Energy from Women, our beginnings and new challenges: What are we cooking for 2022?

 

By Energy from Women

 

If we look back a few months ago, Energy from Women began to be written in those moments of silence and isolation in a small city in southern Germany, precisely when the world was facing one of the most critical moments of the pandemic (COVID-19). A situation that increased inequalities and that once again highlighted the need to guarantee access to sustainable and affordable energy service, but this time with a global awareness, to facilitate access to other types of basic services such as education, communications, drinking water or information, especially to the most disadvantaged populations.

 

In that time of reflection and hopelessness that converged with our interest and motivation to contribute to the energy sector differently, Energy from Women began as a blog format to gradually become a network and later a transdisciplinary group of women.

 

“La Energía de las Mujeres”, better known as Energy from Women, is made up of valuable women like you, women who with their knowledge and motivation contribute to endeavors for real gender equality and equity, to close knowledge gaps in society, to give value to multiculturalism, to work for a more fair and empathetic society with diversity, a society with equal opportunities. Energy from Women also represents women who lead and undertake initiatives to positively transform impoverished or vulnerable environments. Women with a strategic vision for building alliances to support the purpose of the network. Women with an open attitude to learning and collaborative work. Women who represent diversity, co-responsibility, equality, sorority, multiculturalism and inspiration.

 

As a collective, we have two clear objectives: (i) to make professional women visible in different areas of knowledge and (ii) to give a voice to rural women, those who live in isolated, remote, and vulnerable environments, where there is still a high dependency on harmful primary energy and low opportunities for development.

 

In our mission, we have published 11 articles and 5 stories. Articles that address topics such as climate action, environment, international cooperation, the energy sector, refugee population, sustainable architecture, biotechnosphere, chemistry, biomass and biofuels, green hydrogen, sustainable mobility, solar technology, urban planning, among others; topics so diverse but while jointly tackle the gender perspective from a critical point of view. Similarly, the five stories, whose protagonists take us to different countries and regions and to different realities, get across dreams and desire to become better human beings, diversity of knowledge and experiences, such as courage, bravery and dedication to inspire us to continue giving our best, and thus, to make do of this world a fairer place.

 

With great pride we continue progressing beyond our initial objectives, we have launched our first project to provide access to electricity to a school located in a rural area of Arauca (Colombia) and we have already planned a second one in the city of Teresina in Brazil to implement energy efficiency measures in an association that supports young people in vulnerable conditions. Likewise, we work actively offering awareness talks on gender equality in private companies, academia, forums, conferences and interviews, which also contributes to the visibility of our network and our mission.

 

This leads us to recognize and appreciate the commitment of our leaders and volunteers, as well as the trust of our stakeholders and the population in general in our network, this is our main motivation.

 

We appreciate the support of Anécdotas con Energía from Mexico, IEEE Colombia, IEEE Ecuador and IEEE Brazil, as well as private companies, academia and other partners for helping us to get our message across.

 

During this time, we have learned and confirmed how fruitful it is to work in diversity and with a collaborative spirit. Today we are more than 30 volunteers representing various countries and cultures, including Spain, Ecuador, Colombia, the United States, Russia, Bolivia, Chile, Algeria and Brazil. Our commitment is clear, gender equality and equity requires significant efforts and for this, collective work is necessary.

 

In this sense, do you want to know how we envision our work for the next year? Therefore, we would like to invite you to watch the testimonial video of the Energy from Women volunteers at out YouTube channel:

 

 

 

We have the big challenge to continue working for women visibility, particularly in the energy sector, and to materialize our current projects as well as undertake others where the presence of the network is necessary. We are committed to keep working on awareness-raising on the importance of integrating the gender perspective at the institutional level, as well as to keep growing by the participation of new women that strengthen our transdisciplinarity. This leads us to recall some of the many reflections made by our volunteers:

 

-       “…we must continue doing our part from different spheres of society, so that, equality and equity between men and women become normal. It is a matter of coherence, social justice, and human rights…” Beatriz Iritia, Spain.

-       “…it is necessary to understand that gender and environmental issues are the clearest manifestation of the consequences of our current vision of the world…” Angélica Roldán, Ecuador.

-       “The transport sector has historically been a space for men, but now we can be protagonists in a new era of sustainable transport” Pilar Enríquez, Chile and Nathalia Ortiz, Colombia.

-       “Don’t let other people draw your borders, …There are no borders, this is in your mind. If you remove the borders of your mind, you can achieve what you really want. There is nothing easy and you have to push as harder as possible” Amira Ghied, Algeria.

 

Thanks to the volunteers of Energy from Women,

Thanks to our stakeholders,

Thanks  to those who read and support our work,

Thanks to those who trust in Energy from Women, we wish you happiness and a great 2022 ahead filled by achievements and wonderful experiences.

 

Happy 2022!!! If our work has caused interest in you, please, don’t hesitate in reaching out at: energyfromwomen@gmail.com