From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERI BELIEVE, THEREFORE I AMOne person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests.JOHN STUART MILL, NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH ECONOMISTAND PHILOSOPHERMaria da Penha Nascimento was an imposing figure; a big, confidentwoman who had risen to become president of the Alagoa GrandeRural Workers’ Union in Brazil’s drought-prone and poverty-riddenNortheast. She recounted her life story, the words half lost in thedrumming of a sudden downpour.A broken home, starting work agedseven, a mother who died from TB when she was 12, early marriage, andthe struggle to feed her six children: the story of countless poorwomen. Then came transformation when she joined the union,inspired by a charismatic woman leader named Margarida MariaAlves. When Margarida was assassinated, probably by local landowners,Penha (as she was universally known) took over. 18There are thousands of women like Penha across Latin Americaand in every other region of the world, inspirational grassrootsactivists breathing vigour into social and political life. What motivatesthem is belief, in themselves, in a better future, in the struggle for justiceand rights, and in the dignity of women and men everywhere.34