CRIPDES Sur Update, February 12, 2007

February 12, 2007

CRIPDES Sur Monthly Update #1

 

Introduction: 

  This document is the first in a series of monthly updates on the work of the CRIPDES Sur, the regional branch of CRIPDES in La Libertad, and documenting the social, political, economic and cultural panorama in the work in the region.  CRIPDES Sur, with support from U.S.-El Salvador Sister Cities local staff, has decided to share in this format news about its activities as well as reflections, reactions and analysis.  These updates are written first and foremost to share with Sister Cities in the USA who are partenered with organized communities in La Libertad, but should also be suitable for general distribution.  Information was presented to me in an informal and open style, a veritable barrage of activities and alliances that were persistently and patiently mapped out over the course of 90 minutes of talking and furious note-taking.  It was such an energizing and invigorating break from the formality that often obscures the exciting nature of all the good work going on the author has decided to present the information below in much that same format.

 

–           Jesse Kates-Chinoy,

 Sister Cities E.S. Staff

Community Organizing

First and foremost, CRIPDES helps foster community organizing.  In the communities in the southern part of the La Libertad province where they work, the most basic unit for this work is the Junta Directiva or “Directive Council” in each community.  These structures are made up of members from the community, nominated and elected through a community-wide assembly.  An important mechanism of the work is the legalization of these directivas as community associations.  This is possible in municipal law in El Salvador, and the community directive council can be legalized (with the help of CRIPDES) to be an “Association for Community Development.”  The acronym in spanish is ADESCO.  The ADESCOs are the legally recodnized authority in the communities, and have power to find funding and support for community projects, as well as be the legal reference points for governmental organizations and other institutions that come into the community, making them a crucial structure for community autonomy and democracy.

CRIPDES supports the creation of legalized community associations and their ADESCOs, and is working in 50 communities in the province to support this process.

Once the community has put together its legal association and community board, CRIPDES helps them to project their objectives, carry out an analysis and assessment of  the issues facing their community, and trace a yearly work plan.

CRIPDES works with a stable base of communities that are already organized and have legal structures, and in their case CRIPDES organizers help them to maintain their organizing and strengthen their capacity for advocacy.  Meanwhile, more communities each day ask for CRIPDES’ help in getting organized, especially in municipalities where CRIPDES Sur is expanding its work: Teotepeque, Santa Tecla, Comasagua, etc.

Municipal Coordination

The next level of organizing that CRIPDES is promoting in the communities is for the established ADESCOs to come together on a municipal level.  CRIPDES works in 8 different municipalities in Southern La Libertad:  El Puerto, Tamanique, Chiltiupan, Santa Tecla, Comasagua, Teotepeque, Zaragoza, and Huizucar.  In each of these municipalities, CRIPDES is helping the ADESCOs create “Municipal Coordinating Structures”, where 1 representative from each Community Council participates.  The idea is that the union of the legalized community structures can amplify the advocacy of the communities toward their municipal governments and international funding agencies.  At the same time, CRIPDES works to educate and share information and analysis with the Municipal Coordinating Structures as a channel toward each of the organized communities.  Each of the organizers in CRIPDES Sur comes from and represents one of the municipalities, and works with the communities in their area individually and through the Municipal Coordinator.

 

CRIPDES-CORDES Alliance

While the main focus of the work of CRIPDES Sur is community organizing and popular education in the communities, CRIPDES also comes together with its sister organization, CORDES, to add the component of rural development and economic initiatives to their work in the communities.  CORDES is a Non-Governmental Organization that was created by CRIPDES, and their work is of supporting production initiatives and economic development in the same communities and the same population where CRIPDES works.  Recently, CORDES has also created a group called PPL (Participation and Local Power) to channel economic and technical support to the organizing work of CRIPDES in the communities.  CORDES has hired historic ex-CRIPDES organizers in each of the regions to support this work.  In La Libertad, Gertrudis Mejía is in charge of the PPL.  (Some of you may remember Gertrudis, or know her by association:  She is known by her war name of “Tula”, and is the daughter of the important peasant organizer Justo Mejía, killed in the early stages of the war.)

One of the main jobs of the PPL is to keep track of the development projects that are being implemented through the CRIPDES-CORDES alliance, and trace the impact of the projects in the communities.  The idea is to constantly evaluate the impact of resources brought into the community and put forth strategy as to how economic development work can most strengthen community organizing, and vice versa.

 

Community Develoment Projects

Together with CORDES and the PPL, CRIPDES Sur is implementing a series of community development projects with the organized communities in several municipalities.

One of the projects being implemented is the creation of Livestock Banks.  It works like this:  Each community council (Directiva) selects 5 beneficiaries from their community to be initial direct beneficiaries of the project.  Each of these families receives a pregnant cow.  In return, they pay 15% of the stated value of the cow back into the project, and once the calf is born and weaned (about 1 year later), the women must give the calf away to another woman in the community, who again, must pay back into the project 15% of the value of the calf, and give the first offspring to another woman in the community, and soforth.  It also works with poultry banks, when beneficiaries receive 15 laying hens as well as bricks, cement and chicken-wire to build a pen.  They must pay back 15% and 15 more hens.

Another one of the projects being promoted in the communities is the construction of “Solar Pots”, that cook food without the use of combustion (firewood or propane).  CRIPDES has organized trips from their organized communities to see other communities that have already implemented the solar systems.

Also, CORDES and CRIPDES Sur are supporting local producers in the communities to create “Family Farm Plots”, diversifying their agricultural production by planting fruit trees and vegetables, and learning techniques for maximum space utility and organics.  A large part of the work for these family farm plots is around environmental education, and organizing to create markets for fair trade local goods.

CORDES works directly with CRIPDES Sur to implement the projects, first carrying out diagnostic studies and exploring the levels of organizing and need in each community, and evaluating how the projects can support and be supported by the local organizational structures.

 

Women’s Organizing

As with the Community Organizing program with its focus on supporting Community Councils and the legalization of ADESCOs, the Women’s Organizing program focuses on supporting and strengthening the local organizational infrastructure: community women’s groups.  Zulma, the CRIPDES Sur women’s organizer, works in all of the organized communities to help put together women’s groups and design work plans that take into account the issues confronting women in each community and how to work to create solutions.

In these past few months CRIPDES Sur has concentrated women’s organizing efforts in the municipality of Comasagua.  The first organizational achievement has been to create the Asociación de Mujeres Comasagüensas (the Association of Women from Comasagua), which brings together representatives from the organized women’s groups from each of the communities in the municipality.  The association has been working on various projects.

The Comasagua Women’s Association has created a proposal, through workshops and consultation with the grassroots network of organized women throughout the communities, for a Municipal Policy on Women’s Participation.  This policy outlines steps that the municipal government as well as other public institutions should take to promote equality and rights for women throughout the municipality, as well as stimulate women’s participation in municipal structures.  Right now, the women are organizing to create a grassroots swell to promote the proposal and have it legally adopted by the Mayor and Municipal Council in Comasagua.

In many communities, the women’s groups are notably well organized and strong, and are in charge of administering some of the CRIPDES-CORDES development projects in the communities.  In many communities, the Livestock or Poultry Banks are directed specifically toward the women’s groups in the communities, and all the beneficiaries of the project in those communities are women.

That is about it for this month, as a first taste of the updates from CRIPDES Sur.  Look next month for more information about these initiatives, plus updates around Youth Organizing, Sistering Relationships, and International Funding Projections.  We are planning to put together reports like this every month or two, and would love to know your thoughts about format, information, clarity, or other things you would like to know more about.