DEVELOPMENT-HONDURAS: Lenca Indigenous Woman Chosen for Prize

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejía

TEGUCIGALPA, Sep 13 1999 (IPS) - Isidora García, an indigenous woman of the Lenca community in Honduras, has not yet gotten over the surprise of being chosen by the Women’s World Summit Foundation (WWSF) for a prize for women’s creativity in rural areas.

“What can I say, I didn’t expect this,” García told IPS. “I never imagined that one day I would achieve these satisfactions vindicating my people, their customs and their humility.”

She smiled shyly as Honduran Rural Development Institute (IHDER) representatives and the director of the governmental Women’s Institute, María Martha Díaz, informed her that she would be flown to Switzerland to receive the prize in recognition of her work among rural women in this impoverished Central American nation.

The daughter of poor, illiterate Lenca Indians, García’s father died when she was just a year old, and she had to leave school at the age of eight to help her mother with the chores.

Dressed in the traditional colourful garb of the Lencas – an ethnic group that lives in western and central Honduras – García, now 40, said she planned to dedicate the rest of her life to her family and community education efforts among women.

The IHDER and the Women’s Institute nominated García for the international prize rewarded by the Switzerland-based women’s organisation to recognise and encourage people contributing to the development of remote, forgotten communities.

IHDER leader Oscar Aníbal Puerto told IPS that García “is a living example of a poor woman with no resources who overcame the odds, simply with the desire to be someone, to learn and to improve her lot in life.”

The prize, which García will receive next month in Switzerland, represents recognition of “the daily struggle waged by women in the countryside against poverty and marginalisation.”

Honduras’ seven indigenous groups account for 500,000 of a total population of 5.8 million. As in other Latin American countries, native peoples here tend to suffer higher rates of poverty, malnutrition and disease, and have a lower life expectancy than the rest of the population.

Given that situation of inequality, García decided 15 years ago to begin her silent struggle, organising grassroots women’s groups, promoting cooperatives and preaching the gospel in rural communities.

At a meeting organised by the Women’s Institute in Tegucigalpa, García said that “rewarding my efforts is to reward my people and the poor of Honduras.”

García began her struggle to overcome the odds at a young age. She married Claros Gómez at age 16, with whom she had 12 children.

At age 10, she began going to church, to learn about Roman Catholicism. Through listening to mass in rural churches, García learned it was important “to fight for the poor.”

When she turned 36, she decided to return to her studies, and finished her primary school education through the radio programme “El Maestro en Casa” (The Teacher at Home).

“It was nice to know I could read and write like many other people,” she said. “You cannot even imagine how I felt that day. It was a miracle.”

Studying at night, she carried out a number of activities in the daytime, manufacturing sun-dried bricks, carrying firewood, and tending her crops.

“I was a mule working, but I don’t regret that, because through my efforts other women became enthusiastic, and that’s how little by little we created what they call ‘Housewives Clubs’,” she recalled.