Friday, October 2nd, 2009 - 13 comments

What I learned from teenage mothers in Brazil

How do we avoid imposing our Western imperialist talk about “rights” on young women whose core beliefs diverge from ours?

Photo by Julia Kurc: Distributing cameras to the girls.

Earlier this year, I spent two and a half months working with teenage mothers and soon-to-be mothers in Rio de Janeiro. Here are my lessons learned.

I arrived in Brazil with the overly idealistic and naïve notion that in a little under three months, I would be able to empower the girls by showing them how to collectively lobby for their sexual and reproductive rights.

Yet soon after my arrival, I was quick to notice that all my talk about international women’s rights did not resonate among the girls, who sat there yawning. In collaboration with a local development NGO, I coordinated a photography and writing workshop with the girls—encouraging them to document their day-to-day lives—and organized seminars on violence against women and sexual and reproductive health rights.

“Outsiders unable to understand us”

Before I left, I also had the opportunity to hold in-depth interviews, in which I asked the girls to talk about their self-perceptions, their everyday difficulties, their hopes and fears, and their views of motherhood and sexuality.

By teaching them about the fight for women’s rights from an international perspective, I hoped to inspire and mobilize them, making them feel part of a greater global community of women and girls.

But for some reason, these girls seemed incapable of feeling any sort of meaningful connection to women outside their community. Yet as soon as I turned our conversations toward their unique reality—one they felt ‘outsiders’ were unable to understand—their level of engagement rose considerably.

The shocking truth

Through my diverse activities with the girls, I came to uncover aspects of their daily existence that were as distressing as they were shocking:

• The majority had suffered from some form of domestic or sexual violence.
• All had gotten pregnant unintentionally, not due to a lack of information about available contraceptives, but because their partners refused to use condoms, a practice the girls viewed as perfectly normal and acceptable.
• All were vehemently against the legalization of abortion, despite the fact that most had attempted homemade abortions themselves.  “The baby has the right to live, to see the world… it’s not responsible for your mistakes,” was a common response.
• While almost all of them acknowledged that getting pregnant at a young age led to loss opportunities (i.e., the opportunity to study, to work, to be a freewheeling teenager), to many girls “young,” in fact, meant 11 or 12 years old.
• One girl, who was 16 and had stopped using contraception because she wanted a child, reacted with disbelief when I asked her if she thought it was too early to be a mother.  “Amy, ‘early’ is when you’re 11 or 12 years old.  At 16, I’m practically my own master.  If I wait until I’m in my 20s, I’ll be too old!”

Living in a violent environment

When it came to the girls’ greatest fears, the issue of violence in the favela became unavoidable.  Many mothers expressed anxiety about the possibility of losing their children to stray bullets and about having them grow up in an endlessly volatile environment.  One young mother, Alessandra, described the difficulty in sheltering her five-year-old son Rodrigo from the community’s gun violence:

“Sometimes we’ll be walking and Rodrigo will ask me, ‘Mama, what is that boy holding?’ And I’ll say to him, ‘Nothing, it’s nothing.’  But then he’ll respond, ‘Why does he have a gun, Mama?’ And I’ll say, ‘He has what?!  That isn’t anything. You don’t need to know what that is!’”

Lessons Learned

My most valuable lesson from Favela da Maré was this: in helping teenage mothers around the world, we must not only work to give them the resources and the infrastructure that will empower them to change their lives. Rather, we must also be ready to contend with their surrounding socio-cultural environment, whose deep-rooted practices often impede development efforts.

But how do we go about doing this without seeming like Western cultural imperialists, without imposing our talk about “rights” on young women whose core beliefs often diverge from ours?  That is the question all development practitioners should ask themselves.  In any event, it seems there are no easy solutions.

***Note: The photos in this blog-post were taken by either the girls who participated in the workshop, using disposable cameras, or by Julia Kurc, a Brazilian photographer with whom I collaborated.***

Karen, 16, with daughter of 15 months (photo by Julia Kurc)

“In the future I want to be a teacher and give everything I can to my family.  I also want to be independent and not always have to  rely on my boyfriend.  I want to work and study so that I can reach all my goals—that’s very important.’

Angela, 14, five months pregnant (photo taken with disposable camera). Angela was a sweet, soft-spoken girl who attended the initial sessions of the workshop.  Eventually, she stopped coming due to problems at home, and I was never able to interview her.

Girls playing on a staircase (photo by Julia Kurc). This photo was taken during a “tour” the girls gave us of their neighborhood.

Ariane, 19, with son aged one and a half years (photo by Julia Kurc). “I don’t like studying, but I study because I have to, and because I want my son to follow my example.  Eventually I want to work so that I can save enough money to buy my own house and live with my son and partner.  Nothing makes me happier than when I’m with the two of them.”

Claudia, 21, with her two children (photo taken by disposable camera). “I want to teach my children to be well-mannered and hardworking—I don’t want them to have to depend on anyone.  I want my son to study, to not drop out of school.  I want him to have his own home, his own family.  I want him to help his wife with the cleaning.  In order to ensure my children’s development, I need to always be at their side.”

Maria, 22, with son Carlos (photo by Julia Kurc). “I want to work, study, give a good future to my son, and be as happy as possible.  My biggest dream is to return to my home in Maranhão and be close to my parents.”

Emily, 2 years and eight months (photo by Julia Kurc). Emily’s mom, Alessandra, 22, on becoming a young mother: “I don’t want my children to have to work early in life—not at all.  Because I had to start working when I was very young… I had to change a lot of things in my life.  I stopped being a teenager and became a mother.  I stopped playing with dolls to play with a real-life doll.  Even now I still joke with Emily, I say to her: ‘Mama used to play with a fake doll… now Mama plays with a real-life doll, a little black doll.’”

Claudia, 17 (left) holding family friend; Claudia’s mother (center) holding one of Claudia’s sisters; Claudia’s sister (right) holding Claudia’s daughter. “I see kids cleaning people’s shoes in the street, others who are already involved in drug trafficking… that’s the last thing I want for my daughter.  I want to give her a good education, something my mom didn’t give me.  I want her to study, to have a house, and to eat well.  I want her to be a lawyer.”

Camila, a young mother of 21, with the certificate she received for completing the workshop (photo by Julia Kurc.

Guest Editor

Amy Hong

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About

My name is Amy Hong, I'm a 23-year-old California native, and in May of 2008 I graduated from New York University where I studied Spanish literature, sociology, and journalism. My interest in human rights and development issues has been inspired by diverse experiences I've had in recent years, from studying moral philosophy, to an internship at UNFPA and conducting fieldwork with youth in Argentine and Brazilian shantytowns. Through my own work I've observed firsthand the importance of cultural awareness in development work, and am a firm believer in sustained dialogue as the most effective vehicle for promoting cross-cultural understanding. That said, I'm very much looking forward to engaging with others on Conversations for a Better World!