“If we are to save the planet as a living, healthy, natural place for all beings, women will have to lead the change organically; building ecologically is the foundation of being in communion with mother earth and remembering the principles of cooperation, interrelation, harmony, beauty and peace.” — Ana Elena Obando
“I am passionate about building a small model of sustainable living that serves as an example that it is relatively easy to create a world in which natural life is celebrated, appreciated and respected” –Felicia Echeverria Hermoso
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WASI Delegate: Costa Rica
Ana Elena Obando has been a women’s human rights lawyer and activist for more than 25 years. She is from Costa Rica and holds a Master’s degree in justice and gender. Ana Elena was formerly the Coordinator of the Concertación Interamericana de Mujeres Activistas por los Derechos Humanos (CIMA) and has been affiliated with a number of NGOs. She has been an independent consultant for international organizations, an ex-professor of law, and a researcher and trainer. Ana Elena has published numerous articles and essays on the subject of women’s human rights and has written for several print publications and electronic media such as WHRNET.
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WASI Delegate: Costa Rica
Felicia Echeverria Hermoso is a nurturing grandmother, organic agriculture expert, and a passionately strong proponent for “full and sustainable living” in Costa Rica. She began this career in 1992, when she was part of the team that launched the Earth Council in San Jose, Costa Rica. Since 1996 she has been involved with farmer and consumer training; marketing organic products; policy development and implementation; standards/regulations drafting; and certification services management. In 1996, she pioneered Costa Rica’s first door-to-door organic produce distribution business, and continued in the same spirit by helping for the first farmer-to-farmer training center on organic agriculture in Alajuela, CR which reached 80% of CR’s farmers. Working as the Manager of the National Organic Agriculture Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in Costa Rica (1999-2006) and later as Executive Director of Eco-LOGICA S.A. (2007-2010), Felicia’s vast technical and managerial experiences have led her to her current location: the rural area of Los Santos in Costa Rica, where she is developing a sustainable living model farm and training center geared toward knowledge exchange and practical instruction for the surrounding farming communities.
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Why is women’s leadership important to you, your community and in today’s world?
Ana: I see a lot of potential in learning from the WASI experience in order to bring to women´s groups an essential tool of empowerment to support their interactive autonomy. Natural building has great potential for women and girls because it makes a reality their right to safety and healthy housing. For example, I think of many battered women who wouldn’t leave their partners because they didn’t have a place to go. We are lacking in public spaces for women to meet – this beautiful initiative can help.
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What do you and your community plan to build?
Ana: My vision is to do workshops to pass the knowledge to women’s groups in different communities throughout the year. The idea is that all the people from the community, especially women and girls, will participate and learn permaculture, natural building, healthy ways of eating organically, as well as the uses of medicinal plants. I will involve the community by reaching first to the women leaders to organize the workshops.
Felicia: In San Pablo de Leon Cortes, we have a training center for techniques in sustainable wood building, rainwater catchment, sanitary compost, natural water treatment design, organic agriculture and permaculture. It is a place of rural-urban cultural exchange and where we practice physical, mental, and spiritual health. Our next step is to build a shelter that will allow us to continue and expand our community training activities in organic agriculture, health, nutrition, and art. With this shelter, we may extend our trainings to multi-day trainings for those who come from afar to participate, and we will be able to house the volunteers do follow-up training in neighboring communities.
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How do you imagine that your participation in WASI will benefit you and your community?
Ana: I am interested in learning how best to share my knowledge with as many women’s groups as I can. The plan to build will come out of what different women and communities identify as their main needs. My participation in WASI will benefit the communities directly as I share what I’ve learned through WASI, plus the tools I already have, in the workshops I’ll deliver. I think that if we are to save the planet as a living, healthy, natural place for all beings, women will have to lead the change organically; and building ecologically is the foundation of being in communion with mother earth and remembering the principles of cooperation, interrelation, harmony, beauty and peace.
Felicia: I believe and hope that we will learn to develop our abilities in sustainable building through the help and support of the international network of WASI, their extensive experience and creative abilities. The most important part is that we will be able to share with a wide range of women working throughout the American continents, which will give us the strength and moral support necessary to comprehend that we have the possibility, literally, to build a world and a way of life that are truly “full and sustainable” for our families by wisely using the resources that are naturally available around us.
Why is natural building important for you, your community, and/or the world?
Felicia: I live in an area that, though small, is in the process of full-on development. The nearest examples of infrastructure and housing development come from the most populated areas and are not sustainable, innovative nor do they hold aesthetic value. However, this region is a natural beauty, scenically impressive, and home to a rich pool of natural resources that could provide for nearly self-sufficient development. I believe it is urgent to show that there are alternative forms of development that can preserve the beauty and richness of this region, providing equal opportunities to develop and improve the quality of life for all people that live there. The people here have little information, but they are receptive to innovative alternative that are feasible and inexpensive to implement. At a global level, there is urgent need for ecological forms of construction because the current model is simply not sustainable, using more resources that are necessary without providing the comfort and protection that people need.
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Support
To support Ana and Felicia´s fundraising efforts to get to Patagonia and back, please click here.
