March 8, International Women’s Day
"The human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of
universal human rights. The full and equal participation of women in political, civil, economic, social
and cultural life, at the national, regional and international levels, and the eradication of all forms of
discrimination on grounds of sex are priority objectives of the international community."
[Vienna Declaration, part 1, Paragraph 18]
30 years after recognition by United Nations of March 8 as International Women's Day, great progress has been made and the struggle for gender equity has started to show results. Slowly, women's role in daily life is no longer so discriminating and is reaching the equity levels that should have been present in the first place.
Precisely because of this, because we think that gender equality is a transversal and an extremely important issue for development, Entreculturas wants to join this celebration and, why not, this demand that still has many issues pending. Among them: education, one of the fundamental pillars that we defend. According to the Global Campaign for Education, around 80 million children, world wide, do not have access to school; more than half of which are girls.
The denial of this basic right is in itself a human rights violation and is particularly discriminating regarding girls, who in many cases cannot attend school because they have to attend household chores or because intellectual formation is not considered a priority for them.
In Entreculturas, since we consider necessary to end this unjust situation, we promote awareness raising campaigns and we support projects that promote equal gender opportunities for boys and girls. Because an equal world will only be achieved by an equal education.
Quispicanchi (Peru), gender equity promotion
In Peru, one out of four girls, from 12 to 17 years old, quits school. Those who remain have to repeat grades, so that in third grade of primary school, four out of five girls is older than they should be for their school level. The school access and attendance problem for girls is aggravated in rural areas such as Quisquipanchi in Cuzco. In this area, the majority of families live in extreme poverty and consider their daughter's work as something normal and necessary. This affects school enrolment, attendance, failure and abandon.
In view of this, Fe y Alegría Peru has been supporting during past years a gender equity promotion project in rural schools so as to increase girl attendance in primary school. It is therefore necessary to make teachers, parents and girls aware of the need to attend school and finish at least their primary education.
Strengthening education in the younger ones, especially girls, to whom this right is mostly denied, is the fundamental tool with which Fe y Alegría works to achieve human promotion in deprived populations. It is seen as an answer to the marginal social conditions of large population sectors in Latin America and Caribbean countries.