Esperanza Huayama, president of the Association of Forcefully Sterilised Women from Peru, will visit the University on Wednesday 28 June to discuss the impact of the Peruvian government’s sterilisation programme that affected 200,000 women and 30,000 men in the mid-1990s.
The event takes place in Seminar Room 3 in the Grimond Building and is free to attend. It starts at 5pm and will include the screening of a documentary on the issue made by former Kent associate lecturer and Hispanic Studies PhD Candidate Ines Ruiz.
Esperanza Huayama’s visit to the UK has been organised by Professor of Hispanic Studies, Natalia Sobrevilla Perea from the School of European Culture and Languages, in an effort to raise awareness of the plight of thousands affected in Peru during the 1990s.
In total around 200,000 women, and 30,000 men were sterilised by doctors without consent acting under orders of the Peruvian government of the day, overseen by President Alberto Fujimori.
Raising awareness of this period, and the emotional and physical impact on the thousands affected, has proved difficult over the years due to the fact the majority of those affected only speak a local dialect in Peru and so have struggled to make their voices heard outside their community.
As part of the visit Esperanza Huayama has already spoken at an event at Amnesty International and will visit the House of Commons and House of Lords to raise the issue with the UK government to ask them to put pressure on the Peruvian government to redress the wrongs of the past.
The event is sponsored by the Canterbury branch of the University and College Union (UCU) and the Kent Centre for Law Gender and Sexuality.