A portrait of three girls eating at SOS Children's Villages Tomilino, Russia

Empowering women: The work of SOS Social Centre El Alto

El Alto is one of the youngest but also one of the poorest cities of Bolivia. Its inhabitants, made up manly by indigenous migrants from the countryside, have brought with them not only hope, but also a set of social problems. As underprivileged part of the patriarchal society especially women suffer from the poor living conditions. Isabel Poma, director of SOS Social Centre El Alto, talks about the help SOS Children’s Villages is offering to women.

The general situation of women in El Alto and Bolivia is rather difficult and complex and has not changed significantly within the last five years. Women continue suffering the social exclusion imposed by the condition of oppression of a patriarchal organization of the country. In spite of the governments' discourse in favour of women, the deficient working situation, the lack of education, discrimination and sexual abuse keep the majority of women under oppression.

The economy of mothers

Women in El Alto need a lot of help. The average working day of a woman in Bolivia counts more than 15 hours. Besides taking care of the children and household about 80 per cent of mothers are additionally dedicated to commerce. Women sell goods informally at the different street markets at different neighbourhoods and thereby make between 10 to 20 Bs. (USD 1.2 to 2.5) per day. They hereby make approximately 200 to 400 Bs. (USD 25 to 50) per month. In many cases the mother’s and father’s income is not at all high enough to cover basic needs like housing, food and education.

Working cooperatively for the development of women

SOS Children’s Village offers workshops oriented to improve skills and self esteem of women. “Before I was very shy and didn’t have many friends. Taking part in the workshops of the Social Centre I changed a lot”, tells the 28 year old mother Evia Rivero about her experience.

The SOS Social Centres cooperate with other organisations and public institutions, who give women small credits to start a small business. The main problem, though, is that most women don’t count with the basic competence or qualifications to run a business properly, especially the young ones. Being one of the requirements for a credit to prove some sort of basic working skills, many women are neglected the chance to improve their life conditions.

The workshops we are offering at the Social Centre are oriented to qualify the work of women and thereby enable them to get a credit and start their own business. Our trainings concentrate on different areas, as for example Indian women's skirt making, the craft of macramé, cake making, cleaning, domestic work techniques, and many more. But besides these skills, there is a lot more that the participating women take with them. Through our workshops and activities they improve the perception of themselves and the possibility of changing their personal and family. Seeing themselves reflected in other women with similar experiences helps many of these women to address and change their problems. With patient and firm monitoring, their abilities and self-esteem improve. They work towards personal development goals which they can fulfil with the support of their friends and the SOS staff. These commitments range from paying the fees for their children at the programmes to changing the way they present themselves, improving their living conditions - buying a bed so that their children can sleep separately, for example - or continuing to study. Little by little the women who take advantage of the opportunities begin to take control of their life and their families. They develop skills to plan their time and their expenditure. Their commitments, which before were small and verbal, become life plans that help to direct them and are written down. Most of the women fulfil their commitments. Some do not but the other women encourage them.

Married or unmarried?

The women coming to our Social Centre are mainly cohabiting mothers, who have not yet got married. This is a cultural thing. In the rural area, it is common for couples to cohabit for two or three years and have children freely in what they call "sirwiñaco" (Aymara marriage) before they get married at the occidental style. According to their ancient traditions, a couple is engaged whenever the engagement has taken place in the presence of the local community authorities. So, it is the social control of the community and authorities that give faith to the new union. But such social control in a large community like El Alto is no longer effective, and couples tend to separate. Women are more vulnerable and more likely to end up taking care of their children all alone.

Intrafamily violence

Intrafamily violence is still a very important problem in El Alto. But, unlike the local government authorities' procedures that suggest separation or divorce in most cases, at the centre we work hard on the re-integration of the family. Against all odds, we have found out that most women who suffer intrafamily violence do not actually want to separate. What they want is to have someone to talk to their husbands in order for them to change their attitudes toward their wives.

In some cases, the problems of violence are culturally bound. There is the belief that husbands do have the right to beat their wives. You can often hear the expression: "My man has the right to beat me!" woman often justify it as a sign of jealousy or love.

What we do then is to encourage the couple to visit the social centre. We talk to them separately and together, concentrating our talks on two things: human rights and self-esteem. Believe it or not, men also live with very low levels of self-esteem and, normally, they beat their wives due to their personal frustrations. Therefore, as we work on the prevention of child abandonment, we believe this is the best way to support the families and help them renovate their family ties.