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Relaying the Charter at the Honduras-El Salvador Border
By Flor Lazo, La Unión/ San Miguel
"No violence and no poverty: another world is possible." That was the battle cry of some 300 Honduran feminists at the border in El Amatillo when they handed over the Women's Global Charter for Humanity and the Global Solidarity Quilt to dozens of their Salvadorian sisters. These symbols are circling the world to communicate the message of equality, freedom, solidarity, peace and justice and contribute to ending poverty and violence against women.
The March began on March 8 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is continuing through the Americas, and ultimately reaching Burkina Faso, in Africa, on October 17, 2005. Along the way, feminists are holding education and information activities on the Charter's content and attaching a square to the global quilt that is serving as the emblem of the struggle for women's rights.
Relaying the Charter
The symbolic act of relaying
the Charter from Honduran women to Salvadorian women took place under a
hot sun at the frontier, El Amatillo de La Unión. Maria Viriginia Díaz,
member of the Honduran Women's Studies Centre, said that in her
country, the March began on April 14, when a delegation of Cuban women
presented them with the feminists emblems.
Earlier, the March crossed
through Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Bolivia, and Haiti; from El Salvador,
it travels through Guatemala and Mexico, continuing until it reches its
final destination in Africa. "We held an action in front of the
National Congress to demand that our country's legislators promulgate
laws to protect women's rights. In our country, we record three
feminicids per week and no one acts to stop this violence or properly
investigate the assassinations," deplored Ms. Diaz.
Crossing El Salvador
Salvadorian women then took
the Charter in San Miguel. There, another group of 300 women, arriving
from the eastern sections of the country, held a cultural activity. Ana
Isabel López, coordinator of El Salvador's national March committee,
explained the content and history of the Charter to partiipants and
emphasized the importance of fighting poverty and violence against
women. "This document is based on the rights to equality, freedom,
solidarity, justice and peace to which all women are entitled, and it
is an invitation to change the world," she said.
The caravan then moved on to
Cojutepeque. Later, it heads to San Salvador where women will hold a
public education event and award will be presented to the artist who
created the winning quilt spquare.
Salvadorian women will give the feminist emblems to Guatemalan women and will accompany them to the Mexican border.
