Originally published on Cotopaxi Stories.
In the heart of Ecuador’s Cotopaxi province, a rolling tapestry of simple fences, fields with livestock and vegetables, and cinderblock homes with tin roofs unfolds across highland moors. Clouds weave in, out, and through the foothills, softening the edges of a landscape that feels heavy, tender, and timeless.
Over generations, the countryside here has shifted in quiet but steady ways. Land once shared and tended to by a community cooperative has been subdivided and transferred to families. Rivers that once rose to meet bridges now trickle through the landscape. And women, who were once unable to participate in community spaces and share their voices, now meet routinely as students and teachers, entrepreneurs and leaders. Today, the organization is theirs. They decide, and they lead.
Ermelinda Chacha, 52, has experienced the region’s evolving nature.
As far back as I can remember, we lived on the land, looking after the animals for days at a time and planting things, like barley and potatoes. Back then, women couldn’t go anywhere—not to meetings, nothing—and my mom couldn’t go out [from our home] if she was pregnant.
Ermelinda Chacha
In 1983, when Ermelinda was 10 years old, Diocelinda Iza and four other women started sowing a new future for women and girls in the Cotopaxi province. They established what is today known as the Organización de Mujeres Indígenas y Campesinas “Sembrando Esperanza”—the Organization of Indigenous and Peasant Women “Sowing Hope,” in English—known more simply as OMICSE. The organization started with 15 women (and, at the time, was called the Organización de Mujeres de la UNOCANC), and Diocelinda served as its first president.
Over the years, OMICSE, with support from organizations like CARE Ecuador and the Cotopaxi Foundation, has defended women’s rights and promoted gender equality throughout the region.
