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Superemos Foundation - "Christine
King" Cooperative August 15th 2002 General The work of the programs through August has been overshadowed by the deepening economic crisis in the country, in particular in rural areas where many communities depend on casual agricultural work to keep going. The crisis in the coffee industry and the general slowdown in economic activity nationally, together with relentlessly increasing prices in the costs of basic commodities and services translate into deepening poverty for the poor majority. The relatively good harvest in August for basic grains has been a stabilising factor. But despite that positive feature among generally dismal socio-economic trends, most families participating in the projects here in Estelí are now subsisting on an average of US$3 or US$4 per day while the cost of living is well over US$200 per month for a couple with two children. So far in Estelí we have avoided the worst effects of the current crisis because the cigar industry here employs about 3000 people directly and perhaps the same number more indirectly thus ensuring an income for approximately 25,000 to 30,000 of Estelí's population of around 120,000. But bad debt and re-possessions are increasing with no sign of any improvement in sight and pessimism among business people about the possible economic consequences for the region of war in the Middle East. So generally people here are depressed and somewhat apathetic. Inevitably this affects our work and makes it all the more important that we deliver the best services we can to our program beneficiaries so as to help them sustain an adequate quality of life. Visits In August, the programs received three visits from:
Karen stayed with us for several days following up work on her doctoral thesis analysing the importance of women’s popular education. The delegation from Nagoya spent a day with us talking to students and discussing the history and development of the programs. Elena Blackwood has been with us throughout August participating in and observing the social work and psychological services we offer local people. We are very pleased that we have been able to receive all these visits and are especially grateful to everyone who facilitated them. Social Work The main social work activities in August were:
The workshop content for the prisoners in the local penitentiary was very similar to that of the previous month at the request of the prisoners themselves. 18 young male offenders and 17 women inmates took part in the two activities. The main audio-visual input was again a video on the life of Jesus followed by discussions on the interaction between public moral values and individual behaviour with special reference to rights and obligations in relation to the family. The craft skills workshops through August have been devoted to developing commercially viable crochet work and other saleable items such as embroidered and painted placemats. Several attractive shoulder bags were completed and sold at US$11 each. Of 14 workshops given, 9 were devoted to crochet work and 5 to teaching women new to sewing skills how to use a treadle sewing machine. The Saturday attendance is constant at 6 participants. The weekday attendance varies between 5 and 10 depending on the family and work commitments of the young women and girls who take attend. The social worker and community promoter who run the classes use them as opportunities to work through the various social and emotional problems that the participants experience. An average of seven women participated in the 5 adult education classes given by the program this month as part of the secondary education program which covered: August 12th - techniques for self appraisal August 14th - a discussion on the what constitutes happiness August 19th - women and their experience of violence August 21st - the law relating to domestic violence August 28th - uses of meditation and prayer Health The health program arranged 2 visits by Dr. Yvette Castillo to the local penitentiary attending a total of 57 patients and delivering their medicine from the program’s pharmacy. The program’s psychologist gave 8 days of attention to program participants, mainly to children and parents of the pre-school, many of whom have very difficult family circumstances. As in previous months the pharmacy assisted over twenty patients - apart from the patients in the local penitentiary - with medicine they would otherwise have been unable to obtain. We continued our policy of donating medicine due to expire in the following three months to the local health centre which is chronically short of medicines. The director of the health centre has thanked us for this service which we regard as an essential duty in order to ensure an appropriate us of the medicine we receive from donors such as Nicaragua Medical Alliance. Environmental workshop The workshop made just one cycle pump installation in August for a small producer in Matagalpa. Two cycle pumps have been assigned for installation for producers in the Masaya area. The workshop personnel have only been working part-time on the project in recent weeks. Much of the month was spent in appraisals of possible candidates for the pumps. This has involved travelling to parts of the north of the country where rural communities have more acute problems with water supply than those in the immediate area around Estelí - for example in Ciudad Antigua and Jalapa north of Ocotal and in La Dalia some 30 kilometres north of Matagalpa. Many day labourers and their families are suffering extreme poverty in these areas because there is no work on the coffee plantations. Currently 3000 people from such families are seeking food aid from the government because they have no means of support. We expect to hand over the seven pumps still unplaced in the course of September and October Pre-School The active matriculation of the pre-school at the start of the month was 22 boys and 17 girls. In the course of August another 8 children joined the pre-school making a total of 25 boys and 22 girls. In August we handed in to the Education Ministry the report for the first semester and carried out our own evaluation with the children’s parents of the work we have done so far this year. All the evaluations were favourable and form the basis for comparisons with other evaluations later in the year We also moved in to the new classrooms built in July with funding from the Canadian organisation Free the Children and received a donation of toys, games and clothes from Fiona Graham and her colleagues of the European Union Translation Service based in Brussels. On August 25th we had our monthly Parenting Skills workshop in which 17 parents participated with the guidance of the health program psychologist on how to deal with, respectively, aggression, timidity and hyperactivity in their children. We were very sad to have to say goodbye to Cristina the volunteer who has been giving English classes to the children in our pre-school this year. Cristina put us in touch with another volunteer whom we hope will take over her classes in September. The health program psychologist held consultations with the parents of 10 children in August and activities with a total of 30 children. Secondary Education 68 women continue to make up the active matriculation of the women’s secondary education program. The main effort in August has been to prepare students for forthcoming exams in November. Both staff and students have been pleased and excited at the prospect of the school’s first graduation ceremony in September. The organisation of that event has been shared by several groups of students working together with the teaching staff. 23 women will graduate in that ceremony with another 50 or so expected to do so later in the year. Financial Report These activities were financed as follows:
Everyone in the programs sends their thanks to all those who have helped us through the year so far. We continue to worry about income to enable us to see out the year and currently, after consulting with all our supporters, it seems that our deficit is likely to be just under US$3000. We continue to fundraise to try and cover that deficit and hope to cover as much as half of it with income likely to be received from the program participants in the next three months. |