wfn.org | Bolivian activist to receive Methodist peace award

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Nov. 10, 2003	News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
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NOTE: A photograph is available with this report.

A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*

A 37-year-old Bolivian household worker-turned-activist is the recipient of
the World Methodist Peace Award.

Casimira Rodriguez Romero will be recognized in a Nov. 20 ceremony at La
Reforma Methodist Church in La Paz, Bolivia. His Eminence Sunday Mbang,
chairperson of the World Methodist Council, will present the award, which is
given annually by the council to an individual or group that has made
significant contributions to peace and reconciliation.

Bishop Carlos Intipampa, Methodist Church of Brazil, nominated Rodriguez for
her efforts for peace, reconciliation and justice in the face of centuries of
oppression.

Born into a poor Quechua family near Cochabamba, Rodriguez began the hard
life of a household worker when she was just 13. "That was a very negative
experience," she told Wilson Boots, a United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries missionary, in an interview last July. "I had to serve more than
15 people, and I was in charge of so many things."

When Rodriguez was still a teenager, she formed a support group with fellow
workers, and they began organizing to seek legal rights for themselves and
other workers. In 1986, she was elected to head conflict resolution at the
national Household Workers Congress, and a decade later she became chief
executive of the congress.

The experience of household workers had always been tied to the treatment
they received from employers. "In my case, many wounds were left due to
exploitation and discrimination towards household workers," she said. "The
lack of courage to fight back and not be able to speak up was so frequent
that I started thinking that all this was normal."

Moving to La Paz, she continued to work part-time in households while
advocating for human rights. A major victory occurred in 2000, when Bolivia's
Senate passed legislation supporting rights of just salary compensation and
legal rights for household workers. Churches and human rights groups joined
the intensive campaign for that legislation, which culminated in her public
presentation of 15,000 signatures in support of some 114,000 household
workers.

After the lower House of the Bolivian Congress passed the legislation, the
law for salaried household workers became effective last April.

"We finally have rights protected by the law, and that gives my fellow
workers the courage to struggle for the dignity that we didn't have before,"
said Rodriguez, who also was elected chief executive of the Confederation of
Household Workers of Latin America and the Caribbean in 2001. "Now they are
proud of what they do for a living."

Throughout her fight for justice, Rodriguez, a practicing Methodist, said she
has often turned to God for guidance. "One of the things I have enjoyed about
my national leadership responsibilities in Bolivia has been the opportunity
to travel throughout the country and work with fellow household workers," she
told Boots.

"Many sisters have prayed for me and given me their moral support, which has
been such a spiritual support for me. I believe that the Lord has given me a
mission to continue working on behalf of the household workers who are so
marginalized and mistreated by society."

Noting how her faith has sustained and guided her, the Rev. George Freeman,
chief executive of the World Methodist Council, called her commitment to
peace and justice "a model for all of us."

Past recipients of the award have included President Boris Trajkovsky of
Macedonia; Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa; Kofi Annan,
Secretary General of the United Nations, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de
Mayo in Argentina; and the Community of St. Egidio in Rome.

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*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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