Women's House of Maré GREEN WAVE ASCENSION

What is the "Green Wave" movement?

The "Green Wave" was a campaign by women for the legalization and safety of abortion in Argentina, in 2018, during the voting period for the project to revise the country's 1921 abortion law. Thousands of girls and adolescents took to the streets wearing a green scarf, symbolizing the ancestry in the political history of women in Argentina. Abortion was only legalized in Argentina in 2020, and since then, the "Green Wave" movement has been influencing other countries in Latin America.

TERRITORIAL MOBILIZATION

An action promoted by the Women's House of Maré and Nosso Instituto in partnership with Clínica da Família Jeremias, in Nova Holanda, involving consultations and distribution of menstrual cups and the "Our Guide - A Small Book of Care for Maré Women."

The Women's House of Maré mobilizes and collaborates with schools and health units within the territory to advance the discussion on reproductive justice. This front involves:

• Building spaces for institutional exchanges to establish effective and sustainable workflows among local services;

• Creating a local awareness campaign to inform the population about reproductive rights and legal abortion;

• Mobilizing the community to engage in the discussion on reproductive justice and the right to abortion through conversation circles;

• Mobilizing health and education professionals working in Maré through conversation circles.

MARÉ WOMEN'S SUPPORT SERVICES

An action promoted by the Women's House of Maré and Nosso Instituto in partnership with the Clínica da Família Jeremias, in Nova Holanda.

We work on strengthening care services and support spaces for Maré residents whose sexual and reproductive rights have been violated. This front involves:

• Strengthening support spaces at the Women's House of Maré, aiming for access to rights;

• Providing support for women experiencing reproductive injustice.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RESEARCH IN MARÉ

Conversation circle about menstrual dignity with literacy classes from Redes da Maré. This action was carried out by the Sexual and Reproductive Rights Front - Maréas, aiming to demystify certain taboos related to the menstrual cycle and address menstrual poverty.

Producing and disseminating data about the overall state of reproductive justice in Maré is a crucial front to identify the effectiveness and challenges of local public policies and health services. This leads to formulating recommendations, awareness campaigns, and debunking myths.

The research, initiated in 2023, is organized into two fronts to be completed by the first semester of 2024. The first is a quantitative study on the phenomenon of abortion among women aged 18 to 39 living in the 16 favelas of Maré, Rio de Janeiro. The aim here is to assess the magnitude of abortion among women, using secret ballot techniques and structured face-to-face interviews, as used in the National Abortion Survey (PNA).

The second qualitative front involves conducting focus groups and interviews with women over 18 living in Maré, aiming to understand their individual and collective reproductive care practices and the reproductive health policies they have access to. The study aims to provide data on reproductive health in Maré to support public health actions for women living in favela territories.

POLITICAL ADVOCACY

Conversation circle about sexual and reproductive health with a focus on legal abortion for students in professional training courses at the Women's House of Maré.

To politically influence structural issues related to reproductive justice in the Maré Complex, aiming to achieve effective policies to protect women from conception to daily support practices, we've established a political advocacy front that involves:

• Strategic litigation to bring the experiences of Maré women to national abortion debates, with support from key partners such as the project 'Dialogues on Reproductive Justice: Legal Norms, Public Policies, and Litigation Practices (Dijure/UNIRIO)' and Anis Institute of Bioethics;

• Popular communication to disseminate reliable information about the rights of women and individuals capable of pregnancy, regarding prevention and/or termination of pregnancy;

• Collecting Maré-specific demands to organize agendas, strategies, and advocacy goals;

• Engaging in national and international feminist networks to build advocacy actions vis-à-vis municipal, state, and federal governments to ensure law compliance and policies for Maré women.