Indigenous women reclaiming identity, heritage, and rights
Asociación Femenina para el Desarrollo de Sacatépquez (AFEDES) was founded in 1988 and registered in 1994 in response to the challenges of food insecurity, chronic malnutrition, inequality, and exclusion of women in the municipality of Santiago Sacatepéquez. In this way, AFEDES started by developing actions that addressed these problems, as well as generating income to meet the basic needs of women and their families.
As AFEDES got more and more women organized, the demands for women’s rights increased, both in scale and due to the lack of comprehensive care services for women. As a result, since 2001, AFEDES expanded its vision, broadening its work on strengthening women’s leadership, including awareness, knowledge, and exercise of rights, and training women of all ages and their families about their economic, social, cultural and political rights.
AFEDES coordinates a range of diverse projects aimed at the physical, economic, and political autonomy of Indigenous women and their families. They promote food sovereignty, political education, and building human capacities, including training in indigenous weaving as part of indigenous traditional knowledge. In this framework, AFEDES is demanding that the Guatemalan government recognize their right to protect the collective ancestral intellectual property of Indigenous Mayan weaving designs and clothing.
Further Reading:
- AFEDES 2014 Report on Economic Alternatives for Political Resistance
- “Textiles are the books that the colony was not able to burn” – Written collectively by the women of AFEDES
- Weaving a Narrative
Learn more about AFEDES’ work on our blog.
Grassroots Brilliance
Stories of our partners' impact
Alternative Economies | Latin America
“We resist through the art”
The women of AFEDES stand up to corporate theft of Mayan designs.
Alternative Economies | Latin America
“We resist through the art”
The women of AFEDES stand up to corporate theft of Mayan designs.
Grassroots Leadership | Latin America
Indigenous. Woman. Leader.
AFEDES makes sure these three words are found together more often.
Food Sovereignty | Latin America
Defending maize, defending food
“This is our continued battle to defend the integrity and diversity of Mexico’s corn and its connection with an entire culture.”
Asia | Grassroots Leadership
Mobilizing millions
Rural women in Nepal are transforming the economic and political landscape in their country.
Africa | Grassroots Leadership
Stepping into power
An emerging young women’s movement is continuing the work of the previous generation of women’s rights leaders in Zimbabwe.
Alternative Economies | Latin America
A new bottom line
Putting people over profits means a new bottom line.
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