translated from Spanish: PRODEMU turns 30: Foundation for the Promotion and Development of Women celebrates with new projects

This November 28th the Foundation for the Promotion and Development of Women (PRODEMU), belonging to the Network of Foundations of the Presidency of the Republic, led by Cecilia Morel M., celebrates 30 years of history. The organization seeks from its origins to facilitate the participation, organization and integral development of women, promoting their empowerment and autonomy and promoting them to achieve a better quality of life. It is in the framework of this anniversary that, this year, the PRODEMU Center for Gender Studies is created, which aims to carry out studies, evaluations and data collection of women in Chile, being also a public consultation space, providing information based on gender-focused research and quantitative and qualitative methodologies. During the pandemic, the Study Centre has fulfilled a key role, gathering information and, allowing PRODEMU to be aware of women’s feelings as the health and social crisis progresses, enabling programmes adapted to the country’s situation to be developed with this information. On the other hand, PRODEMU opened its Documentation and Library Center (CDOC), which aims to collect the relevant institutional documents and objects from the institution’s history, in addition to forming a library open to the public, with general literature with a gender focus, articles and essays of national and international study and a collection of bibliography on women. In the context of the anniversary Paola Diez, National Director of PRODEMU, noted that “PRODEMU seeks, since its foundation, to encourage women to leave the private space of their home and integrate them into the development of the country. Our job is to train, inform your rights, accompany, and listen to women.” “PRODEMU today is constituted as a Network for Women’s Autonomy, with the same women declaring it to be the first step in its development and empowerment,” paola Diez said. During these 30 years, PRODEMU has made visible different aspects of women developing their creativity, capacity for associativity, autonomy, entrepreneurship, organizational and leadership capacity, their productive area, integrating into masculinized trades, promoting family co-responsibility, among other dimensions. Meanwhile, in her role as Chair of the Board, the First Lady, Cecilia Morel, wanted to emphasize that “in the pandemic, a difficult year for all, PRODEMU did not lower her arms and continued to accompany women, including a high percentage of senior women, incentivizing their digital empowerment, handing them cell phones, connectivity and training so that they can communicate with their loved ones and not be completely isolated. PRODEMU is one of the main entities of the state that trains women with a gender approach, with the aim of narrowing the gap between men and women.” Currently, PRODEMU is present in the 16 regions and 53 provinces throughout Chile, working with more than 60 thousand women a year. Prodemu has gone to the forefront, adapting its training line to the current needs of women. Faced with the contingency of COVID 19, she redesigned her learning paths to the digital format, managing to reach more women, despite isolation, enhancing their personal development, giving them digital tools and competencies for communication, social, training, job-seeking and entrepreneurship promotion.

Original source in Spanish