Strengthening the Rights of Children and Women in Bolivia
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Development. Copyright © 2001 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (200106) 44:2; 99–103; 017711.
Local/Global Encounters
Strengthening the Rights of Children and Women in Bolivia NANCY SALINAS A R D AYA A N D CLAUDIA SCHACHINGER
ABSTRACT Nancy Salinas Ardaya and Claudia Schachinger show how the SOS social centres are successfully strengthening both women’s and children’s rights among very poor communities in Bolivia. KEYWORDS education; employment; empowerment; food security; health
Women and children in Bolivian society Bolivia is among the poorest countries in Latin America.1 Only 46.6 percent of the population has access to proper health services (Ministerio de Salud y Previsión Social, 2000). Around 40 percent of under fives suffer from malnutrition (UNICEF, 1998) and the mortality rate amongst the same age group is 83 out of 1000 (UNICEF, 2000), most caused by preventable diseases. Insufficient resources and the disparity between modern and traditional medicine further this situation despite free access to health services. Primary education is obligatory, but real access is limited. Around 85 percent of the children enter the primary cycle, but just 60 percent finish it (Presidencia de la República, 1998). The children staying at home often do domestic tasks or work outside the home in order to compensate for low family incomes, particularly when parents are unemployed.2 Many families are torn apart in the search for work, often separated for long periods of time, sometimes for ever. Child abuse is also rampant (DCI, 1997: 189).3 In this context, children do not perceive their families as places of shelter and growth, rather the opposite. Despite modern laws women remain in their traditional role as caregivers, charged with education, health care and overall protection of children. Often they have to make extra efforts to compensate for lacking services or support from the government and a husband in bringing up their children. Bolivian
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Development 44(2): Local/Global Encounters culture supports this male-gender bias and there is no educative corrective process. This ‘machismo’ and female inferiority is perpetuated and passed on to the next generation – children are accustomed to these gender roles and recreate them later on. The society is also very adult-centred, children and their needs are almost invisible, and issues of children’s rights and protection are given little attention. The aims and activities of the SOS Social Centres SOS Children’s Villages provide children with no family to care for them a new home. The SOS Social Centres complement this work within local communities, in order to prevent the abandonment of children and as an instrument in fighting poverty and exclusion. The SOS Social Centres in Bolivia began in 1985. Currently five centres are operating in Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Tarija, Oruro and Sucre; a new one is being planned in Potosí. They are located in poore
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