"Let us open the future for world of solidarity" was the slogan of the last General Assembly of the WMCW. To achieve this we need to analyze the reality around us. On this 8th March, International Women's Day, we want to focus specifically on the reality of rural women in Nicaragua.

Women around us who live in very poor rural areas around the cities, where there is an absence of security for them, neither in the streets nor in their own homes. Women who do not see why celebrate on March 8. Women who only earn half as much as men, simply because they are women. Women forced to accept sexual favours for a contract, abused women, humiliated, exploited, used, murdered, women trapped in patriarchal societies.

On 26^th January this year, Nicaragua adopted new law to prevent violence against women. This law provides full legal protection and aims to "prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women and to assist women who are victims of violence, this law promotes changes in behaviour that perpetuates the same patriarchal power relations." The adoption of this law is a victory for women in Nicaragua. Hope is now possible, and we can envisage that in some cases at least, the perpetrators will be punished. However, let’s remember that just last year more than 70 women died in this country because of the brutality of their husbands and despite the new law, violence, contempt, fear is still happening….

The WMCW, a Christian movement of training through action, condemns this situation, as much in Nicaragua as in the wider world. Our groups are organizing women who are living in situations like this, they encourage them to continue their struggle and help them regain their self-esteem. They find opportunities to have a better understanding of their rights, to be more aware of their strength to change the situation of misery and manipulation to which they are subjected. We give training to women so they can live in dignity, where they live, which is no more than a shelter of four plastic walls under a corrugated iron roof that lets in rain, heat, dust and rodents. These women are deprived of adequate food, freedom, and live in fear and humiliation. We teach them not to believe what some television series, not to fall into the trap of easy money with their bodies, misleading ads that promise them a home, fine clothes, trips abroad.

Our movement of working women and men is fighting for the right to decent work for which they will be fairly paid. Women are often alone in ensuring a future for their children. We want more women to have the opportunity to work in associations, so they can cultivate plots of land or engage in initiatives such as projects for selling seeds or the organization of local canteens. We want to give them a space to reflect together on the values that give them the desire to live and fight for a better future. We reject that these women are crushed under the weight of life they endure. Many women experience this situation in different countries and are able to get by.

Through this message we want to let those women who suffer know that they are not alone. This solidarity is and always will be! Faced with this reality experienced by woman, Jesus said, "Arise and walk! ". Come on! Let's work together to combat the discrimination between men and women, abuse, death. Awareness of each of the women around us is a way to overcome the inhumanity experienced by so many others, that is how we can improve! We know and believe that there will be one day a women's movement that will fight so that all women can celebrate their day, the day of liberated women!

For the General Secretariat of the WMCW

Grey, Lydia and Betina