SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Oct. 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Professional women from the Canarian rural world, gathered at the I Women’s Roundtable in the rural areas of the Canary Islands, have drafted a manifesto in which they list their main needs coinciding with the celebration, today, October 15, of World Rural Women’s Day , whose main objective is to make visible the importance of the economic, social and cultural contribution that women make in rural areas around the world and their decisive contribution to food security.
Thus, the first of their demands is to provide all Canarian municipalities with care centers and services, including care centers for children from 0 to 3 years old, day centers for the elderly and occupational centers for people with disabilities. Also, support and encourage the creation of associations that are responsible for marketing products in markets, taking into account the need for a minimum work break once a week. These associations would alleviate the workload by granting days off or time for family dedication and self-care.
The group also advocates creating inclusive and integrated spaces in children’s areas, such as gardens or parks, that also include facilities so that the adult population can exercise while enjoying and taking care of children’s leisure, as well as encouraging the creation of social gathering places where People of different ages can interact, exchange knowledge, participate in workshops, barter or simply talk.
Likewise, they ask to promote collaborative sessions in each municipality to identify difficulties related to conciliation and co-responsibility in homes and promote tools that promote equal opportunities and the psychological well-being of the participants.
In a context marked by the pandemic and its consequences, professional women in the Canarian rural world consider it essential to promote self-care and provide guidelines to manage physical and mental health through courses, workshops and spaces for dialogue to avoid exhaustion, depression and the rejection of rural life, in addition to having a specific support service for the countryside and the sea in the Canary Islands, which includes tax and accounting advice, training to improve professional skills and adaptation to new technologies.
Another of its demands is to facilitate online procedures, making them more intuitive and understandable, as well as providing training in the creation of business plans and marketing strategies in both the traditional and digital spheres. They also demand the right to a month’s rest, even if it is not paid as in the case of employed work. During this period they request that the Social Security payment be exempted, alleviating the economic burden of rural women, which could help to hire temporary personnel to lighten the workload and support this necessary rest.
They also request paid recognition for invisible women who assume all the tasks and care of the home, such as mothers or aunts, family members without whom many rural professionals would not be able to carry out their work. For the group, this help is crucial to start or expand businesses in rural areas.
AN ISLAND GUIDE AND OTHER CLAIMS.
The manifesto also proposes the creation of an island guide with information about local products and companies on each island. This guide will cover aspects such as organic production, artisanal production and native breeds, including wineries, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, honey, flowers, meats and fish, along with their season. It must be available in several languages and distributed in each home, thus being a tool so that families can make informed decisions and plan their diet, also supporting the development of the primary sector in the Canary Islands.
On the other hand, there is a demand to encourage policies that equalize and promote entrepreneurial initiatives in rural areas. This implies a transversal strategy that involves different areas and is developed simultaneously. These policies could include aid for hiring personnel, training in various areas of the rural world with internships on existing farms, educational programs that include, in addition to agriculture (school gardens), livestock, with visits to farms or the care of small domestic animals. Tourism promotion that trains tourist guides, shows and promotes visits to agricultural farms and the tasting of their products.
It is also requested to allocate a budget to continuous advertising campaigns that value and dignify the trades, professions, tasks and products derived from the field. These campaigns aim to break stereotypes and make working life in the field attractive. Let our young people feel that there are other professional opportunities within the non-capital islands, so that they finally establish a population.
The planning of the territory agreed upon with all interested parties, which seeks the common good, is another of the collective’s requests, as well as the streamlining of bureaucratic procedures by local institutions, to obtain permits and ensure the supply of water and electricity in different agricultural and livestock farms.
Another demand is to invest in the restoration, improvement and updating of existing infrastructure to reduce water losses. It is also essential to promote awareness about the responsible use of water, guarantee supply to all farms currently short of supplies and recover the use of cisterns and gavias, as well as encourage the construction of new systems.
They also request that they be included and considered in the decision-making tables and in the drafting of laws that affect our work and, consequently, society in general, in addition to greater investment in research and development of suitable crops. for the driest areas of the islands, which would help delay soil erosion and guarantee the production of food for animals.
Other needs are to promote crop diversification beyond banana and avocado monocultures, through the recovery of other traditional crops, restoration and rehabilitation of lands, promoting exports and covering internal needs; promote grazing with native species (goat and palm sheep) in strategic areas, regardless of their ownership, as well as reduce unfair competition from tourist use on rural land of agricultural and landscape protection, facilitating producers’ access to water and land .
They also call for establishing a system of aid and subsidies that promotes sustainable improvements instead of perpetuating dependence on this aid. This involves promoting self-sufficiency, renewable energy and the circular economy, and they consider it essential to popularize local products and those who produce them, promoting their consumption through support and advertising, since they currently face greater bureaucratic barriers compared to imported products.
Finally, they advocate reducing the cost of ecological inputs imported to the Canary Islands and reviewing the current ‘Forage Plan’, which has had limited results, and the creation of an annual meeting table with the island institutions of each island, to establish a self-sufficiency and food sovereignty plan, and work towards its fulfillment.
