Elena Sandivarez, 59, has been working for as long as she can remember. When she lost her mother at age eight, she was left alone in the world and learned to sew to support herself.
For almost 40 years, she was in a relationship with a man who put her through so many violent situations that it is difficult for her to remember them all. “He held a gun to my head many times,” Sandivarez says with a hint of relief in her voice, because after decades of suffering she managed to escape.
“He told me he was going to kill me. I didn’t answer back.” If she had, Sandivarez says, she wouldn’t be telling this story. “He did it at home, where there were no witnesses. Until one day, when he attacked me in the street.” That was on January 25, 2020, under the scorching sun and in the middle of carnival. Everyone saw what happened. With the help of people close to her and the team at Polo de la Mujer (Pole of Care for Women in Situations of Violence), she managed to report him. Her partner/attacker—a retired policeman with several outstanding cases against him—was convicted of other crimes and is now being held in the Cruz del Eje prison.
“I was afraid for my grandchildren and for my son, because he [her partner/attacker] began to blame my son for encouraging me to turn him in. Sandivarez is a mother of two, Leonardo, 39, and Ismael, who died in an accident when he was 23. “He would have been 37 this year,” she laments. It was another loss that changed her life forever.
Sandivarez became one of the first members of Resilient Women, a program launched in 2022 by the city of Despeñaderos that combines a comprehensive approach to gender-based violence with action against climate change. “I’m resilient in every sense of the word,” she says, acknowledging that the support from her colleagues and the community has been essential.
Despeñaderos is a town of 9,000 inhabitants where everyone knows everyone else. In the past, if a woman needed help, she had to travel 50 kilometers to Córdoba, the provincial capital. A few months after Sandivarez dared to turn in her ex-partner, a Punto Mujer (Women’s Point) opened in Despeñaderos. Today, it is a place where women like Sandivarez who find themselves in situations of gender-based violence can find shelter and advice.
“In Despeñaderos, the SDGs are in full force,” says Carolina Basualdo, the mayor of Despeñaderos and ambassador for Latin America for the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. The Mayor is referring to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 objectives set forth in 2016 to achieve “peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.” These goals include health, gender equality and education along with sustainable cities, climate action and partnerships to achieve these goals.
Basualdo points out that Despeñaderos is a member of the Argentine Network of Municipalities Facing Climate Change, which includes more than 300 cities, as well as the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. GCoM, the world’s largest alliance of mayors and local authorities, includes more than 13,200 cities in 144 countries and is supported by the European Union.
GCoM echoes the Paris Agreement, the international climate change treaty adopted at COP21 that went into effect on November 4, 2016. Its overarching goal is to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. To this end, GCoM members study of the greenhouse effects in their city then draw up a local action plan to mitigate climate change. In Despeñaderos, one outcome has been the creative pairing of Resilient Women with climate change initiatives, resulting in a virtuous circle.
“We set up a workshop in coordination with the Industrial Design Department of the National University of Córdoba,” explains Mayor Basualdo. “Women receive training at the university, where they learn to use waste such as used paper to develop various products they can sell to the community. The idea is for them to achieve economic independence. This is an agro-industrial area, so we use a lot of the silage bags given to us by farmers. Through thermofusion, we create fabric that can be transformed into wallets, purses and bags.”
Sandivarez recalls that the first products they made were 60 matero bags, used to carry a complete mate kit with a cup, straw, thermos and yerba mate. “We also learned how to make molds with X-ray film, and we used these molds to make wallets that can be transformed into bags.” These “resilient” products are sold in a shop for entrepreneurs set up by the municipality in the Becerra Shopping Center, a well-known supermarket in the area.
Resilient Women thus generated a cycle of circular economy and green entrepreneurship that not only promotes environmental sustainability but also provides a productive space for women to rebuild their lives and become agents of change in their own communities.
In recognition of the impact of this project, Resilient Women was awarded Special Mention in 2022 by the jury for the Awards for Good Local Practices with a Gender Perspective at the 4th Edition of the Ibero-American Union of Municipalities.
Then in 2023, Resilient Women was selected to participate in the United Nations Development Program’s Knowledge Fair: “Empowering Voices, Ending Gender-Based Violence” in Barbados. They were invited as part of the Spotlight Initiative Regional Program to eliminate violence against women and girls.
Sandivarez’s colleague Nora Escobedo represented Resilient Women—it was the first time she had ever flown in a plane. She went with Gisela Acosta, coordinator of Punto Mujer in Despeñaderos. “I was so happy for Nora,” says Sandivarez. “She is 35 and has a whole life ahead of her.”
Escobedo and Acosta presented the results of Despeñaderos’s work on the U.N.’s SDG 5, which concerns gender equality, in relation to SDG 13, which aims to achieve a sustainable environment. “This showed that women can break out of the cycle of violence through work to protect the environment, creating products out of recycled materials and then returning them to the community through the circular economy,” says Basualdo. As part of their networking activities at the Barbados meetings, Escobedo and Acosta also explored the possibility of exporting their products.
The Despeñaderos initiatives make it possible for the city to seek international funding to achieve environmental sustainability and to help more women, strengthening their autonomy. There is a pressing need for such work: In Córdoba province, the effects of climate change are more evident than ever, with fires, floods and high temperatures affecting communities and businesses. “Climate change is real,” says Basualdo. “And municipalities are the first to respond to these crises.”
COP28, held in Dubaï in December 2023, reflected this reality. It included a Mayors’ Summit that called for greater access to direct funding to help local governments accelerate the implementation of action plans that support the goals of the Paris Agreement. At present, all international organizations and banks such as the IDB support green fund guidelines, but efficient and effective allocation of these funds from the national level to the municipal level is lacking.
Meanwhile, Despeñaderos continues to develop new ways to address climate change. Basualdo says these include a biodiesel plant, tree planting, solar energy, recycling, composting and greener agricultural practices. One project, called Despeñaderos Blooms, was developed in conjunction with the Faculty of Agronomy of the National University of Córdoba. “It combines women entrepreneurs with organic production, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions,” says the mayor. Yet more opportunities for the Resilient Women of Despeñaderos to change their lives—and their community.