Addressing gender gaps through energy access
Our solar energy initiative is built upon an integral women‘s empowerment approach that beyond energy access supports and strengthens women to become leaders, advocates, and agents of sustainable change. The Women’s Empowerment project combines the promotion of the inclusion of women, together with the revival of their traditional handcrafting and knowledge, as well as the creation of productive activities based on their own culture and tradition.
Women's empowerment workshop in Orochico community, Talamanca rainforest in Costa Rica
Women’s empowerment workshop on gender equality at ADITICA headquarters, 2019
A gender lens approach involves actions towards:
Gender equality through open, and trustworthy spaces for women and men
Promotion of productive and economic activities in the hands of women
Indigenous women as key actors in shaping education: reviving knowledge, principles and ancestral values
Investment in women has a multiplier effect as they reinvest in their communities, and society as a whole benefits.
Strengthening women to become agents of sustainable change.
The solar energy program, Imagine Light/KAWÖ’OROI (‘heat from the sun’ as it translates into Cabécar), started in 2018 in Central America, in the Talamanca rainforest, Costa Rica. There, together with our local Indigenous partner, Asociación de Desarrollo Integral Talamanca Cabécar (ADITICA), and with the in-kind support of the national government, we have been able to provide sustainable access to clean solar energy to the most remote and hardest to reach Cabécar and Bribri Indigenous families in the rainforest mountains of the country. We have created a women's empowerment program that safeguards and revives the vital role of Cabécar and Bribri Indigenous women as protectors of the sacred and key holders of ancestral wisdomw
Women’s empowerment workshop in Orochico in the Talamanca rainforest in Costa Rica
Women’s empowerment workshop in the community of Arrocera, Tayni Indigenous territory
Indigenous women rising and regaining their fundamental role in shaping new generations
Our team of Indigenous Cabécar and Bribri women facilitators visit each community where solar systems have been installed in order to provide a safe and trustworthy space where women and men can learn and discuss gender equality, as well as create and promote women’s productive and economic activities that are in line with their vision and culture. This space is held for Siwä Pakök – the transmission and exchange of knowledge. During these Siwä Pakök sessions, women, children, men and elders share their ancestral stories, mostly forgotten by the new generations, to later also advocate and shape culturally adapted educational curricula and programs at a national level.
