On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the efforts of activists like Angie Torres and her commitment to building more inclusive and equitable societies.

Angie was 15 years old when she was forced to leave her home in Colombia, due to the decade-long armed conflict in the country. She found refuge in Ecuador, where one specific encounter reshaped her life.

“I met a mother with her children. The father was not with them. She had arrived like me, crossing the border between Colombia and Ecuador. It was very challenging for her initially. She had to find a job and, in the meantime, take care of her children, as they were too young to go to school. She lived in an unsafe place, subject to violence, in unhealthy conditions. Her house flooded every time it rained. She needed assistance.”

Angie realised she had to keep fighting to support those forced to leave their homes, as they no longer have the opportunity to resume their lives as they once knew them.

She has been living in Ecuador for eight years with her family. At first, it was not easy. It took two years before they were granted refugee status. “As an asylum seeker, I did not have access to many rights, including the right to education or the right to a job with a decent salary,” she commented.

The relationship with the local community was also challenging. Although the cultures of the two countries in the border regions are very similar, there is strong discrimination against Colombian people within Ecuador, “I have often been the victim of acts of violence, sometimes I had to imitate the way people in Ecuador talk to be treated equally in public spaces.”

Activism for human rights

Angie’s journey as an activist started as soon as she arrived in Ecuador. As a country of destination for many people fleeing war and violence in neighbouring countries, it is also home to many NGOs providing services to migrants and refugees. “Upon my arrival, I came across several NGOs, including JRS, which trained me on themes such as discrimination, the culture of peace, interculturalism, new masculinities, and more broadly human rights. With these tools and awareness behind me, I became the person who mobilises today.”

Through her engagement with NGOs and other realities active on the ground, Angie dedicates much of her time to awareness-raising campaigns on the rights of migrants, especially women and girls. She conducts seminars in schools and is working to set up pathways of support for women survivors of gender-based violence. All activities are addressed to both the local and refugee communities. Working together, with refugees and host communities, has greatly improved the relationship with the local population, “it has highlighted that there are many more things that unite us than those that differentiate us.”

The focus on gender issues in contexts of displacement stems from a need she has experienced first-hand “as women, in my opinion, we are much more likely to have our rights violated, from the country of departure to the country of destination,” she continues, “when we arrive in a host country, we suffer double discrimination, as women and as foreigners”.

A message to women all over the world

“I think we should first make our rights visible, because although they exist, I think many of us are not aware of them. Then we should exercise them, enforce them. If we are aware of our rights and value them, we can fight for them, we can make sure they are respected. We can claim for our rights to be respected when we feel they are being violated, and we can be involved in the various decision-making processes to exercise them and make them visible,” she stated.

Angie advocates for migrant and refugee women to be granted the right and tools to determine their own future. “A principle of equality must be established, guaranteeing equal conditions and opportunities in employment, and for this to happen gender stereotypes must be eradicated in various contexts and spaces. This initiative is even more important given that we, as refugees, are often victims of double discrimination.”

To take her message to the international level, Angie joined the JRS delegation at the Global Refugee Forum in December.

On International Women’s Day she called upon all women and girls who are fighting and those who would like to join the fight to see a change: “let’s not give up, let’s keep fighting and in small steps we will achieve big changes. Revolutions are built in small steps, walking side by side.”