The Education and Research Center for Rural Women of Tarija (El Centro de Capacitación e Investigación de la Mujer Campesina de Tarija) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that has promoted social development in the Tarija region of Bolivia since 1986. However, CCIMCAT was not founded as an NGO, but rather as the attempt of woman leaders to promote political and social activity in the lives of rural women.

We lived many moments where, looking back, we were exceptionally adventurous: we did not have basic resources like an office or means of transportation. We learned how to walk for hours, through mud, carrying blankets and food for twelve days. However, the worst part was to arrive at a site where the women we came to help did not believe that we were capable of providing assistance because we were young, women, not professionals and did not possess a car. We experienced even more doubts in men.

Moreover, the majority of our fellow NGOs as well as the Church claimed we were destroying the rural family with our feminist ideology; they tried to discredit us through libels and confrontations.

In the 1990`s, when gender became a fundamental element of all development policies, we elaborated our mandate and, gradually, our programs gained momentum.