By Indira Cornelio. Translated from Spanish by Jackie Zammuto. 

Starting in May 2015, WITNESS co-lead a series of four convenings called Voces de mujeres,  historias que transforman [Voices of Women, Stories that Transform] to bring visibility to the transformative role that women play within their communities across Latin America. During these convenings we hosted workshops on issues including  video and audio production, writing, digital security, gender and self-care.

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“Voices of Women, Stories that Transform” convening participants

Itzel Farias from the Mexican collective Porteando por la Paz [Babywearing for Peace] was one of twenty participants in the project. “Babywearing for Peace” is a group of mothers and fathers that choose attachment parenting as an option for raising their children.  The collective wants to show that motherhood is also action, a movement in the streets. Their message advocates for empowered motherhood where mothers can live and work together with other mothers, children and families instead of mothering in isolation.

“Raising our children is a very important form of action that can transform our society.” – Itzel Farias

For the group, The Voices of Women convening came at just the right time.  Members expressed that before the convening, they were experiencing challenges getting their message out to broader audiences and felt that they lacked to tools to take their work further.  Looking back on the convenings, Farias said “I learned how to develop a multimedia project, from determining the audience, the rundown, the shooting schedule and the narrative arc. I also learned  about all of the work that is behind making a video and that you don’t always appreciate all of the effort that goes into something.”

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“Babywearing for Peace” members share messages about the 43 disappeared student teachers from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero. 

After each workshop, which she attended with her child Ollin and her partner Alfredo, Farias got together with her collective to share what she had learned. It was in this collaborative spirit that the group worked on their video project, giving all members of “Babywearing for Peace” in México City the opportunity to make decisions around what type of media to use and what material to include. Using the new skills developed in the workshop, Farias and the group produced a video about the history of the collective.

Farias explained that “I chose video because I believe that there is an abundant amount of images and video on the Internet, and I think it’s important to for us to learn how to utilize these tools to make ourselves more visible.”

The national group has 609 members who participate in actions and share of information on various social media platforms. In Mexico City there are 25 families involved in the collective. Learn more about the group on Facebook or Twitter.

This article originally appeared in Spanish on es.witness.org.

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