Two years after its creation, the National Program for the Advancement of Women has left its mark on the different institutions in the country, as demonstrated by the National Organization of Collective Law Firms of Las Tunas (ONBC by its acronym in Spanish), which has drawn up strategies in search of the empowerment of the women who work there.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- Demonstrating the value of women in the legal profession is one of the goals of the ONBC in the territory, according to Aliubis Fernández González, director of the Collective Law Firms Unit in the capital municipality. There is a need to demonstrate the prominence of women in the sector. "More than 80 percent of those who work in our offices are women, which shows the role we have achieved in society.

It is no longer just about household chores and raising children, it is also going to a professional level where they prove to be more, and the efforts to bring everything up to par and well are multiplying.

Delmis Silvia Peña Rodríguez, a woman in the office, tells a part of this long story in which women have earned the respect of all, and despite not having studied law, she knows them as if she were a lawyer.

She is a legal technician at the branch of the Bufete de Servicios Legales Especializados (Specialized Legal Services Law Firm), an office where the legalization of documents that are to take effect outside the national territory is processed. She says that when she started working in the legal sector she was only 18 years old.

"I started working in Jobabo, where I stayed for a while, and then I moved to Las Tunas, where I was the secretary to the provincial director for a long time. In other words, I have been in the service of the ONBC for more than 20 years. Here I have improved professionally, I cannot deny that the need for preparation is very great when you start to serve the public; many people in the street ask a question about a specialty that I may not have mastered, but I have enough knowledge to tell them where to go."

"In those early days, I took every course they opened, and as I got better and better, I changed positions until I became a procedures manager, i.e. I did all the processing of applications for certifications, at the land registry, last will and testaments, certificates at the bank..."

"By hiring me, people were saved from having to queue or move around the different offices to do any paperwork. Nowadays, I carry out procedures in the same way, but with entities such as Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, i.e. documents that are going to leave the country."

The novelty with Delmis is that she is retired, and her need to be useful led her to the place where she was happy for so many years, where she met friends with whom she shares laughter as if it were her own home.

"I've been back for more than a year now, and retirement didn't bring me as much happiness as I always thought it would. We think that women go home at 60 to feel more at ease, but that's not the case. It wasn't my case, I felt anxious. Every day I had to come here, to see how my colleagues were doing, and to go for a walk."

"I've been working for so many years and at home I had too much time for chores, I had no other entertainment and I felt I was getting sick, that's why I decided to come back."

Her working relationships are enviable, she smiles at everyone and although tears have overcome her on more than one occasion, her satisfaction with what she does is evident.