The Extractivist Women's Secretariat

Founded in 1995 as part of the National Council of Rubber Tappers, the Secretariat works to defend the rights and interests of women working in the extractivist reserves of the Amazon forest.

Extractivist women work as babaçu coconut breakers, rubber tappers, nut collectors, fisherwomen and small-hold farmers. In many cases they are single mothers and the sole provider for their families.

Extreme isolation and a lack of access to healthcare, information, education, and public policies are the norm. As a result, many women are unaware of their rights as human beings and citizens. The local culture is highly patriarchal, and throughout private and public spheres women are regarded as inferior.

But projects run by the Extractive Women’s Secretariat in the areas of gender equality, healthcare, political participation, and domestic violence are supporting forest women and communities to work towards greater rights and equality for women.

In 2000, the Extractive Women’s Secretariat (EWS) embarked on The Forest Women’s Baggage – a project that reaches even the most isolated Amazon communities in order to provide education about the female body, reproductive health, family planning, and HIV prevention. In wooden huts, on river shores, under trees and in people’s homes, communities gather to build bridges towards happier family and community lives. Slowly, EWS has won the confidence of communities and begun discussions about women’s rights and equality.

EWS makes sure to include the men at every meeting in order to build understanding about women’s rights and involve them in building relationships based on mutual respect. The Baggage project uses a ‘forest pedagogy’ which is sensitive to the culture of the forest communities - it uses local music, tales and images in order to create videos and resources in a language that can be readily understood.

A workshop on health and women's rights in the Reserve Rio Branco Joaperi in Roraima, near the Venezuelan border

EWS have also presented data about human rights abuses against women to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, and the Special Secretariat for Public Policies for Women. Among the most notorious abuses are:

• The denial of medical treatment. The rate of women dying from cancer of the cervix is very high; a major cause (besides a lack of medical staff) is husbands refusing to let their wives have gynaecological exams.
• Domestic violence, which is frequently aggravated by the excessive prevalence of alcoholism in some regions.
• Sexual coercion among the older generations, and the sexual abuse of young girls. When this results in pregnancy it is often disguised with the legend of the river dolphin that turns into a handsome man on moonlit nights and seduces girls and women.

Ministries had not been aware of the degree of rights abuses. As a result, the work of EWS has had a significant impact on the Public Health Policy for Field and Forest Populations, getting it to address the specific issues and needs of the forest women.

To ensure that profound change happens within communities, EWS train local men, women and young people to continue the work of the projects. They also support women’s organisations to form regional networks, helping bring them out of isolation. And because EWS has delegates working in all the Amazonian states and they participate in state and federal government working groups, their work has an impact beyond grassroots communities.

A major success for EWS came when Sandra Regina Pereira Gonçales – a woman who had benefited from participating in the activities of EWS – was elected as the first ever female President of an extractivist reserve.