March 2014 Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Gender equality enforcement at the Ludoteca: Introducing International Womens Day Summary GVI introduced the celebrations of International Womens day to the children at the Ludoteca with a presentation and activity. This festivity is recognized around the world on the 8th of March and as Mexico is still developing its culture towards the equal treatment of women, the GVI team in Playa del Carmen thought it would be a great idea to expand this concept on the childrens growing minds. The aim was to equip them with knowledge of the importance of equal treatment among genders and to show them examples of renowned famous women around the world. The practical was to apply the knowledge from the presentation and allow them to think about inspirational women in their own lives. The results showed that the women who they recognise as inspirational, were their care givers; showing they value love and care most in their lives.

Report International Womens Day is celebrated on the 8th of March. The United Nations had assigned this day to celebrate women, recognize their achievements, encourage equality and advance development. In recent decades, progress has been made across the globe to elevate women towards equality and inspire the next generation of women to obliterate the glass ceiling and cement their status as equal to that of their male counterparts. Figure 1. Sisters at the Ludoteca ready to participate in empowering one another But it is still regrettably an uphill struggle. Its been found that: Nowhere in the world can claim that women have all the same rights and opportunities as men. The majority of the worlds 1.3 billion very poor population are women. On average women are paid 30-40% less money for the same job as men. 2/3 of the 130 million children tragically not in school are girls. And across the globe, hundreds of millions of women are still the victims of horrendous violence, both sexual and otherwise.

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This year the theme for International Womens Day was Inspiration for Change. There has been a huge drive towards recognition of womens issues on the international stage. This has been driven largely by outstanding advocacy campaigns such as The Girl Effect & Girl Rising (to name a few) and inspirational figures such Malala Yousafzai. In addition to fulfilling GVIs and our implementing partne rs Save the Childrens objectives to empower the children, the recognition and celebration is imperative for a developing Nation. Mexico, like many other developing nations, experiences the chasm between rights in law and in practice. Currently in Mexico there is protection under law for violence against women (inter-marital rape being the most recent addition to federal law), but the inherent patriarchal culture and lack of implementation by authorities has seen violence against women remain a large problem in Mexico. Ignorance and lack of information is equally culpable for this dire situation. The National Institute of Women claims that the 45% of women in Mexico experience violence i. Maria Elena Alvarez, Assistant Director of The National Institute of Women in Mexico claims: We have made a lot of gains, but women still dont use the laws. Most of them still dont know their rights and weve had trouble reaching them some believe it is their destiny.ii The Playa team saw the opportunity with the Ludoteca to illuminate womens rights for the children there through a presentation and an activity, to empower the girls and inspire the boys by showing them examples of famous inspirational women and apply these ideas to recognize the inspirational women in their lives. To begin the presentation there was a presentation explaining the purpose of Figure 2. Our intern Naomi giving the presentation international womens day including what it was and why we celebrate it. The team had intended to read it out to the children but then one of the girls asked if she could read it out loud. It was a perfect addition and empowering on many levels. The group of older and more literate children (5 girls and 1 boy) took it in turns to read the slides we had prepared. The content reflected our aims at GVI and the premise of this years theme. The slides included a number of inspirational women, these included Malala Yousafzai, Emmeline Pankhurst, Amelia Earhart, Graca Marcel, Benazir Bhutto, Mother Theresa, Marie Curie and Frida Kahlo. The children were very receptive and fascinated by the women and who they were. Silence and stillness is usually indicative of a job well done and a message received.

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To reinforce the notion of inspirational women they were asked to apply this to their own lives. They were given a pre-prepared worksheet which was entitled My inspiration is and why. In this way the presenters were able to bring the lessons of international womens day and apply them to everyday life within the community. Equally it aided the children in recognizing the different types of heroines and their characteristics. Initially there was some confusion as the concept of inspiration was a foreign one to the children. But once comprehension was achieved the results were heartwarming. Most of the children sighted their grandmother as their inspiration because she loved and cared for them. This is not a surprising result for Playa del Carmen where the chief childrens issue is abandonment. Ludoteca was created against this backdrop and extended family often provides a large amount of childrens care whilst parents work. Some other variations included their elder sisters, various Disney princesses (the team tried in a limited fashion to ascertain as to why they were inspirational apart Figure 3. Naomi helping the kids with their inspirational wom an ide as from having pretty dresses) teachers and the Ludotecarias. It was thoroughly enjoyable and some of the children asked if they could take the pictures home to gift them to the object of their inspiration. This successful presentation and advocacy of this day has inspired the GVI team to bring more international themes to the Ludoteca. The Playa team is hoping to present on world book day and International Childrens day amongst others. This could be an instrumental tool for advocating human rights within the community program and can be adapted with little adjustment to suit the needs of other advocacy and outreach campaigns within the community.

To find out more about the Community Development Internship in http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/community-development-internship-mexico

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References
i

http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/index.php/role-women-in-armed-conflict/409-in-mexico-womensadvocates-make-slow-but-steady-gains-against-violence

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ii

Maria Elena Alvarez, Assistant Director of The National Institute of Women (the womens right govern mental body of Mexico). Provided by http://www.r esponsibilitytoprotect.org/index.php/rol e-women-in-armedconflict/409-in-mexico-womens-advocates-make-slow-but-steady-gains-against-violence Accessed on 01/04/14

Bibliography www.responsibilityproject.org www.amnesty.org www.hrw.org http://www.un.org/en/events/womensday/ www.internationalwomensday.org www.wikipedia.com www.google/images.com

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