"Being a girl should never be a limit"

"Being a girl should never be a limit"



Colombian lawyer and activist Charlie Ruth Castro learned at the age of five that "being a girl should never be a limit" thanks to the education received in a "feminist home" and now, as an adult, she is dedicated to disseminating these ideas to empower women and younger Latinas.

This is what this expert on "social innovation" explains in an interview with Efe in Nairobi, where she participates in the annual meeting that celebrates the Rotary international foundation and that this year hosts the Kenyan capital.

Ruth is one of five people under 35 years of age and members of the different clubs that the organization has throughout the world that will be recognized today at an event at the United Nations headquarters in Nairobi.

The bucolic surroundings of the UN gardens and the lawyer's smile contrast with their forcefulness when revealing data as hard as one in three women in the world have suffered some type of gender violence - which is equivalent to 105 million people - or that 23,000 girls and boys have been victims of sexual violence in Colombia since November 2017.

"You can talk about it from many perspectives, but I've found that talking about violence alone supports violence," says Ruth.

For this reason, the activist wants to treat women as "survivors and builders of solutions" through the project she founded two years ago with other feminist women and men: "Women with rights".

Through events that cross borders, from Mexico to Brazil and Peru, in addition to Colombia itself, this organization brings together the most powerful Latinas in all areas - from politics to sport through the media and art- to spread their testimonies and success stories.

Likewise, they demand the commitment of men to gender equality, through the "marches of men for change", because "they are half of the problem, but also half of the solution" and "it is necessary to include them in the conversation".

It is another project of this organization, however, that has made Charlie Ruth worthy of the recognition of Rotary and the UN, entitled "New Innovative Beginnings" and focused on the "re-socialization and reintegration" of women prisoners, something that does not allow the design of the current prisons.

"A woman in a prison is in a permanent battlefield," denounces the activist, who points out that the current presidios "disempower and mutilate any human potential".

This is an initiative focused on the prison in the city of Sogamoso (Boyacá, Colombia), where some 200 women are serving sentences for minor crimes of drug trafficking and theft.

Thus, the foundation of Ruth has identified three main problems that characterize the life of a prisoner: the separation of children, poor sanitary conditions and conflicts between them that can lead to human rights violations.

Through training in gender and workshops on clothing, embroidery or handicrafts, women "have come to develop trust between them and again in society," the lawyer emphasizes.

Among the campaigns promoted in prison by "Women with rights", it is important to collect funds to provide enough compresses to the prisoners to combat "menstrual inequality" and ensure their "dignity", as they usually do not receive more than two or three packages a year.

Charlie Ruth Castro was made feminist by the education he received in his childhood with his brother, having both "the same responsibilities and opportunities", but also the obstacles and machismo that he found during his training and his professional career.

"When they tell us that we look more quiet, they deny the most sophisticated tool we have: the voice," she concludes, very convinced.

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