pensioners and single mothers.

"There are lots of people who are very happy when you give them an
outfit," said Brizuela. In her view, the benefits of the workshop in
this community of just over 1,000 people are considerable, especially
for those who cannot afford to buy the products sold in the
governmentbs chain of "dollar" stores, which only accept hard currency.
(END/2007)

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