Hey queen! The activist project that seeks female empowerment from empathy

Female empowerment from empathy is the theme with which the second edition of the activist project Hey queen! It will be released in 2022. It is directed by actress Alejandra Paredes. Through cinema and the arts, they promote female empowerment and the education of girls and women with positive messages.

“The theme of empathy is very curious since we women are very diverse… in many aspects, sociological conditions… but the same threads always unite us, of willpower, love for ourselves, desire to improve ourselves and the desire to be better for ourselves and for our family, and thus also for our community, our environment. We have the same struggles, the same causes, despite the fact that we are apparently diverse and different…”, says Paredes.

12 actresses come together to give a message of empowerment and self-improvement for women

“Hey queen! It is management, getting scholarships, training for women, because I consider that with that opportunity to be able to educate herself, to prepare, she is a woman who has opportunities in her life, she is a free woman, ”she adds.

Hey queen! It arises from the La vida cambia foundation, of which Paredes is also in charge and manages scholarships for young people and adults from various parts of Ecuador.

Four women participate this year Maholy Vernaza, Carolina Galán, Marina Salvarezza and Marthi Ampuero.

Each one of them from their fields will give a “very powerful” message, according to Paredes. “A message of self-improvement, a message of what it is to be a woman in these and the power that each one has from where they are to do what they are, to be determined to face what they have in their lives, but also to grow, from where they start…”, he points out.

Maholy Vernaza

Vernaza is the youngest of those who are part of the project. She will be 18 years old this March 8th. She is a high school student, she is in her last year. For three years she has been dedicated to human rights activism with a focus on children, adolescents and women. She follows in the footsteps of her mother, who is also a women’s rights activist.

“The diversity that the project entails caught my attention, because they are women with very different realities from mine and that is why it motivated me to tell a little about my life and provide that positive message to the women who are going to have the opportunity to view the documentary and that in the same way they can feel identified with the experiences that I have had and with the message of power that I want to transmit through the documentary”, she says.

Carolina Galan

Galán, 33, works as a teacher, has a degree in Initial Education, and is a mother. About the invitation she said: “What I liked is that independence and that power that women acquire from doing certain activities that are a bit limited, in some type of work, because we are women they think we cannot, so raise the flag and say, hey!, yes I can, that motivates me more…”.

“Do not put limitations on ourselves, the fact of being a mother does not have to be an obstacle, rather it has to be an impulse to be able to advance and the important thing is that once one arrives, one is empowered as a woman and already reaches the top. it is not to stay there, but to encourage other women to do the same, which is going to be complicated, but it is not impossible, you have to propose yourself and have clear goals…”, she adds.

Marina Salvarezza

The actress has 60 years of experience. She participates for the second time, she was part of the first edition. The main objective of it is to give a voice to those who do not have it. “I think that the desire that Alejandra has, who is the promoter of everything, is to rescue that daily work, minimum or maximum that one can do, but within a silence that all of us women have. You work 24 hours, if not 26 hours out of 24, and that dedication is hardly ever recognized, or if it is recognized, it is because each one of us has the strength to move forward… I liked that aspect a lot,” she says.

“An aspect that has nothing to do with the world of entertainment, of the stage, of light, but rather the rescue of a normality in quotes that we often feel almost boring and that can only be appreciated when it is lost. In that case, for example, look at what is happening in Ukraine, people who until last week were planning a normal life, but suddenly they are transformed into soldiers to defend a land…”, she adds.

The act of presentation of the audiovisual called Can It is scheduled to take place this Tuesday, March 8, at 4:00 p.m., in the City Hall (Municipal Palace, second floor, August 10 and Pichincha, entering through Pichincha). Badges will also be awarded this day to last year’s ambassadors of ¡Hey, Reina!, women in social action and the current spokespersons for the project, as well as scholarships to women leaders who are part of the activist movement. (I)