Oaxaca Learning Center Women’s Group
After months of research, planning and organization, the Women’s
Support Group at the Learning Center was launched in early August
2008. The founding coordinator of the group was Anabel Gómez
García, a seventh-semester student in the School of Architecture
of UABJO, the state university. Anabel previously had been a
tutor at the Center, teaching mathematics and physics. Anabel
has recently passed the baton to Sonia Bautista León
who has been the coordinator of our Las Lomas center.
About half of the Center’s students are young women,
mainly between the ages of 12 and 18, although there are also
a few older women enrolled in the program.
“Women today, especially adolescents and young women,
need information, advice and support in their life decisions.
The role of women in our society has changed radically since
the time of our mothers and grandmothers,” Anabel pointed
out. In organizing the group, Anabel worked with a visiting
scholar from the United States, Heather Berg, who is doing graduate
work in international feminist issues. They developed an initial
questionnaire which they distributed to 25 Center students.
All of those responding acknowledged the need for such a mutual
support group and confirmed their interest in participating.
The issues, in rank order, which most concerned them were:
Sexual issues and information;
Women’s rights;
Violence and self-image;
School and work;
Interpersonal relationships.
The goal of the group will be to meet weekly at the Center,
in order to provide ongoing social and psychological support.
Women in Mexican society have traditionally been relegated
to a secondary role, with fulfillment to be achieved in marriage.
The advent of birth control, the growing presence of women in
the workplace and a variety of global cultural influences have
profoundly affected this model. In Oaxaca, the current generation
of young women may be experiencing the most rapid change historically
in this process.
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Of special concern to Jaasiel, the Center coordinator, is the steady improvement of the Center’s services, in particular making the tutoring as focused and as useful as possible. That priority goes hand in hand with his personal commitment to bring more students into the program.
“The two hardest populations for us to reach are girl students and indigenous students coming into the city from distant villages. Neither group is used to having free services targeted for them. The challenge is to reach out to them and bring them in.” |
