TRASOL: Care Workers in Solidarity and Organized in Coops for our Rights

This project aims to provide a concrete innovative and transformative solution to the multidimensional marginalization experienced by women and girls involved in domestic work in Guatemala and Honduras. Project activities include: (1) raising awareness among men and boys to achieve recognition and redistribution of care work; (2) providing women and girls with financial literacy training and building their capacity to strengthen the collective enterprise model; (3) conducting training on cooperatives and collective enterprises in order to provide services and develop sustainable business relationships; and (4) building the capacity of women’s organizations and women’s and girls’ rights organizations to better defend female workers’ rights. This initiative is co-implementedby women’s organizations and women’s and girls’ rights organizations which include the following: the women’s cooperative movement (Consejo Nacional de las Mujeres Cooperativistas in Guatemala and Consejo Nacional de la Mujer Cooperativista in Honduras) groups of paid care workers and domestic workers (Asociación de Trabajadoras del Hogar a Domicilio y de Maquila Centro de Apoyo para las Trabajadoras de Casa Particular in Guatemala and Red de Trabajadoras Domésticas in Honduras) as well as organizations with strong community roots known for their efforts to transform unequal power relations such as the Asociación Generando Equidad Liderazgo y Oportunidades and the Coordinadora Nacional de Viudas de Guatemala. The project is expected to reach 4 500 women and 1 250 girls involved in paid care work in Guatemala and Honduras.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) women’s and girls’ participation is increased in the economic educational political community and recreational activities of their choice; (2) cooperatives and collective care enterprises are better able to support the economic empowerment of their members and allies; and (3) women’s and girls’ rights are better protected and promoted in the area of providing paid care.