Chiapas Women Invest In The Future

摘要

Responsible for half the world's food production, women play a key role in sustainable food security, particularly in developing countries. Yet they have considerably less access to land and investment funds than men. That is why microcredit, celebrated by an International Year in 2005, often seems like the only solution to break poverty's vicious circle. An example: In the province of Chiapas (Mexico) women are taking advantage of both loans and literacy classes, provided by a programme UNESCO supports. Maria Perez Perez, from the district of Zinacantan, never thought she would be able to learn to hold a pencil at 48, or pick up an exercise book and scan the lines to make sense of its content. "I didn't go to school when I was a girl because I had to look after the animals, and help my parents, who were very poor. But now I regret never having made the effort to learn," says Maria, who like the vast majority of indigenous women, only speaks her mother tongue.