We hope this letter finds you well.  We would like to share with you some of MuJER’s accomplishments and successes, both of which have been made possible with your support of our efforts.

Establishment of our Community Empowerment Center in February 2009

In just over three years, MuJER went from offering literacy classes in the women’s work rooms at the La Linea red light district to opening a multi-service community center to serve female sex workers throughout Guatemala City.  MuJER’s Empowerment Center offers semester-long educational and vocational courses, as well as short-term self-esteem, leadership, and anti-violence workshops.  Our Center also provides a safe place for the women to meet, relax, and build constructive relationships with other sex workers.

Creation of Educational and Vocational Opportunities

MuJER has worked with more than 300 different women sex workers in Guatemala.  In the last two years alone, we have worked with six women in basic literacy and 17 women have participated in accelerated elementary school program (grades 1-6).  Six women have received their sixth grade diploma.  We have had 70 women participate in our vocational programs (computer classes, cosmetology school, jewelry-making, basic English, and embroidery).  We currently have waiting lists for vocational classes and are hoping to expand our capacity to meet demand.  We have begun a hand-made jewelry business to provide a source of alternative income for women sex workers.  In addition, we have provided scholarships to women from our community for vocational training and have subsequently hired these women to teach classes at the Empowerment Center.

Empowerment of Sex Workers through Personal Relationships

When we first arrived at La Linea, the women viewed us with skepticism.  Day after day, MuJER’s two staff members visited the red light district and earned the women’s trust.  As the relationships developed, the women opened up to us, revealing their real names and personal stories.  A MuJER staff member continues to meet weekly with the women of La Linea, and this year we expanded our services to include personal visits with women at a second red light district, El Trebol.

With the trust developed through these weekly visits, MuJER engages its participants to speak up for themselves, to develop positive relationships with other sex workers, and to organize as a community to advocate for their rights.  We have encouraged leadership development and have trained women to speak at forums and events that address violence against women, prostitution, and human trafficking.  It is often through MuJER that Guatemalan sex workers become active in promoting their rights for the first time.

Our Goals for 2010

In 2010 we are hoping to rent one more classroom for our community center, which would enable us to offer a wider variety of classes to the women.  We are also planning to double the number of anti-violence and self-esteem workshops we offer.  In addition, we are in the process of developing a lending library for the women so that they can borrow books and read to their children at home. This program will be accompanied by “Mommy and Me” Reading Workshops at the Empowerment Center. We also intend to increase the number and variety of handicraft classes we offer and to assist the women in developing small businesses.  We will continue to help Guatemalan sex workers organize on behalf of their rights and we are currently attempting to reform anti-prostitution legislation which has victimized, rather than assisted, the women of our community.

Please visit us at www.mujerguatemala.org to take a look at our new website, learn more about our programs, and become more involved in support of our cause.  Thank you again for your support.  We hope you agree that your donations have been put to good use and that you will continue to support us in the future.

Sincerely,

Jodi Finkel, Ana Moraga, Tania Torres

Founders, MuJER

In addition, we were awarded a $1600 grant from the Open Meadows Foundation. The grant will provide funds to conduct three workshops on Guatemala’s Anti-Trafficking Law as well as to continue with our weekly “travelling workshops/personal visits” at three red light districts in Guatemala City. We use these workshops to go door-to-door at La Linea, El Trebol, and Parque Concordia. With these visits, we maintain trust with the women, are made aware of their immediate needs as well as their long-term aspirations, and can also educate them about their legal rights, emotional health issues, sex worker concerns.

Our past financial awards include:

Cordaid (2009) $13,000

Starbucks Innovation Fund (2009) $15,000

Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network (2008) $500

Global Fund for Women (2008) $5000

Mama Cash (2007) 10,000 Euro

Urgent Action Fund (2007) $4627

Democracy Council (2007) $1000

Youth Action Net Award (2007) $500

Jesuit Community of Loyola Marymount University (2006) $1000

Dean’s Office, Belarmine Collge, Loyola Marymount University (2006) $1000

Much of our programming—including semester-long educational and vocational courses as well as short-term self-esteem and anti-violence workshops—takes places at our Empowerment Center . The Center, located in a colonial house in downtown Guatemala City (not far by bus from several red light districts), includes a communal area, a class room, a courtyard, and a small office. Our Center provides a safe place for the women to spend time, relax, discuss their needs, and build constructive relationships with other women sex workers. It also serves as a home-base from which we can educate women about their rights and help them organize to address their collective concerns.

While working with the women of our first red light district, La Línea , we noticed that although the women were bettering their skill sets through our programs, they were hesitant to consider alternative employment opportunities because they did not believe that they deserved a better life. Since low self-esteem also means that women are unable to stand up for themselves or to speak out against the discrimination, abuse, and violence they face every day, we realized that we needed to help women sex workers develop a sense of self-worth and a belief in their right to enjoy a better life. We see this happening at our center every day.  In fact, is often as a member of “MuJER” that Guatemalan sex workers become active in promoting their rights as well as the rights of others in the sex worker community.

El martes fue muy potente para mi. Fui con Wendy al Trébol y a La Línea. Entendí que MuJER solamente ha ido al Trébol para visitar a las trabajadoras allá por un mes o algo así. Pues, no conocen a las mujeres allá muy bien. Wendy y yo nos acercamos a las mujeres para distribuir nuestros volantes sobre mi clase de ingles y para presentarles la organización y nuestros programas. Algunas mujeres eran muy amables y querían hablar con nosotros y venir a nuestros programas, pero otras eran menos accesibles y no nos sentimos muy cómodas al acercárnosles. Había mucho silencio en el Trébol entonces fuimos a La Línea. En La Línea, había mas mujeres que Wendy conocía. Hablamos con ellas sobre mi clase pero no tuvimos que presentarles la organización. Las mujeres en La Lina conocían a Wendy y se sentían muy cómodas con ella. Unas de las mujeres nos invitaron a sentarnos en sus camas para platicar un poco con ellas.

En mi opinión, La Línea es diferente del Trébol ciertas cosas. Por ejemplo, El Trébol es un lugar con muchos bares y hoteles y habían unas mujeres con ropa indígena. Las mujeres esperaban con sus compañeras a los clientes. La Línea era menos discreta. Allá, hay líneas de tren y en los dos lados hay cuarto tras cuarto que cada mujer está alquilando. Las mujeres esperan atrás de las puertas de sus cuartos o en los cuartos de sus compañeras. Los cuartos están muy cerca uno del otro. También, había mucha policía en La Línea que se queda allá.

Estaba un poco asustada de ir a La Línea porque yo escuche que es muy peligroso pero no me sentí asustada cuando estábamos allá. Esta excursión me recordó por que vine aquí. Cuando decidí seguir esta practica con MuJER, quería saber si podía trabajar en los lugares y en las situaciones mas desafiantes para mi. Al principio, me sentí tonta al acercarme a las mujeres y tratar de convencerlas de venir a nuestros programas porque las mujeres pasaron por muchas cosas. Creo que voy a pensar sobre estas preguntas durante mi tiempo aquí y no se si voy a conseguir la respuesta, pero, en ultima instancia, no es muy importante. Lo que me importa es mejorar el respeto hacia estas mujeres y entender lo que pueda mejorar sus vidas un poco.

La Línea (the Railroad Tracks), the downtown red light district where MuJER began, spans three blocks. About 200 women work there on any given day. The women rent small, cramped rooms. In addition to daily rent, the women must also pay an extortion fee to local gangs who demand a “war tax” for “protection.”

MuJER now works with women in two other Guatemala City red light districts, El Trebol and Parque Concordia.  We are also expanding our services by offering programs for sex workers in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala’s second largest city.  Currently, we work with over 350 women.

Once a week, a handful of women gather to teach and learn from each other various jewelry making techniques and styles. MuJER assists the women by providing them with a safe space and/or helping them gather in their own community. MuJER also provides the materials and tools free of charge.

In order to help out the women by purchasing one of their hand-made products, please visit http://www.mujer.cfsites.org/

Upon discovering the women’s profession, the organizer throws them out of the tournament. For the women, the expulsion creates a great deal of controversy, rejection, and support that transforms their lives.

Language: Spanish with English subtitles. 93 minutes

To purchase the DVD visit our website.

Since 2005, MuJER has made available a literacy program Leer es Poder (Reading is Power), computer classes, and English language classes to women in Guatemala City’s downtown red light district, La Línea (the railway line) and to the city’s greater community of sex workers. Many women in La Línea lack access to education and/or skill training that would allow them to leave their current life of prostitution.

MuJER is happy to announce that our programs have since then expanded to include vocational scholarships and Beauty classes. “Noemi” and “Beatriz,” two sex workers from La Línea, received scholarships from MuJER in 2006. They have since then received training in Beauty and Cosmetology and on May 7, 2007 they were hired by MuJER to teach their new found skills to other sex workers.

MuJER would also like to welcome Wendy Rosales Mendez to our team. Wendy will be working as our Administrative Assistant. She will oversee the Documentation Center and monitor local media outlets for news on violence against women in particular within the sex worker community.

To find out more on how you can help by sponsoring a woman to take a vocational training course please visit our website: http://mujer.cfsites.org or email us at: leerespoder@gmail.com

Thank you so much,

Tania Torres and Ana Moraga
Executive Co-founders and Directors

On November 25th we were part of the only public manifestation we have seen in regards to the femicide. It was great!!! There were about 1000 people on the streets marching in front of city hall, the supreme court, the police building, congress, and the presidential house. There were big floats with signs asking for justice for women victims of violence in Guatemala.

A coalition of women’s organizations plan an event for 25 de noviembre every year. This day marks the international day of no violence against women. During the march it was announced that ironically on this day another woman had become part of the now over 2000 women brutally murdered in this country.

The zone where this woman was killed was announced too and although we knew this was the area of the basurero (garbage dump), where we work with Cuarto Mundo, it did not cross our mind that it would be one of the women Ana had worked with the one that was killed.

In the afternoon we found out the woman murdered had been Claudia – a 32-year-old that worked in the dumpster as a child and was run over twice by a garbage truck. Those accidents left her without legs and forced her to become a beggar on the streets that was carried around from one place to another by her boyfriend.

The last time Ana saw her she was at the usual corner where she lived and worked. She had been inhaling paint thinner for so long that she could not keep her head up, her eyesight was unfocused, and she had peed on herself. The Cuarto Mundo volunteer that was with Ana asked Claudia if she wanted to go to her aunt’s house who lived nearby. She refused and as the volunteer left to talk to her aunt, Claudia told Ana that last night her boyfriend had tried to kill her by suffocating her. Ana asked Claudia to go to her aunt’s house and she refused many times. Claudia’s death has now put a face to the femicide.

This systematic killing of women is no longer a number. We cannot think of Claudia as just one more to be added to the count. Ana’s personal relationship to this woman who the day after her death was found mutilated, with several bruises around her neck and chest, in a garbage bag in the dumpster has made the femicide a personal issue.

Working with Cuarto Mundo has challenged us to look at the root of violence. While it is important to fight for justice in the political and legal arena we are discovering that what matters at the end of the day for Claudia and for others in her situation is the connection, the conversations, and most importantly the regaining of dignity.

Claudia’s death has been difficult. It has left us feeling helpless knowing that there is no justice for her, that her death is not even being investigated. However, it leaves us more invested in the work we hope to do with the women of La Linea this upcoming year. It makes our mission to fight for women’s rights a personal one – to help the women of the train tracks find their voice through education.

The majority of the women of La Linea have resorted to prostitution to escape the extreme poverty like that of Claudia. Having no other choice, they throw themselves into an environment where they not only feel degraded and embarrassed but also where they must face the ever growing violence that women in Guatemala are forced to deal with. The women of La Linea have witnessed this violence first hand. They have told us stories of how they must deal with harassment from police, clients, family members, and pimps. They do not even feel comfortable talking about the femicide and or the march that occurred on November 25th for fear of others overhearing.

On a much more positive note, this past week we came to realize that our relationship with the women has deepened. They have opened up more and they have all shown interest in participating in the literacy program next year.

Susy, our inspiration for the program, informed us a couple of weeks ago that she has left La Linea. For fear of losing her children, she hopes to seek employment doing something else. While we are not sure if this is temporary or only a response to the pressure she had been receiving from social workers, we hope to continue building a relationship with her and are very optimistic about her aspirations to leave prostitution after more than 20 years as a sex worker.

Susy is the second woman from the soccer team to leave prostitution this past month.