Development

The distinct difficulties that Venezuelans have faced throughout the leadership of the past two decades directly contributes to the decreased of quality of life. The main way in which these leaders have contributed to this poverty is through the corruption within the government, leading to the mismanagement of many important aspects of a well-functioning country.

International Women's Day is an annual celebration to acknowledge women’s social, political, economical and cultural achievements. On 8th March 2022, this year’s celebration promotes the theme of “Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow.” This theme carries a lot of hope and optimism for a just and inclusive world for all gender types. However, when we look at multi-dimensional problems related to gender inequality that happen worldwide, we might question our self: is that vision attainable?

There is no such thing as "the woman". There are real women of flesh and blood...from diverse socioeconomic locations, some with fewer opportunities than others; women who struggle every day to survive and those of us who struggle every day to conquer equal opportunities, making alliances with others to build a better society.

The consequences of the pandemic can be seen at the end of 2021 with almost 14% of the Latin American population living in extreme poverty: ninety million people! As far as the middle classes are concerned, the pandemic has revealed their extreme vulnerability, due to low social security contributions and low levels of social security coverage.

I see this reflected so beautifully in Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti, finding our voice to build integral ecology with our common home.

...“If the Church and the world recognizes the worth of women and work with them as collaborative partners, the world will be a beautiful place to live”.