Instituto Maria da Penha

Curso Cidadania e Qualificação Profissional

Professional Training and Women’s Rights

Brazil is ranks seventh out of 84 countries with the highest crime rates against women. A Brazilian woman named Maria da Penha, one of the thousands of Brazilian women who have fallen victim to violence in Brazil, decided to use her story of abuse to educate the public and take action to combat violence. A law in Brazil was eventually created and named after her.

In 2009, she founded the Instituto Maria da Penha, a non-profit social organization that seeks to contribute to women’s awareness of their rights and to strengthening the Maria da Penha Law through education. The Institute performs various activities such as training people to become human rights defenders, focusing on residents of low-income neighborhoods, professionals who provide treatment to women, law professionals, universities, and companies.

With support from the BrazilFoundation Women’s Fund, the institute plans to:

· Create of a network of multipliers to combat domestic and family violence against women in communities;
· Provide training on “Citizenship and Professional Skills” (50 hours) to 40 women human rights defenders from low-income neighborhoods in Fortaleza;
· The participating women will receive professional training from SENAC to produce sweet and savory snacks, provide beauty services, and work in information and administrative support.

IMPACT

Creating local networks of human rights defenders;
40 women trained as advocates;
50 hours of training in civics and women’s rights

“We found that women often cannot break the cycle of violence because they do not have the professional skills to be able to support their children or themselves.”  Conceição de Maria Mendes de Andrade, Project Coordinator