By Rocío Arango Giraldo

COLOMBIA: Ofelia is the name of my wheelchair. It stands in stark contrast with the worn-out wheelchairs of the salespeople’s wheelchairs that enter the building where my new job is located.

These are the people who sell the lottery tickets. They are the vulnerable of the most vulnerable. At another time, in this same space, I’ve talked about the “exclusion club” where in Latin America the majority who belong to this club are the most vulnerable — women, children, old people and handicapped persons.

In the mornings, while I begin my work as a professional, the lottery sellers start their day. They spend the whole day in the hot sun selling lottery tickets. Many of them are elderly.

However, I am 21-years-old and I pass my day in front of the computer, talking on the phone inside an air conditioned building as part of my new job being responsible for Foreign Affairs.

My case is a statistical anomaly — I have a genetic disorder of which the probabilities of being born with it are expressed in the millions. I am part of the 1 percent of handicapped people who are able to finish their higher education in Colombia and I still belong to 0.1 percentile who go on to study at a university or for a graduate degree.

But what is the reason for this situation?

By Janett Chávarry García

PERU:During this month, I have been traveling to different places around my country, Perú. Throughout my entire journey I was left in awe of the huge efforts, creativity and sacrifice of women who work day-to-day to earn money.

In my journey to three different cities, I saw special kinds of women, some of them with special professions as fishers, engineers, bank assistants, and publishers. People who studied at university and obtained benefits through their thoughts and intellectual abilities — a good point in favor of these women when we consider that in Peru more than 40 percent of women are studying for a career at university, and every year the numbers increase.

On the other hand, and obviously, the most interesting part of my trip was seeing the different kinds of jobs women can realize. In this journey, I saw Peruvian women working as tourist guides — only using their hands and voices, women rowing boats, some of them preparing and offering food to anybody who would buy it, people who have the strength to carry stones or anything just to get a bit of money for their families.

From this journey, I can prove that the statistics are true that say that more than 50 percent of the women in Perú are the heads of their families and support, not only the education of their children and care for them, but also the economy.