Monica Carrillo LUNDU (Centro de Estudios y Promoción Afroperuanos) Peru An Afro-Peruvian women’s rights educator

As an Afro-Peruvian woman, Monica faces sexual and racial discrimination every day. Concerned about the effect of this discrimination on other young women like herself, Monica founded and is now the Director of LUNDU (Centro de Estudios y Promoción Afroperuanos/Center for Afro-Peruvian Studies and empowerment), which is an anti-sexism, antiracism, anti-homophobia organization focused on empowering a new generation of Afro-Peruvian leaders. It is currently the only group working on issues of gender, sexuality and human rights in Afro-descendent communities in Peru. In rural El Carmen, the site of a growing sex tourism industry with a high rate of HIV/AIDS, LUNDU is training peer educators to dispense vital information on sexual and reproductive health to Afro- Peruvian young people. “We can empower more young women against violence, abuse, forced sex, unwanted pregnancies and AIDS”, Monica says. “Our girls believe their lives are worth something. When tourists ask them to dance, or have sex, our girls can say ‘no’. Our girls learn to live without wearing a mask.” [credit: Google Earth and http://www.everyhumanhasrights.org/monica-carrillo]