Meeting again with Yanahir from Cariqual radio

Thursday evening I met with Yanahir Reyes who has a radio program at the Radio Periola station in Caricua. I invited Daniel and Megan to come along. We met up at 6pm at the metro station, and while we were waiting for Megan, Yanahir told us about the Internationa Woman’s conference that had taken place in Caracas last week. Only select groups could attend, so Yanahir was not able to go. I would have wanted to go as well, I had read about it in the news last month. Yanahir was commented how crazy it was that they were not trying harder to break down class boundaries in the women’s movement by inviting volunteer community groups from poor areas to attend. She did go and interview that attendees, with her tape recorder while the attendees were on break. Most of the Women she spoke with were from Latin American countries, but she did talk to a Canadian, and we helped her translate the response while we were participating in her radio show later that evening.

While we were waiting in the metro, she also talked about a small conference that had been put on by a North Amercan women who focuses on midwifery and humane birthing. The workshop/ conference was free and in Spanish. Yanahir wanted to attend a workshop that is happening in Costa Rica about similar themes, but it is way too expensive.
She spoke to us about the terrible practices and norms around birthing in Venezuela, especially poor areas with high birth rates. She explained how sexuality and safe sex are not talked about normally, even though the media and other parts of the culture are very sexualized. She explained that machismo plays a really big part in the high amount of pregnancies, because the guys refuse to use protection. She said that women are often afraid of getting hit by their partners so they don’t insist on it. Also, she said that low self esteem and self worth are huge problems that contribute to this.
She told us about women who try to abort their babies through terrible and dangerous means, because abortion is illegal and only available to the rich who can afford it. She explained a few really gruesome practices for self abortion that she had seen on a video.
Yanahir also spoke about the problems with the birthing process. Women in labor are not accompanied by anyone, they are alone with the doctors and nurses. Cesarean sections are very common, not because it is necessary, but because it is better for the doctors. Cesareans are also more expensive, so it is worse for the poor women.

*I should look into if the Barrio Adentro programs are helping with births.

Before the interview started, as we were walking around, Yanahir talked about how she is buying an apartment with her mother. Her mother recently divorced her father, because he is physically abusive, he is a fighter for socialism, but he is machista. Yanahir said that the new laws about violence against women have made it easyer for women to get divorced.

The actual interview is on tape, and I have yet to write is down, but I will include it in this section when I have it done.
Some of the topics she spoke about were;
The history of the radio station Radio Perola,
Low self esteem contributing to the problems of girls and women and how the goal of her radio program is to focus on women and raise the esteem of women.
Her program is aimed at working women, women in the home, pregnant women and many other topics as well.
Socialism here is based on the work of women, the barrio adentro doctors, the majority of the consejo comunale participants, are women.
Violence against women is a big issue, included, plastic surgery is another very popular form of violence.