Association of Rural Women Workers from the Junco and Rodrigues Lakes – AMTR

The selected project will continue the process of female leadership training, dealing with issues such as gender inequality, economic discrimination, sexual violence and the environmental devastation wrought by economic ventures. Around 120 participants will become agents for the spread of human rights culture in eleven communities of the Middle Mearim micro-region in Maranhão.

– Holding the “Regional Meeting of Babassu Coconut Processors of the Lago do Junco/Lago dos Rodrigues region,” with the participation of partner institutions, to discuss: Gender and Environment; Women’s Reproductive Health; and Women’s Policies;

– Organization of the “Public Act in Lago dos Rodrigues,” to present the demands of rural extractivist communities in front of the municipal authorities;

– Meetings and assemblies of the AMTR to strengthen the women’s network;

– Participation in exchange programs with other organizations, seminars and study groups.

The Middle Mearim region, in central Maranhão, was the scene of bloody agrarian conflicts in the 1970s and 80s, when there were strong incentives in place for intensive livestock operations. A strong environmentalist women’s movement emerged, arising from mothers’ clubs connected to the Catholic Church and rural trade unions. The group fought for better living conditions for their families, for social and political recognition of their constructive role in society based on equitable gender and generational relations, and for the preservation of babassu groves.

It was in that context, and the struggle for access to and preservation of babassu groves, that the Association came to be, on May 14, 1989. The group campaigned to pass the Free Babassu Municipal Law, which establishes the freedom of the babassu processors to access the trees on public and private land.

Today the Association is based in Lago dos Rodrigues (Maranhão), 330 kilometers from the capital, São Luís. It holds training workshops and study groups on gender, female empowerment, political organization and participation; in defense of the babassu groves, fighting to get new environmental legislation approved and for the enforcement of already existent laws; and income generation through babassu harvesting and processing.

The group’s project “Women of fiber: breaking shells and re-inventing life through the struggle for gender, racial and ethnic equality” was selected as part of the 2010 Call for Proposals.

Assema – the Settlement Areas Association of Maranhão is an important partner for this project. With institutional experience in dealing with questions of gender through the program “Organization of Women,” it will contribute by directly advising the processors’ organizations in their work.

The project will also rely on the support of local organizations and communities where study groups are formed: AMTR, MIQCB, COPPALK and COOPAESP.