Faced with this violence, Vero decided to take a different path, one with no children. Instead she has decided to help other women to have them safely, and to try to leave behind violence. “I didn’t get married,” says Vero, aware of the implication of her statement, “because I saw how my sisters, even my mother, when I was a child, were mistreated by their husbands. That’s why I said to myself: I’m not going to get married quickly. I’d rather study, and defend myself in order to help women if they are abused and help families live a good life, without violence.”
Vero’s decision led her to join a training and empowerment program for indigenous women ran by an international NGO, as part of a project called “Mothers of the Rainforest” or Ikiama Nukuri, in its newly adopted native Achuar name.
As part of that program, Vero travelled to the Mexican Yucatan to learn the skills alongside Mayan Women. She visited Peru to attend a conference and did an internship at a city hospital.
Nowadays, Vero not only assists women in Sharamentsa, but also travels to other Achuar communities, and beyond, to Shuar or Quichua communities. And she has trained Graciela, a fellow member of the community, who follows in her footsteps, and who already accompanies the women who request it when Vero is away.
But Vero’s decision was to stay in Sharamentsa. And although the long absences to complete her training meant that her hut accumulated so much moisture that it partially collapsed, Vero decided to build a new one. These beams and crossbeams of solid wood symbolize Veronica’s unequivocal will to remain in her community. Soon the new home will be up and running.
Vero knows she has a place within her community. “My dream is to stay with my community. My dream is to become a doctor, to finish my studies. I am an Achuar woman and I want to work helping other women like me, sisters, cousins, neighbours.”
In her garden, Vero cultivates the various traditional plants that complement her few modern medical instruments. “We sometimes use medicinal plants for infections, that are very common in pregnancy. Or if the mother-to-be has a cough, if she has a headache or dizziness, we use a medicine called mountain garlic, so she recovers well.”
Little by little, mothers manage to appreciate the benefits, gain autonomy and convince their husbands of the advantages of monitoring health during pregnancy and childbirth. In spite of the obvious limitations, Vero acts with an incorruptible determination. Improving the lives of the women of the community and their children is a vital mission for her.
For Vero, the future of the rainforest and its defence also depends on improving the living conditions of its inhabitants. If their mothers and babies are born and grow up healthy and without violence, the community will take a permanent step forward.
But like any complex process, the results are not immediate. It will take time.
Vero’s story represents an important step in the history of Sharamentsa and the Achuar nationality. The new generations that are being born today, and that have to face the huge challenge of ensuring that the rainforest survives the multiple threats that it is undergoing, already have the opportunity to come to a safer and less hostile world.
“We are born as plants are born. And we are sacred, like them,” says Vero, and in her eyes there is a glimmer of emotion. She notes that her commitment to motherhood and life, which embodies her way of defending the rainforest, is already bearing its first fruits. As today, in Sharamentsa, there are already more healthy and robust mothers, like the forest itself.
Vero has decided to give her whole life to the pristine rainforest. Hers is a courageous commitment and means a transcendent leap towards a better life for her proud Achuar community.
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Francesc Badia i Dalmases | Radio Free (2020-02-26T14:26:32+00:00) Vero’s decision. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/02/26/veros-decision/
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