Marta Benavides

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Marta Benavides
Marta Benavides.jpg
Marta Benavides, 2018
Born1943
Nationality El Salvadorian
OccupationReligious leader
Known forHuman rights work

Marta Benavides (born 1943) is a feminist religious leader from El Salvador. She is a theologian, ordained American Baptist minister, [1] permaculturist, educator, and artist.

Contents

Activism

Benavides began working for human rights and peace in the 1960s. After the military coup in El Salvador in 1979 and the outbreak of the Salvadoran Civil War, she became the leader of the Ecumenical Committee for Humanitarian Aid, a group sponsored by the Archbishop Óscar Romero. Romero was assassinated in 1980. In 1982, Benavides went into exile in Mexico and the United States, and continued her efforts from there.

In 1992, following the Chapultepec Peace Accords, Benavides returned to El Salvador and founded the organization Siglo XXIII, also known as the International Institute for Cooperation Amongst Peoples, which promotes cultural activities as a way of achieving sustainable peace. [2] [3] She has led workshops on sustainable agriculture, human rights, and the prevention of community and family violence. [4]

Awards

In 2003, she was one of 33 Laureates of the Women's World Summit Foundation Prize for Women's Creativity in Rural Life. In 2005 she was among the 1,000 women nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. [3] In 2009, she was awarded the Woman Peacemaker Prize from the Institute of Joan B. Kroc for Peace and Justice in the University of San Diego, California. [4] She was one of the co-chairs of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP). [5]

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References

  1. Katie Geneva Cannon; Ada María Isasi-Díaz; Kwok Pui-Ian; Letty M. Russell, eds. (1988). Inheriting our mothers' gardens: feminist theology in Third World perspective (1st ed.). Philadelphia: Westminster Press. p. 7. ISBN   0-664-25019-X. OCLC   17805572.
  2. Hanley, Mary Stone; Sheppard, Gilda L; Noblit, George W.; Barone, Thomas, eds. (2013). Culturally Relevant Arts Education for Social Justice: A Way Out of No Way. Routledge. p. 230. ISBN   9780415656603.
  3. 1 2 "Marta Benavides". Earth Rights Institute. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
  4. 1 2 "2009 Women PeaceMakers". University of San Diego, Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. Archived from the original on 22 January 2010.
  5. Provost, Claire (2 April 2013). "Development goals? What development goals? Blank faces in El Salvador". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2021.