Update from Cinquera, February 2, 2006

February 2, 2006

ARDM-Cinquera Monthly Update #3

 

 

Introduction: 

  This is the third in the series of monthly updates on the work of the Association for Reconstruction and Municipal Development (ARDM) and the social, political, economic and cultural panorama in Cinquera.  The ARDM, 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 Cinquera’s Sister City of Chicago, but should also be suitable for general distribution.  Information was presented to me in an informal and open style, this time I sat down with Rosa Alvarenga, past Presidenta and current projects coordinator, and Augustin Pio Valle, recently elected to the ARDM board.  The information share corresponds to the work done in the months of December 2006 and January 2007,

           Jesse Kates-Chinoy,

 Sister Cities E.S. Staff

 

 

Community Organizing

 

Over the course of the last couple of months, the organizational infrastructure has strengthened in the communities of San Benito and Guiligüiste, where Lito, the ARDM community organizer has been working hard.  (see previous monthly updates).  The tenuously created community board in San Benito that had the difficult task of bringing together separate family branches in the community, seems to be growing stronger and doing well.  At the same time, the Community Water Project Administration Committee in El Guiligüiste is up and running, and putting together the formality needed to win the right to implement the water project in the community.

 

Lito continues to work hard in the communities, holding monthly assemblies to evaluate the community organizing work, and always visiting household by household the communities to raise consciousness around issues of interest that the community organization should take on.  The current challenge for Lito is the community of El Tule, outside the town center of Cinquera.  That community has yet to gain legal recognition for its community council “directiva” and Lito plans to lead the community in a constitutional assembly with at least the minimum legal number of inhabitants to be able to put in legal papers for their community association.  Legality helps them gain eligibility for many development and infrastructure projects run by the Municipal Government, or offered by foreign aid agencies.  The community had thusfar been unable to legalize its organizational structure, because the population in the community did not reach the minimum levels to create a legal association.

 

Irrigation Committee

 

Yes, that’s right.  An irrigation committee.  During the course of the last year (2006), several families in Cinquera have started up local agricultural production initiatives, with the help of an external NGO called PRODAP II.  Through this initiative, people in Cinquera started producing vegetable gardens, fruit plots, sugar cane, and pasture for cattle and livestock.  One of the main projects that these producers undertook together, was to create a joint irrigation system to keep their work moving during they dry months.  After a couple months of administering this irrigation system, the producers again identified the need to get organized to be able to administer and maintain the system, schedule watering times and pressure, and keep constant watch keep the system intact.  The ARDM, true to its mission of supporting all the organizational structures and efforts in the municipality, is helping this committee to get together and plan out its work.

 

Small Business Initiatives

 

The ARDM, with the help of some external funding, is supporting this year 4 local small business initiatives, mostly geared toward tourism in their municipality.  They include:

 

Women’s Restaurant:  The organized women’s committee in Cinquera has set up a small restaurant in the town center, geared toward tourists who come through as well as people from outside the municipality who work in town, such as teachers, road workers, etc.  The restaurant is just starting up with 3 women permanently working there.  They are currently working to improve quality, service, presentation and gain clientele. 

 

Tarzan’s Playground:  One family in the community of El Tule, outside Cinquera, has set up a ropes course/trails/scenic lookout called “Tarzan’s Playground”.  The ARDM is helping to support this independent tourist-oriented attraction, with a small injection of funds, and mostly promotion and support.

 

The Dark Swimming Hole:  That’s what it’s called.  There is a swimming hole in the community of San Nicolas, the same river that runs through the forest, and the ARDM is helping to create the conditions for tourism around that area with tables, benches, trails, etc.

 

Butterfly Trainings:  This is the first phase of a projected 2 year project through the ARDM.  The idea is to eventually create a butterfly garden within the forest.  This would be an enclosed space with the plants necessary for butterfly survival, and a collection of a good number of species of beautiful and interesting butterflies.  The garden and butterflies would be a tourist attraction for visitors to the park, and when the butterflies die they will be made into all sorts of crafts (paperweights, postcards, paintings, etc.) 


The project will be run by women, and in this first phase, the women are being trained about butterflies, the plants and conditions then need to survive, the different species and types, etc.

 

An editors note:  By the time they told me about this, it was getting late in the evening and dark, and they switched on the fluorescent light in the office.  A beautiful butterfly was attracted to the light, and while we were talking about what kind it was, a Torogoz, the Salvadoran national bird, (in English called a Blue-Crowned Motmot, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-crowned_Motmot pictured at right)  swooped in the open window, made a loop around the table where we were sitting, plucked the butterfly out of the air, and flew out the open front door, where it sat in the tree outside the office.  What a treat it is to be surrounded by wildlife in Cinquera!

 

 

Scholarship Program

 

The Cinquera scholarship program continues this year with support from 2 Basque municipalities.  This year 2007 there will be 4 new students entering the program to study at the university.  1 student is from the community of San Nicolas and is using the scholarship to pay for travel costs to Cuba, where the Cuban government has given her a full scholarship to study medicine for 6 years.  The other 3 students are from Cinquera proper, and will study at the university in San Salvador

 

 

Micro-Region/European Union Project

 

This in the coming months the EU project will be supplying resources to carry out some infrastructure improvements in the forest, such as repair and improvement of the bridges, bathrooms and changing rooms leading to the swimming hole, and remodelling of the swimming hole itself, clearing all the leaves out from the bottom of the hole, and maintaining the water retention devices that keep it a nice, deep, clear swimming hole.

 

Forest Rangers:

 

Through a grant from the Salvadoran governmental environmental organization, FIAES, the ARDM forest rangers continue to patrol the forest, keeping maintenance on the pathways, lookouts and fire tower.  The rangers play a crucial role in limiting illegal poaching in the forest (for timber, mostly), and most of all fire protection.  When a fire is spotted, they make the general call over the Youth Community Radio (with speakers all over town) for people to help put out the fire.  Many people heed the call, and often teachers let the children out of school to help put out the fire, either clearing a gap around the fire, or beating at it with branches.  Augustin Pio Valle, from the ARDM quipped that “sending the schoolchildren to put out fires probably teaches them more about taking care of the environment than all the talks that we give to their classes.”

 

 

Projections:

 

The ARDM has presented 2 new grant applications, and we are all crossing our fingers.  The first proposal is struggling and has not been met with much support so far.  This project would be to buy land within the forest to be able to present a large enough contiguous single-owner forested plot to qualify for legal protection status from the Salvadoran Ministry of the Environment.  Currently the ARDM is pushing this project with the Swedish Green Party.

 

The other grant proposal is for production initiatives and economic sustainability projects for the ARDM, including: setting up an agricultural/hardware store, small fruit plots, improving irrigation systems, processing/dehydrating fruits produced locally in Cinquera for sale, and cultivating freshwater fish for local consumption.

 

Youth Organizing

 

The ARDM continues to accompany and support the creation and work of youth groups in the communities of Cinquera.  Recently, the ARDM helped to the youth soccer teams in the communities of San Benito, Cinquera (boys and girls teams) and San Nicolas organize a local tournament, and supplied the prizes (soccer balls, uniforms, etc).

 

It was the youth group in Cinquera that organized a good chunk of the “Fiesta Patronal”, or Patron Saint Festival, celebrated in Cinquera this past December.  For the occasion, the youth groups put together a soccer tournament, and showcased their newly learned theatre skills by putting on several presentations, a large puppet parade through town, and putting together fireworks and ballons in the evening.  Their work began that morning at 5:00 am with a “Chuqueada”, that is, serving hot “Atol Chuco” to everyone in the community.  Atol Chuco (which literally translates to “dirty atoll”) is a drink made out of ground and boiled thickened corn, with a spoonful of beans (thus the “dirty” part), ground squash seeds on top, and finished off with a few healthy squirts of hot sauce.

 

With the flavor of Cinquera’s patron saint festivities, we finish this month’s update.  Look for the next update around March 2nd or 3rd.

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