Fundacion Mujer y Mujer (Mujer & Mujer Foundation)

ABOUT Mujer & Mujer was born out of the challenge for the social and political visibility of lesbian women, their empowerment and community organization. At first, they united with the vital need for a safe space where to share tears, silences, pride and resistance, many of them came from popular sectors, contexts of unnamed violence, they were survivors, some of them had felt the misogynistic-lesbian-phobic slap of the movement Gay, some were looking for a girlfriend or a leisure space and others wanted to be spokespersons and presidents of the republic . They were (and they are)  diverse in every sense of the word but they had something in common: they were there, ready to make their presence felt. Then they ask themselves: How to do politics from lesbian women? They found that it was important to recognize their geopolitical context, they were doing activism in Guayaquil, a city that is the economic and religious center of the country, with deep processes of privatization and control of both public spaces and the body and sexuality of women, they understood that they should focus on training, the political strengthening of their proposals and networking with other social actors. Their philosophy Thus, in various circles of creation, their slogan is born:  Free to Be, Decide and Demand , which represents the 3 axes of their philosophy: from where they enunciate themselves, what they decide to turn the tortilla to hetero-patriarchal societies and the changes they demand with their leading role. They  have never had a "real" physical space, which has certainly limited their development but at the same time has allowed them to be mutants of space, to appropriate parks, tables, libraries, houses / apartments, piers, and any place that lends itself to diversity, they make an office a small space provided by one of the members, which serves to make formal meetings but is also the place where they can send them their (financial) contributions. They conceived themselves as a group, then as a movement, they obtained legal life through the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion as a Women & Women Association - LGBTI Collective and now they project themselves to become a national foundation.