Social Activism, Improving women’s economic empowerment to enhance social and ecological sustainability in Apasa Pitimbu Settlement.

Improving women’s economic empowerment to enhance the sustainable social and ecological in Apasa Pitimbu Settlement.

Presentation.
Let us empower women that provides our food in Brazil northeast by helping to build a community kitchen.

Context.
The place of Apasa in the municipality of Pitimbu is a settlement of agrarian reform that has around 25 years of existence. It has three generations of women, going to the fourth. All women of the community are part of families where land was given to male farmers.

This process created a dependency on women because economical resources come mainly from men's production as farmers.

This region is a place where Atlantic Rainforest existed centuries ago and was substituted by sugar cane plantation, that degraded the soil. Community is slowly recovering the soil and women activity is fundamental for this venture.

Objective.
The objective of this project is to empower women in the Apasa settlement.

Why this is important?
Women empowerment is related to better distribution and regulation of community spaces and also is related to soften issues caused by climate change (Ostrom, 1991; Wilkinson, 2019 or http://www.kkwilkinson.com/).

How we are doing this?
We are facilitating the building of a community kitchen that will allow women to receive economic empowerment. The kitchen will be administered and maintained by women of settlement.

How it works.
One of the strong barriers that need to be surpassed when empowering women in the settlement is that they need to improve the capability of decision. Women need to be able to use their voice in decision-making spaces. While segregated to their housing activities, they have no time either conditions to put their voice in community negotiations.

With this project, they will show their talents as managers, administrators, and innovators.

It will strengthen the collective actions and social and economic strength of women and their families (IPEA, 2013 PT-BR).

Supporting women to build the structure for an innovative activity on the settlement will make them able to present themselves to the challenging work to administer their own business, adding value through the processing of agricultural local products.

What we expect to achieve.
To facilitate women activity giving basic condition for new initiatives. Changing the meetings where women silence were present to community meetings where they will have an active voice and shared decisions.

And in the long run...
We expect to bring other initiatives, by women hands, like Agroforests (Gotsh, 2015).

and digital literacy to the community, allowing a cyclic and generational process all driven to, and by, women's empowerment.