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Over the past six months, Religions for Peace successfully launched three sub-regional women of faith networks in Latin America. Representing the Andean, Southern Cone and the Central America regions they were launched in September 2005, November 2005 and January 2006 respectively.

Religions for Peace has found that Latin American and Caribbean women of faith have accumulated significant experience in their work on education, social action and human rights issues. However, they lack opportunities to network, or share knowledge and best practices.

To address this situation Religions for Peace created the Latin American and Caribbean Women of Faith Network (LACWFN) in 2003. The LACWFN convenes representatives in a multi-religious context to address the central themes of rural women’s poverty, domestic violence, maternal mortality, and leadership development.

The sub-regional gatherings were designed to further strengthen the LACWFN and address the more localized concerns of each sub-region. Specifically, the events sought to capacitate and further familiarize women with methods and innovative tools to confront the issues of rural women’s poverty, domestic violence, maternal mortality, and leadership development.

Each of the conferences also offered the opportunity for these representatives to interact with international development agencies and better understand the benefits of a multi-religious approach to the challenges facing Latin America.

The Peru and Guatemala meetings were supported by the Lutheran World Relief (LWR), an organization that works with local partners to seek lasting solutions to end poverty and injustice.