Who are we? – Proyecto Matria, Inc.

Mission

Matria is a feminist and human rights organization that works holistically to advance equity, full human development and freedom for women, LGBTTIQ+ people and other marginalized groups in the country through actions aimed at promoting their empowerment and facilitating access to financial, economic development and housing services.

We aspire to a country in which all women, and other populations living in inequality, overcome situations of gender-based violence and discrimination to exercise their right to a life free of violence and full of individual achievement.

Matria's innovative approach transcends the welfarist view of people as victims. We offer services committed to their needs, their full human development, and the development of their own permanent capacity for self-sufficiency and economic independence.

Vision

We work with love, solidarity and hope to achieve a Puerto Rico in which women can be born, grow and live in peace. A country in which all women have full access to the enjoyment of their human rights and are able to develop their human capacities to the fullest. Equity will be the best antidote to gender violence and will have a multiplying effect of well-being for all.

We dream of a country where LGBTTIQ+ people can fully live their human rights and be respected in their family, community, work and political environments.

We are working to ensure that the social, economic and political structures in which we live are radically transformed so that diversities of sex, gender, race, origin, beliefs, class, politics, immigration status, physical or intellectual abilities are viewed and treated with respect.

We know that our dream of a just, peaceful, happy and prosperous Motherland will become a reality and that everyone will have a roof, food, health, education and security from a base in which each person receives what he or she needs while contributing from his or her potential.

Why does Proyecto Matria exist?

In Puerto Rico, a woman head of household who does not work and has a nuclear family of three people, survives on $11 a day. This amount is much lower if we consider that some of these women have PAN as their only income, in which case, it is possible that they survive on $5 a day for each member of their family.

It is also interesting to note that the number of female-headed households has increased dramatically and, according to demographer Judith Rodriguez, this increase will continue in the coming years. This leads us to look at two additional points that concern us as a society:

Increased rates of domestic violence and social violence.

The consequences of maintaining a statistically significant social sector living in poverty and therefore excluded from the goods and services they need for their full human development and that of their families.

Is Puerto Rico the only country that is obliged to look at this reality? Definitely not. At the international level, important organizations such as the United Nations have stated that women's economic development must be part of any effort to eradicate poverty.

Poverty is no longer defined merely as a lack of money, but as a reduced level of ability to self-manage the satisfaction of one's own needs. It is also the "insufficient availability of economic resources, of which inadequate personal income is only one possible cause".

Thus, poverty can have among its causes the insufficiency of goods, public services and access to resources owned and managed by the community, among others. If a person's lack of access to any of these resources contributes to accelerating the failure of his or her basic capabilities, that person would be considered poor.

Having said this, and taking into account the limited access that our women have to the goods, resources and services they need to develop their capabilities, it is necessary to conclude that poverty, as a result of the conditions they live in by virtue of their sex, is an evil that we must eradicate as a society and as a country.

In order to achieve gender equity and, in turn, achieve an adequate balance between the needs of all sectors of our society, we must look at our economic development strategies from the perspective of their needs.

That is why Matria exists...

Our History

In 2004, a group of women decided to found what is now Proyecto Matria. We all knew we wanted to work with survivors of domestic violence and give them a chance to rebuild their lives in peace. Our slogan in 2004 was prophetic: "From dependence to independence, a path of transformation. Since that year we have grown to adapt our services to the women and the country we serve.

Transitional housing (Gaia) and economic development (Alchemy) services in 2004 are now much more extensive.

The following is a brief chronology of our development:

2004- Founding of Matria and creation of Gaia and Alquimia.

2006- We started the work of what became the first microenterprise incubator of our Island specialized in women: Libera.

2007- Co-founded the Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres de Puerto Rico.

2008- We created Aurum, our microcredit program. That year we took our incubation model to the Dominican Republic and trained partners in it.

2009-We received honorable mention in the Miranda Foundation Solidarity Award.

2011 - Matria initiated La Ruta de las Mujeres as a project of political empowerment and community education, aimed at raising awareness among women of the archipelago about the importance of their vote and that it is cast from a clear knowledge of their rights, aspirations and hopes. In 2012, as part of political empowerment workshops in the election process, proposals and complaints from women in different communities were collected and sent to all political parties.

2012- For the second time we were honored with a mention from the Miranda Foundation's Solidarity Award and since that year we have been part of the award's advisory board. In addition, we presented our business incubation model in Hartford, Connecticut and in Istanbul, Turkey.

2013- We launched our social enterprise IGEA (Institute of Gender and Advanced Education). That same year our housing program incorporated permanent housing to provide homes for 40 women and their families. We also co-founded the Comité Amplio para la Búsqueda de Equidad (CABE). We took our incubation model to the Basque Country and our empowerment manual was translated into Basque.

2014- We created Atenea and Las Matrias.

2016- Marked another step forward for us with the expansion of our transitional housing program to serve LGBT people through Gaia Arcoíris.

2017 - We started our Amare project, for the prevention of hate crimes.

2018 - We started our Casa Solidaria project in the Barrio Miraflores sector of the Saltos Flores neighborhood in Orocovis. There, our Casa Solidaria team works in love, solidarity, commitment and determination with the community in areas of economic development with the business incubators, education with the solidarity school, impact on agriculture with the community garden, housing repair and reconstruction, and jobs, all working from a vision of human rights. Since 2023, Casa Solidaria is in a transition process where the community, through the Community Council and its corporation Centro Comunitario de Miraflores, Inc. continue their work of organization and community development with the accompaniment of Matria.

2020 - The 24/7 Helpline was created as an inter-agency response among organizations with expertise in the issue of gender violence in Puerto Rico. This effort arises as a result of the pandemic caused by COVID 19 and the measures taken by the Government such as the "lockdown", leaving the victims captive with their aggressors.

2024 - We resume the economic development program: LIBERA.

Our Team

Our work style is framed in a horizontal model in which tasks are performed in autonomous, non-hierarchical teams at a large common table. In this system, each member enriches the work nucleus with his or her specialty; he or she is an active resource in the distribution of work and decision making.