PARTNERS IN MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
MEXICO
Mercedes Olivera Bustamente Feminist Collective/Colectivo Feminista Mercedes Olivera Busamente (COFEMO)
COFEMO is an autonomous organization that has a holistic vision of feminism and works to build a just, dignified, egalitarian and democratic society by struggling against the structural and situational causes of violence against women. COFEMO aims to create horizontal power relationships and solidarity between the genders, classes, ethnicities and generations, respecting diversities. They work to generate a new sense of citizenship through political action, establishing alliances and strategies with collectives and persons that share their struggle against a patriarchal/neoliberal structure that generates and deepens inequalities.
Economic Development of Indigenous Mexicans/Desarollo Económico de los Mexicanos Indígenas (DESMI)
DESMI was founded in 1969 and initially worked mainly on service-oriented projects such as water systems, road improvement, hospital facilities, milk supplies and distribution of used clothing. By 1974, the organization began to look for ways to continue its work in a more organized and professional manner.
Since that time, DESMI has placed emphasis on using its resources for community organization and economic development. As DESMI gained experience, it began to focus on supporting collective action as the best way to ensure that economic development translated into social and political progress. Since its creation, it has provided credit and technical assistance to over 300 grassroots groups, most of them cooperatives, in the State of Chiapas. It is helping to build a network of community-based production and consumer cooperatives that will enable indigenous communities to trade with one another and gain economic self-sufficiency.
GUATEMALA
Guatemalan Intercultural Highlands Association / Asociación Mixta Intercultural de Guatemaltecos del Altiplano y Suroccidente (AMIGAS)
AMIGAS was founded near the end of 2003 to promote the participation of men and women, particularly in the rural area, through development projects directed at women and the family.
AMIGAS specific objectives are: a) To improve women’s reproductive and child health and reduce the incidence of illness and death associated with birth and infant development; b) To strengthen women’s and men’s capacity in planning and decision-making for their organizational work; c) To strengthen the capacity of men and women to undertake productive projects to improve levels of income and family economies and d) To create a space for training and organization in local development.
The organization claims to have a special vocation for working with indigenous women. Although it does not promote a (“western”) gender policy, it seeks to have women be the principal beneficiaries of its projects, including local empowerment initiatives that begin with the family. An example of this is its reproductive health work.
Centre for Indigenous Studies and Education / Centro de Estudios y Educación Indígena (CEEI)
This organization was founded in 1987 by indigenous leaders from different organizations and some academics all of whom shared a concern for furthering an understanding of the ethnic exclusion of Guatemalan indigenous populations.
CEEI has two principal areas of work: a) leadership training for indigenous youth, women and men to build capacity for planning, proposal preparation and project implementation, and b) organizational consolidation which includes a credit program, formal education and community eco tourism.
Capacity building of local indigenous authorities is key to the development work carried out. Training is directed at strengthening community development councils (COCODES) and municipal development councils (COMUDES), the formal structures for participation at the community level.
Santa Maria Linguistic Project/Proyecto Lingüístico Santa María S.C. (PLSM)
PLSM was founded in 1991 in the city of Quetzaltenango in response to growing concerns about the erosion of Mayan culture. The organization sees the recovery and strengthening of Mayan languages, in particular K’iche, as part of the historic struggle of Guatemala’s indigenous peoples. In its first two years, the organization focused on training promoters to work as language teachers. Since 1996, PLSM has been working to promote K’iche culture in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, especially in the municipalities of Totonicapán, Cantel, and Quetzaltenango.
PLSM’s general purpose is the recovery and recognition of Mayan culture through bilingual intercultural education and anthropological research as well as the strengthening of rural organizations in the Guatemala Highlands through linguistic studies. Its mission centres on the promotion of organization, policy advocacy, and collaboration with the education community to develop innovative educational and cultural programs that are regional in nature and recognize the importance of human development, ecology, and traditional values.
EL SALVADOR
Salvadorean Association for Health Promotion/Asociación Salvadoreña Promotora de la Salud (ASPS)
ASPS is a non-governmental organization created in 1985 to promote health education among the poorest communities of eastern El Salvador, particularly those affected by the armed conflict. Since then, ASPS has expanded its activities to the northern area of the department of San Salvador and to the central part of San Miguel. The components of the training program currently offered by ASPS include alternative medicines, infant and child health and development, primary health care, care for expecting and lactating women, nutrition, mental health, health and the environment, and community organization.
The Women’s Movement, “Mélida Anaya Montes” /Movimiento de Mujeres “Mélida Anaya Montes” (MAM)
MAM is defined as an autonomous, non-profit, non-partisan association of feminist women, which does not discriminate on the basis of creed, age, ethnic group or sexual orientation. The work of MAM is focused on feminist education, political participation and citizen initiatives, health and non-violance, economic development and institutional strengthening.
Las Mélidas trains women maquila (sweatshop) workers with a view to raising their awareness of their rights and how to defend them, with emphasis on occupational health, how to carry out advocacy with the institutions charged with monitoring their rights, such as the Ministry of Labour, the Social Security Institute and the Salvadoran Institute for Women’s Development; this includes carrying out of campaigns to sensitize and denounce the working conditions faced by women employed in the maquilas.
PASSOS Training Centre / Centro de Formación y Capacitación PASSOS
PASSOS’ mission is to act as a centre for training, guidance and research for social action, with specialization in providing professional training for those who accompany and provide care for drug addicts and the socially disadvantaged.
It endeavours to promote among those who work with the socially disadvantaged, an approach that is effective and scientific by strengthening their capacity to provide specialized services in a professional and ethical manner. It promotes respect for human rights, the social doctrine of the church, a gender perspective and work through networks.
PASSOS Centre has programs in 12 marginal neighbourhoods in the city on San Salvador and has managed to put in place an alternative methodology to provide care to gang members.
Intercommunity Association of Communities Working Together for the Economic and Social Development of Bajo Lempa / Asociación Intercomunal de Comunidades Unidas para el Desarrollo Económico y Social del Bajo Lempa (ACUDESBAL)
ACUDESBAL is a community-based, apolitical, non-profit, non-denominational organization guided by democratic principles. It provides a structure for the various communities to work together.
ACUDESBAL works to strengthen community organization and communications to further economic, social and cultural initiatives to benefit the population of Bajo Lempa and the country in general.
Specific objectives include: a) To design and promote farming projects which guarantee socio-economic and environmental sustainability and which have a gender focus that includes equal opportunity for men and women;
b) To increase the safety of inhabitants through participatory actions such as construction and maintenance of the Rio Lempa banks, sewer systems throughout the region, roadways and public works; c) To strengthen local capacity to undertake integral education for community leaders, volunteer teachers and others that includes vocational training and reflection on positive social values; d) To promote collaboration between communities and local development organizations to improve health services in the rural area, focusing on preventive health and first aid; e) To contribute to family stability by formalizing legal title to individual and collective properties;
f) To promote the values of collective work and a spirit of solidarity as an aspect of sustainable development processes; g) To promote participatory processes for member communities to take part in the identification, study, analysis and recommendations for alternatives that address local problems and needs.
ACUDESBAL is the organization of and works with families in the communities of Bajo Lempa. All community organizations in the municipality of Jiquilisco that have compatible objectives can belong to ACUDESBAL.
HONDURAS
Centre for Women’s Studies – Honduran Chapter/Centro de Estudios para las Mujeres, Honduras (CEM-H)
CEM-H is a feminist organization that provides health services and promotes women’s rights through political, organizational, research and communication actions. Its programme is directed at strengthening women’s participation in civil society with a view to improving their organizational and leadership capacities so that they may be true participants in democratic processes at the local, national and regional levels and have a higher quality of life for themselves and their families. CEM-H has incorporated a gender perspective in all aspects of its work with adolescent and adult women, with regard to domestic, labour and societal issues and in its work to influence public policies and programmes.
CEM-H is an active member within Honduras and within the Mesoamerican region in the women’s movement and in national, regional and international networks devoted to social justice.
Simiente Foundation for Human and Community Development/ Fundación Simiente para la Promoción del Desarrollo Humano y Local
The Simiente Foundation was formed in 2001 and defines its mission as “the realization of actions to promote gender equity, sustainable agriculture, health, democracy and human and economic development with the aim of reducing existing inequalities within the family, the community and the municipality.” It works with some of the most disadvantaged communities of Honduras, one of the poorest countries in all of the Americas. Its’ areas of work focus on sustainable agriculture and small livestock production, gender equity, micro-enterprise initiatives for women and citizen participation. The Simiente Foundation uses methodology based on community organization that builds on the family unit with particular emphasis on women’s participation, technical training, marketing and community networking.
Simiente Foundation currently works in 15 communities in the departments of Valle and Francisco Morazan, areas characterized by the highest national levels of poverty and with frequent drought and chronic water shortages. Women constitute the main target population of Simiente Foundation’s work. The illiteracy rate for women in this area is roughly 85%. Productive projects enable women and their families to improve their material well-being while citizen participation is a crucial element to build a strong civil society.
Garífuna Emergency Committee of Honduras/Comité de Emergencias Garífuna (CEGAH)
CEGAH is a grassroots organization, rather than an NGO, and incorporates 16 Garifuna communities from the Province of Colon in the Districts of Santa Fe, Trujillo, Santa Rosa de Aguan, Limon and Iriona.
CEGAH was founded among 16 rural Garífuna communities mainly affected by significant losses of crops, cattle and homes. With support from various sources, CEGAH helps poor communities to become self-sufficient and thriving. This support helps these communities combat the poverty they face and to work towards sustainable development.
Making use of participatory methods within their traditional ways of living, all of the communities develop activities in sustainable agriculture (native seed conservation), disaster mitigation, environmental conservation and development issues. CEGAH helps the poorest farmers with seeds, tools and training, and also focuses on youth projects and cultural preservation.
CEGAH’s action is concentrated within 16 rural communities of the Garifuna people of Honduras (Province of Colón). The Garifunas are an afro-descendant population that face many of the challenges also confronted by the poorest populations worldwide.
NICARAGUA
Association for People’s Development/Asociación para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos (ADP)
ADP works with rural communities throughout Nicaragua in production and social promotion activities aimed at encouraging the spiritual, cultural, human and economic welfare of Nicaraguans. ADP plans and implements its projects with the participation of locally elected development promoters. Support and training are provided in organization, health, organic agriculture and alternative technologies within a gender and environmental framework.
Oscar Arnulfo Romero Community Centre / Centro Comunitario Oscar Arnulfo Romero (CCOAR)
The Romero Centre works in the Granada-Nandaime region with women, youth and cooperatives, providing technical and financial support to existing cooperatives (particularly agricultural) and collectives and by developing projects (farming, crafts and bakery). In Nandaime, the Centre offers a variety services to the local population most of whom come from the poorest two neighbourhoods of the city which were established after the devastation caused by Hurricane Johanna in 1988. Since December 1998, it has been carrying out organizational work and assisting about fifty families that lost their houses and all their belongings during Hurricane Mitch, to settle in a new neighbourhood in Nandaime.
The Romero Centre works in the Granada-Nandaime region with the objective of being a catalyst for change for women, youth, and farmers.
María Elena Cuadra Nicaraguan Working and Unemployed Women’s Committee/Movimiento de Mujeres Trabajadoras y Desempleadas “María Elena Cuadra” (MEC)
One of many autonomous women’s organizations in Nicaragua, the “María Elena Cuadra” Nicaraguan Working and Unemployed Women’s Committee, was founded in 1994 by a group of women interested in women’s rights. The Committee reflects on and analyzes women’s reality from a gender perspective. It has member groups in eight departments and works with unemployed women, women working in free trade zones, domestic workers, micro enterprise workers, and women working in the informal sector.
The Support Centre for Programs and Projects / Centro de Apoyo a Programas y Proyectos (CAPRI), Nicaragua
The Support Centre for Programs and Projects is a non-governmental, non-profit civil organization founded in 1988 by a group of professionals with grassroots experience for the purpose of contributing to Nicaragua’s social and economic development. Specifically, it is dedicated to accompanying project implementation through the provision of technical advice and assistance and social research.
Human development and commitment to impoverished communities and impoverished sectors form the basis of CAPRI’s vision. It works in solidarity with disadvantaged populations to promote collective work and bases its methodology on its confidence in the capacity and potential of the poor to transform their living conditions. CAPRI defines its institutional mission as working “to promote, accompany, and facilitate processes of local development that enable community groups and other social sectors to transform their economic, political, social, and ecological situation to benefit the family and community and to establish equitable relationships and improved living conditions.”
The direct beneficiaries of this work are local populations in District IV of Managua, and communities in the northern zone in the municipalities of Pueblo Nuevo, Condega, and Palagüina en Las Segovias. CAPRI places particular emphasis on work with children, youth, and local organizations.
COSTA RICA
Humanitas Association / Asociación Humanitas
At the end of the 1970s, the Archdiocese of San Jose restructured its social programming to better respond to the needs it identified among disadvantaged populations. Greater emphasis was given at that time to ongoing analysis of the socio-economic Costa Rican context and support for street vendors, small-scale farmers and unionized workers. Among the major accomplishments of the 1980s and 90s was the establishment of a workers’ bank, a market area for street vendors, recycling businesses, support for minority sectors such as transvestites, gays and lesbians and the founding of Hogar Esperanza (“Place of Hope”) shelter for people affected by HIV and AIDS.
Further restructuring in 2004 led to the founding of the Humanitas Association that works on behalf of and in conjunction with drug users and persons suffering from HIV/AIDS to seek a better quality of life and allow them to live with respect and dignity. The Association aims to alleviate the suffering of vulnerable populations that have been socially excluded, working together with community and institutional networks and volunteers to create new social development alternatives.
Caribbean Project Association/Asociación Proyecto Caribe (APC)
APC mission is the promotion of economic, social and cultural development for people of Afro descent in a society that gives pays little heed to multiethnic and multicultural issues. Its principle strategies are directed at a) the union of all Afro-Costa Rican groups; b) fraternity between all groups that share APC’s principles; and c) autonomy with regard to the State, its institutions, official programmes and authority. The Caribbean Project Association was founded and legally registered in 1995 as an NGO, established to implement solutions to problems faced by members of the Afro-descendant community. It is one of the few black organizations, which promotes rights for Costa Rican Afro-Caribeans. It works to combat racism and discrimination, and to achieve equal opportunity for other minorities in Costa Rica.
PANAMA
Interamerican Cooperative Institute/Instituto Cooperativo Interamericano (ICI) ICI has forty years of experience and recognition in Latin America as an adult education centre, training leaders of organizations of marginalized peoples. The Institute was founded by Rev. Harvey Steele S.F.M. from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, who outlined its goals and philosophy in 1974 as follows: “ICI prepares young men and women as leaders, motivated and qualified technically to lead others, to assist them to recognize and understand their common problems, and how to look for solutions through communal action.” ICI’s mission is support for the integral development of popular organizations in Latin America that will allow them to find viable socio-economic alternatives that contribute to social transformation in their home countries.
Organization of Teaching Mothers / Madres Maestras (OMMA)
The organization Teaching Mothers was founded in 1971 to care for children whose families had moved from the rural area of the country to the city outskirts, and were part of the influx of population that settled in the neighbourhood of Samaria, popularly known as “No Man’s Land”. Teaching Mothers organizations build on the demonstrated capacity of poor indigenous and non-indigenous women to provide care and early childhood education to their children despite the social and economic difficulties their families face.
Teaching Mothers has begun to broaden its mandate to include micro-enterprise development for participating families to bring a more integral approach to their work in rural and semi-urban communities. Today there are approximately 4,000 families in seven of Panama’s provinces and programs have been set up in Costa Rica and Honduras.
