INA Mujer

The woman we spoke with explained that her job is to promote the Afro Venezuelan perspective in the Government.
She had been recently elected as the general coordinator for the League of Afro Ven. Women for a two year term.
“I will be in charge of promoting our norms and practices having to do with health etc.
The tourist towns on the beaches are enclaves of Afro Ven. History. AIDS is a big problem in these areas.
Statistics that the ministry of health are only coming from people who are getting treated.
With out women organized we have done a community review.
We are providing written and audio visual material, linked to the UN.
In Three states they will start pilot projects to help with these issues.

We are calling out for all women to march with us on International Woman’s day. We are calling for regulations of material in the media about images of women. From the Regulating Board of Media and the Ministry of Communication.
We are also organizing the 3rd national congress of women Internationals are invited.

We have been organizing 18,000 different grassroots organizations, that all form part of Ina Mujer. Each organization has between 5-50 women.
Ina Mujer is trying to work with congress to promote the law about violence against women. The law is the first of its kind in Venezuela. It typifies the types of violence. The law has nonsexist language.
We are also working with the organizations that take in the complaints from the women, such as the police.

They also work with the Central University’s Women’s studies Dept. on various issues.

There is a lot of work to be done to raise consciousness about diversity and inclusion among women.
Afro Venezuelans are discriminated against in 3 ways:
1. Gender
2. Race
3. Class

There is a presidential commission for the prevention of xenophobia, everyone showed up for the first day for the picture, but since then the minister of education and the minister of communication have not showed up again to the meetings.

As of now, the government does not use language that reflects Afro Venezuelans, they only say that they are descendants of slaves.
“We have had to give a lot of workshops to raise consciousness about the role of Afro Venezuelans in the common image of what people have of a Venezuelan is.
One state has made progress around including text and pictures to show that Afro Ven. Identity.
With three years of w, there has been little advancement, but we hope to advance with this model.

Ina Mujer
The institute for Woman’s studies came from the fight of women to include the vision of women.
One woman in Ina Mujer has been working to consolidate the 18,000 woman’s organizations. However, there are municipalities that are not even very far from Caracas that do not have Woman’s organizations.

We also work with CEDAW, and international organization. Ina Mujer has a committee that works with this organizations, which was formed by 165 countries at a UN committee.
“We use this to propel our work for women. We report back our results about advances. An error is that we have not yet given feedback about our critique of the suggestions of the UN committee.
“transcending gender is even too radical for many women in power, so much is put off in the gov. involving women’s issues.” “ The mistake is that these issues need to include the idea that gender issues area bout men as well. This would transcend the idea that women’s issues are about harassment etc. and language, which are just symptoms. The cause is gender inequality. When you change a word, you are not changing the actions. The fact that each women is unique, because there is not equality among women.

The Organic Law of Prevention and attention to violence against women and families.
The law typifies all the different abuses.
The general fiscal agent has set aside 100 public defenders to work on this law.
Along with the law, Ina Mujer will be training the public defenders, raising their consciousness.
One woman who worked there said, “The most important thing is the manifestation of respect. Gender studies is commonly reduced to the study of women. The idea of equality has not yet been integrated on the individual or societal level.”

Another accomplishment for women is the mission Madres del Barrio (Mothers of the Neighborhood). This mission is trying to raise consciousness about the woman’s ability to be creative and work.
The social worker comes and involves them in the other missions, so they have what they need, and also they can apply/ use their skills in the community.

My thoughts:
I think that Madres del Barrio is going to be more effective than the US welfare system for many reasons. Social workers visiting the women in their community, making sure that they are contributing to the projects that are happening in the community, making sure that they are using the education, food and health missions so that they are staying healthy and learning, is a process that makes sense.
I originally heard about the program from feminists who were describing it as compensation and value of the work that goes on in the home, which contributes to society by nourishing and raising children. This seemed like a powerful idea when I heard it.However, I think it is not complete because I see the “mothering instincts” as socially created, and the ideal that we should be pushing for is true equality, which would mean sharing of the work that people do in the home.
However, in the case of a single parent, there needs to be extra help if the income is not sufficient.