Dayana Martinez: Unique Voice Advocates for Honduran Women

Caroline Johansen
Honduras This Week

Andrea Gutierrez/Honduras This Week
Dayana Martinez speaks out against violence against women and also believes women need to be more involved in the political process in Honduras.

Even though women in Honduras were granted the right to vote and to run for elected office in 1955, in 2008, they still face the same gender inequality that has persisted in Honduran society.

Honduras is ranked 47 out of 93 countries according to the “Gender Empowerment Measure” (GEM) of 2007. The GEM is a method used by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to evaluate the progress in advancing women’s standing in political and economic forums. As the ranking of Honduras indicates, there is ample room for improvement.

However, Deputy Dayana Martinez, of the liberal party, is optimistic as more women become actively involved in politics. ”Politically, women are much better off than before.

The participation is much higher: Today there are 58 Congresswomen, whereas before there were only twelve. It is the first time we’ve seen this much female participation.”

Increased female participation is a vital step towards a more balanced Honduras in terms of gender equality. Through politics, women have the opportunity to challenge the patriarchal power structures which persist in Honduras and voice their needs and rights. “Women in Honduras today hold several important offices,” Martinez declares; a claim supported by the fact that female legislators, senior officials and managers make up 41 per cent of the government.

But Martinez admits that despite these improvements, more needs to be done. She finds it especially alarming that domestic violence against women continues to increase and that more cases have been reported where women have been beaten to death by their husbands. Even though several women shelters exist around the country, she believes more must be done in order to protect these women, by raising the collective consciousness.

Furthermore, the huge wage difference between men and women must also be examined by the government. According to the UNDP, in Honduras in 2005, the estimated earned income for women was 2160 (PPP US$), whereas for men it was 4680 (PPP US$). Men generally earned more than twice as much as women. And the situation has not improved: In 2007 the ratio of estimated female to male earned income was 0.46. These wage differences are not only a matter of women and men being employed in different sectors of the economy, but on the contrary, Martinez believes that it is not the difference in skills which determines the wages, but the gender: “Women and men working in the same fields still have different wages.”

Being blind and of Garifuna descent, Martinez has fought discrimination most of her life. She emphasizes that women with disabilities are the weakest, most vulnerable group in Honduras. “Women with disabilities face multiple discriminations and face social exclusion, since there is little respect for diversity [in Honduras today].”

In order to fight discrimination, Martinez believes it is vital to raise consciousness, creating awareness that we are all human beings and first class citizens, obliged to contribute to the development of Honduras. “We must change the stereotypes of women in society. The ‘perfect woman’ in today’s society should be tall, white, beautiful, and middle class. This needs to change.

We must work for inclusion.” She is convinced that all people must be included in this development, despite skin color, gender, or ethnic background, and the best way of doing so is to encourage a broader involvement in the local governments since “people must participate.”

As to why she entered politics, Martinez answers: “I wanted and still want people to see that we have the potential to fight, and that we have the right to fight.”

Honduran Fulbright Scholars Shine in Tegucigalpa

Aida Sabonge
Honduras This Week

Aida Savonge/Honduras This Week
Left to right: Karla Castañeda, U.S. Embassy Coordinator for Fulbright scholars, Dania Martinez, new AFH President and Jesús Simón, Tegucigalpa businessman.

In the midst of national political agreements and disagreements, and some confusion as to what one should do about the diplomatic dilemmas currently developing in the region, the Honduran Fulbright Association (AFH) recently held its annual assembly in Tegucigalpa.

Dania Martinez, in representation of the board of directors, stated the result of the many educational projects carried out this past year. Martinez informed AFH members of the 25 scholarships assigned to low-income high-school students who were sent to study English at the IHCI (the Honduran Institute of Interamerican Culture), the only English language center sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Honduras; she spoke of two scholarships per year for low-income high-school graduates as the achievement of Gabriela Nuñez, as Minister of Finances of Honduras, who is also a Fulbright scholar.

The Fulbright scholars and officials present also learned of Ambassador Charles Ford`s provision of two extra scholarships to obtain a Master’s degree in any university in the U.S. Finally, Martinez presented three students who have benefitted from the scholarships created by the members of the Honduran Fulbright Association.

The three expressed their gratitude for having had the opportunity to study English, a language that, as Fulbright scholar Jorge Aguilar declared, “is the one of the best investments we can make for the youth of our country.” The AFH assembly ended with the election of the new Board of Directors, to which Dania Martinez (President), Lucìa Duròn (Vice-President), Tethey Martinez (Secretary), Rosalì Dickerman (Treasurer), Lynet Kawas (Financial Advisor), Gilberto Lagos and Gabriela Garay (Speakers), were sworn in to their new positions.

The Honduran Fulbright Association is made up of 523 scholars who have, for the most part, obtained Master’s degrees in the United States with funds from the Fulbright Scholarship Foundation created by Senator J. William Fulbright, who hoped “that they might embody the kind of empathetic understanding so essential to the peaceful resolution of international conflicts.” Senator Fulbright represented the state of Arkansas from 1945 to 1974, serving also as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on a permanent basis. In the book “The Price of Empire,” by Seth P. Tillman, we read what Senator Edward M. Kennedy once said of Senator Fulbright: “Bill Fulbright is an insightful and eminent commentator on America’s role in a changing and challenging world....”

The Fulbright Scholarships in Honduras are deftly conducted by the U.S. Embassy’s State Department staff, and coordinated by Karla Fiallos Castañeda. Prominent Honduran Fulbright scholars include Tegucigalpa Mayor Ricardo Alvarez, Patricia and Gerardo Borjas, professors at the National Autonomous University, Mara Vallecillo, Nassim Farach, and many other business, cultural, and political leaders.

At the present time, the U.S. Embassy is offering educational scholarships for students and professionals.

For more information, go to http://honduras.usembassy.gov under the ‘Education’ link.

Honduran Student Awarded Scholarship to Study in Germany

Caroline Johansen
Honduras This Week

Andrea Gutiérrez/Honduras This Week
Jenny Rivera, center, accepts her award from Paul Reisch, German Ambassador to Honduras.

On August 28, his Excellency Paul Reisch, Ambassador of the German Federal Republic to Honduras, presented the “Beca Premium” to Jenny Rivera. Every year the Goethe Institute, together with the German Cultural Centre in Honduras and the German-Honduran Organization, awards the Beca Premium to the student of the German Beca Program who has shown an exemplarily academic performance and is over eighteen years old.

The Beca Pemium involves a month enrollment at the Goethe institute in Bonn (approximately 85 hours of classes). The flight to Germany, accommodations and health insurance are also covered by the Beca Premium. Jenny Rivera, who has studied German for two years, looks forward to this unique experience. She hopes her stay in Germany will improve her German further by allowing her to pick up typical everyday expressions and slang. She also looks forward to travel in Germany, visiting famous places and tasting German food.

HIV/AIDS: What Will it Take to Conquer the Disease?

Ivonne van Leest
Honduras This Week

Many of us over 40 came of age in an era where HIV/AIDS was not a significant threat. What was so different in those days? In reality, not much. We were taught abstinence before marriage and were warned about not getting pregnant or sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs). The “pill” was readily available, condoms were being used, and we could get the ‘morning after pill’ if we wanted.

We were also very conscious of people dying in Africa of malaria, tuberculosis (TB), cholera, typhus, yellow fever and all kinds of other diseases that didn’t pose a threat in the northern part of the world. So what has changed actually? Let’s take a closer look.

Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia were called the Third World in those days; Europe was called the First or Old World and North America, the Second or New World. Then everything changed, as it was considered bad form to point out the differences, so we start calling it the Northern and Southern hemisphere, although some simply said the rich and the poor. But then there were people saying that nomenclature wasn’t entirely correct either, so a few years later we started using ‘under-developed countries.’ Finally we changed that to ‘developing countries’ and ‘developed countries’ or ‘most developed countries,’ often referred to now as the ‘industrialized nations.’

No matter what kind of nametag was given, the images on TV of people dying of strange diseases were unforgettable to those of us in industrialized nations. Who doesn’t remember pictures of dying children in Biafra or the Congo? Some of those places have different names now, too.
But in spite of all the different names, one thing we agreed upon: those people needed help and we had an obligation to provide them with clean water, better education, better health care and ways to improve food production.

I lived in Angola for two years during the war and saw people dying of cholera and malaria because there was no water, no healthcare, and no education system to speak of. Nobody was trying to prevent, all they could do was try to survive. And isn’t it sad that even today, after so many years, there is still a lack of clean water, education and healthcare for most people?

But now it doesn’t seem as important anymore to talk about malaria, yellow fever, cholera and TB because around 1985, people started dying of the then-unnamed HIV/AIDS. Symptoms of the disease and other diseases gave it names back then: pneumonia, TB, diarrhea, intestinal disease, etc. A few years later, governments and healthcare officials gave it the name we use today: HIV/AIDS: Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

So, I thought ‘okay – we just gave it an official name, like we have done with so many other things.’ Then I started researching and couldn’t help wondering why we give everything another name. Is it because science is getting smarter and we can classify and name things more accurately now? That would be wonderful. Or, is it because there is money from a big pot the industrialized countries are making available to those developing countries, when using that specific name? And who really profits in the end - the industrialized countries selling the drugs or the people dying in the developing countries who need the drugs?

More confusing is to try to discover all the facts about this horrible disease, which essentially now terrifies the entire world. In one article, I read the phrase: “We also know that AIDS drugs are all that’s stopping the entire African continent from falling into the sea.” Is this the real picture we should have in our head when we’re thinking about HIV/AIDS? In yet another article I read: “Now, in 2003 most rural villages are still without any sanitary water source. Watering holes are shared with animals, which drink, bathe, urinate and defecate in the water source. Unmanaged human waste pollutes water with infectious, often deadly bacteria. Stagnant water breeds mosquitoes, bringing malaria. Infectious diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, TB, malaria and famine are the top killers in Africa. But in 1985, AIDS came along.”

So, wouldn’t it be wise to continue to help them out first with all the basics of clean water, better food production, health and education? Isn’t it true that if tested positively with HIV they’ll recommend taking special medication and to live a healthy life as much as possible in order to prevent infectious diseases that can also weaken the immune system? How can people do that without clean drinking water, good and healthy food or health education?

Why is it that in 1999, United Nations recommendations for Africa actually demanded the opposite: “billions of dollars taken out of social funds, education and health projects, infrastructure and rural development” and redirected into sex education?” (UNAIDS, 1999)

Was that a wise decision? Is giving them medication without taking care of all the other basic aspects, which we were fighting already before the arrival of HIV/AIDS, the perfect solution? Wouldn’t it be better to put HIV/AIDS on the list with all those other diseases and try to work on all sides? What is it about HIV/AIDS that causes people to react so differently?

Could it be that the disease was not only affecting developing countries, but that it was also affecting the rest of the world? The bottom line is this - we can all get HIV/AIDS the same way: unprotected sex!

But beware: more diseases like HIV/AIDS will emerge and affect us all. With the world becoming smaller due to the huge increase in world travel, we’ll have a lot more to deal with than a single case of malaria. Just when those in the industrialized nations think they have conquered TB, a new, stronger strain will come along, resistant to drugs and spread by a simple cough. It won’t be enough to hand out condoms or talk about abstinence.

Of course, a cure or a vaccine would be ideal, but that doesn’t seem likely soon. The key is to promote prevention and to do that, we must provide clean water, better health, better education and teach people how to better produce food. Sound familiar?

Any questions or suggestions, please contact me:
E-mail ivleest@yahoo.com