Challenge to the Women of Comandos

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Speech by the vice president of comandos on International Women’s Day at the Comandos de Salvamento Women’s Forum. Nov. 25, 2012. DEAR FRIENDS: My presence and my speech at this event were not scheduled by the organizers, but I thank them for allowing me the honor of taking the floor to issue a challenge to women on this very special day. Why do I say this is such a special day? Because the United Nations, in 1999, at the proposal of the Dominican Republic with the support of 60 additional countries, approved declaring November 25 the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. At its 85th plenary session, on December 20, 1993, the United Nations ratified the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, which states that this violence is a serious violation of women’s human rights. Congratulations to all of you for your struggle against violence. I will now move on to The Situation of Women in Comandos de Salvamento. In 1980, when I arrived at Comandos de Salvamento, there were already many women among its rescuers and lifeguards. In those years of great danger, women played a very important role.

There were daytime and nighttime brigades made up solely of women who faced the curfews proclaimed by the government and the army, and many nights they ended up detained in security forces facilities, such as the National Guard Headquarters or the Treasury Police. We have women heroes in the Comandos, such as Yolanda Elizabeth Ramírez, who drowned in the Acelhuate River while saving a girl, and others who have worked for many years for the benefit of the most vulnerable people in this country during floods and earthquakes. This is why the inclusion of women is very important within Comandos de Salvamento. But I am not here only to talk about history and the positive role of women. I want to issue a challenge to you. For this, it is necessary to tell you that for many years, women in Comandos have been discriminated against, pushed aside, and treated as sexual objects. Many women from Comandos are remembered as So-and-so’s or Such-and-such’s woman, and not because they have performed good work as volunteers. In addition, they are labeled and identified by their relationships with X people, relationships that should not tarnish the work of women in Comandos. That is why I wish to issue this Challenge: women are very important in Comandos de Salvamento and must work to erase those labels and rumors, or whatever one wishes to call them. Women must hold important positions in Comandos de Salvamento.

Women must be part of the councils of chiefs, the Board of Directors, and the corps of delegates. The challenge I am issuing to you is that in 2013 there should be women delegates, women directors, brigade chiefs, and, if possible, and if you propose it, for the first time there should even be an executive director. We have many women in the highest spheres of Government: the Minister of Health, women legislators in the Legislative Assembly, and in the Secretariat of Culture. So why do we not have women on the Board of Directors, in leadership positions, or women delegates? This is the challenge I have come to issue to you: In next year’s election of a new board, the women of Comandos must seek at least two positions on the Board of Directors, to safeguard their rights and find what they have come to seek at this seminar: Self-esteem. Love for oneself is just as important as love for one’s neighbor. Thank you very much