The strength of the women of Cusiana

"We are hard-working and thriving women, and we can do anything we pursue. Working in Cusiana made us understand that we are not only good at housework”.

This is the voice of Ruth Cricelia Reyes Gerena, a mother, head of a family with two children, one 15 and the other 2. Ruth, who lives in Santa Lucía in the municipality of Florián (Santander), gets up very early to milk her cows and waits for her mother, who takes care of her youngest son, to walk out to her work in the Cusiana project, where she does paint work.

For her, this job gives her the chance to support her family and save to pay for her children's studies to see them become professionals.

Like Ruth, 220 other women have made this project a reality, increasing the capacity of natural gas transported from Casanare to the center of the country, passing through the municipalities of Florián, Jesús María and Miraflores, and crossing 146 properties between Santander and Boyacá.

"We were surprised to see the number of women who, on their own initiative and without planning it, applied for the different positions of the project in the Public Employment Service, including the position of workers," says engineer Cindy Correa, leader of the Cusiana Phase IV project executed by TGI.

Some community leaders expressed the importance of offering job opportunities to these women, who for the most part are mothers who are heads of families and find it difficult to get a formal job, since almost all the options offered by the labor market in the region are for men.

"At TGI, we decided to bet on gender equality by providing the opportunity for the female workforce, both in skilled and unskilled labor," says Cindy. “The work involved a lot of physical force, as we used 40 kilometers of 30-inch pipe, that is, 400 tons of steel, and more than 3,600 tubes of three tons each were mobilized. And the women of the region showed us that they not only had the strength, but the will to do it”, adds the engineer.

In addition, the topographic conditions are difficult: high slopes, unstable areas, nearby lines in service with gas or hydrocarbon at high pressures and rainfall due to the La Niña phenomenon. This hindered the processes and affected performance, but they demonstrated what they are made of.

In the project, women held positions as industrial and environmental safety supervisors, engineers, social coordinators, surveyors, inspectors, civil and environmental technical assistants, and workers who did heavy work such as manual excavation, masonry, forest harvesting, construction of pipeline, track and demolition crossings.

At the age of 50, Marisol Peña Sanabria, from the Agua Fría village inf the municipality of Jesús María (Santander), performs various functions. She does not own a house, nor does she have relatives nearby. For this reason, her work team is her home, because they care about her well-being, her having everything she needs and to help her with whatever she needs, even if she doesn't ask for it.

“For this reason, in addition to disinfecting the trucks and staff, I help with whatever they need: from picking up rods to serving coffees. This is the best way to show TGI how grateful I am for giving me the opportunity to work,” says Marisol.

And there are other strong women, like the community leader Mary Luz Vargas, who lives in Arrayán, municipality of Miraflores (Boyacá). She began studying Nursing and Pharmacy Management Technology with an Emphasis on Safety and Occupational Health, but only reached the eighth semester in her career. And without having finished her studies, in Cusiana shet found an opportunity working for the safety and health of employees.

"These projects not only create jobs, but also bring well-being to the different communities," explained Mary Luz, given the common paradigms observed, such as damage to soils, deforestation, pollution of rivers, as well as the imposition, outrage and oppression on the territories.

But with her support and the aid of other community leaders, dialogue took place among the mayors and the different actors involved in the Cusiana Phase IV to ensure that everyone had the same employment opportunities, that all environmental and biosafety protocols were followed, and to reaffirm the communities that this project is generating sustainable development in the region.

Now, many of these women are setting up their agriculture or livestock enterprises; they are saving to cover the education of their children, bringing their basic sustenance to their homes and, in the future, they are thinking of associating seeking to improve the working conditions of women and dignify their role within society.