RAINBOW
Empowering Women Worldwide

One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world” Malala Yousafzai.

Begoña has recently joined our RAINBOW project. She has experience working in four different child migrants’ protection centres, becoming director of two of them. She has worked in an International Cooperation project on Gender Equality in Ecuador, and she also has been in Mozambique collaborating with an Educational Psychology project. As a result of her experience in the intercultural, education and gender field, she joined RAINBOW.

Today, we interviewed her on this blog to find out a little more about her and her experience in the field of education and gender.

Thank you for dedicating this time to us, Bego, and welcome to the team, we are sure that together we will shape the project in synergy. We would like to start by knowing why women’s education in society is important to you.

Education in society plays a crucial role. The main challenge is that access to education has never been equal over the centuries, but even more so in some specific countries, where women still do not have equal access to education.

The fact that women do not have access to education influences the type of work they will do during their lives, which is generally care and household related or low-skilled work. This has an impact on women’s purchasing power, but it also has an impact on maintaining gender roles year after year, because if women do not have access to education, they will not have access to work outside the home, and therefore they will continue to be the carers.

Improving the quality of women’s education not only has an impact on women, improving their skills and encouraging them to create and explore new horizons, but also influences and improves society because the more qualified they are, the better the services society will provide.

For those who do not know you, you have worked in the Reception System for Migrant Minors in Spain. In this sense, is there a specific system in the field of education for migrant minors?

I have worked for many years in reception centres for migrant minors and one of the first steps and most urgent action to be carried out when they arrive is, firstly medical and psychological care but secondly, schooling. We school them because we are aware that this will be the first step towards getting a job that will allow them to be independent in the future andit will allow them to create networks that in the future will lead them to grow with social support.

In this sense, could you share with us any success stories you have experienced in your work?

I have many success stories of migrant women who have achieved their personal and professional objectives. The case of a friend I met more than four years ago comes to my mind. She had been in Spain for six years at that time and decided to combine her work as a housekeeper and mother (when I met her, she was mum of 5 and 8-years-old children) with her studies. She decided to get her Bachelor to be able to access to labour market with more options. Nowadays she is a successful entrepreneur who continues growing both professionally and personally. Her studies led her to access toa professional training in design and fashion and now she has a company that manufactures and sells African clothing.

What a beautiful story, she is an example for many other migrant women and those around her. I understand that you are still in contact with her, I would like to ask you if you are still in touch with former migrant women you worked with after join INCOMA.

Of course, many of the women I have met in my previous volunteer or jobs now collaborate with me on INCOMA projects related to migrant women. For instance, this woman I am talking about is actively collaborating in one of our projects, ATHENA, which seeks to enhance the potential of migrant women through entrepreneurship. Like her, there are many other cases that I will be telling you about throughout RAINBOW.

Thank you very much again for this story, we look forward to hearing more of these success stories during the RAINBOW project.

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