Women’s Association of Southeast Pará Amazon Rainforest – AMMASP

The association will contribute to capacity building and training of peasant women, enhancing their liaision and organizational leadership in building a sustainable development project in the southeast of Pará.

The following approaches have been planned: the importance of women in popular organizations and unions; gender relations; violence against women; public policies for peasant women; women’s role in the preservation of the Amazon; diversification of production based on agroecological principles; and production of crafts from non-wooden forest products.

The idea is to equip women so they can contribute to community organization and conduction/management of the agricultural venture, acting directly in the definition and discussion of public policies for family agriculture with an agro-ecological approach and for a solidarity economy.

According to the association, women’s work in rural areas is still defined as “help”. This concept is based on very strong historical and social discrimination due to the reproduction of unequal relations between the genders in society and, particularly, in rural areas. The devaluation of women and their work is a constant, both in family relationships and in public spaces. The contribution of peasant women in the economic sphere is undervalued since the outcome of their work is intrinsically linked to the private space of home and family, which has hindered their participation in the spaces of discussion and public policy making.

Founded in December 2008, AMMASP’s mission is to be an organization that represents other associations and groups of women. The idea is to be an integration and exchange center among peasant women of southeastern Pará cities in the fight for better living and working conditions, and sustainable human development in the rural area.

Since its inception, AMMASP has carried out many activities involving women from four cities, such as workshops and seminars focusing on diversification of agricultural production, non-use of pesticides and inputs and alternative food, raising awareness about violence against women, and public policies for women, among other topics.