It's been more than a quarter of a century since the Sandinistas toppled the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, yet the struggle for personal freedom and self-determination here continues. For women, anyway.
"The revolution gave us hope that there would be greater rights for women," said Dr. Mary Ellsberg, an American who put her life at risk working with the Sandinistas during the revolution as a "brigadista" on literacy and health campaigns in rural areas.
Dr. Ellsberg is the daughter of famed military-analyst-turned-anti-war-activist Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 leaked the "Pentagon Papers" revealing the U.S. military's bleak assessment of the Vietnam War.
Today, Ellsberg is no less passionate than when she was helping the Miskito Indians while looking over her shoulder for the next Contra attack. But now, as director of Seattle-based PATH's Nicaragua program and of its work on gender, violence and human rights, her efforts are more at risk from politics, bureaucracy and cultural indifference.
In 2003, with startup funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH created a program called Entre Amigas (Between Friends) that trains young women to educate their peers, especially those in poor communities.
[Excerpt of an article by Tom Paulson, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
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