As we reflect on the phrase chosen by many organizations and countries to commemorate International Women's Month in 2024, "Investing Women's Rights to Accelerate Equality", it is important to bring awareness to what this acceleration of equality truly means, how it is being seen globally, but mainly, we should ask ourselves if this acceleration of equality is leading us all to the same place and at the same speed.
If we could look around us, we might have some answers to the questions we ask ourselves, but often we don't understand what 'equality' means simply because we are unaware of how far inequality can go, and that is something we want to talk about now. How far is inequality happening around us? We can start in Bolivia, where our artisan partners live; that's how we learned about Project Suma.
During the past Christmas holidays, we were able to collaborate with a project in Bolivia that has been working for over two decades with hundreds of women who have been left far behind by the 'acceleration of equality'. The violence and discrimination exercised against them have left them in conditions of such marginalization that many have come to believe that their voice has no value. This project has taught us that we do not exist to give back voice or value to anyone but to combat, through our actions, all those systems of practices and beliefs that want to keep women out of any sphere of development to continue exploiting their lives and bodies. This project supports adult women who have been victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking, addressing the most dramatic situations we can imagine, and if we were asked now what we understand by inequality, well, it is sexual exploitation to which all women are exposed when they are deprived of the bare minimum needed to live with dignity.
Therefore, what has been our response to such an approach? To join their cause from the position we occupy today, as a company that advocates for the creation of job opportunities free from all forms of exploitation, to eradicate all forms of exploitation, that is what we understand today by 'investing in women's rights to accelerate equality'.
It has been an honor to meet Project Suma on this journey, and we are very excited to prepare bigger projects in the not-too-distant future. Today we understand that our vision of equality through fair and ethical trade is closely related to the exploitation-free life for women and girls that Project Suma envisions, therefore, we reaffirm our commitment to our values and theirs, thanking all of you for being part of all this too.
If you want to collaborate directly with them, here you have further information to connect with this amazing project www.projectsuma.org
Lorena is our founder's sister who has been working in Project Suma since 2019, currently she is the Advocacy Coordinator of the organization.
Yanawara partnered with Project Suma last Christmas with the Holiday Postcards made by survivors in an Art Healing Workshop, among other projects.