Pieter is the coordinator of CAPAZ (Capacitacion en Produccion Agropecuaria para la Zona) in western Guatemala, managing an experimental farm and training program for indigenous farmers (men and women), increasing their families’ nutrition and income.
The purpose of CAPAZ is to find and implement feasible answers to combat poverty and to assure a wholesome food supply. This involves training rural farmers (male and female) to be better qualified and trained to diversify and expand their traditional ways of farming. The objective is to contribute to sustainable development, creating conditions and educational facilities for rural farmers and to develop tools and options for their self-development through, an integrated, practical and tailored livestock training program, with emphasis on the active participation of the target population.
To accomplish this, Pieter and the staff at CAPAZ:
* have built a Training Center for the training and practice of managing livestock farms for the participating rural farmers; the Center includes a kitchen equipped to prepare food, sleeping quarters equipped with bathrooms and beds to house workshop participants, and a meeting room with computer technology which facilitates all of the workshop contents;
* have set up alternative energy generating systems such as solar panels and, soon, a bio-gas plant (A biogas plant is the name often given to an anaerobic digester that treats farm wastes or energy crops.) - biogas can be produced utilizing anaerobic digesters - these plants can be fed with energy crops such as maize silage or biodegradable wastes including sewage sludge and food waste;
* have built an experimental farm with 8 lines of livestock - pigs, chickens (laying hens, fattening chicken, turkeys), cows, ducks and rabbits and bees;
* developed a training curriculum, which has been pedagogically assessed, with printed materials and means to facilitate the process; the training includes programs in alternative energy programs;
* developed a trained staff with specialized ability to conduct the training, providing courses in "organization", "life stock technicalities", "commercialization", "administration and accounting", "methodology" and "organization and execution" of concrete projects;
* coordinate with the work team in editing, producing and printing of manuals for the support, application, and distribution of the knowledge and techniques learned in the training centre of CAPAZ;
* provide decentralized training and on-going support and accompaniment to other organizations and promoters (extensionists) who return to their own communities to communicate what they have learned and assure the sustainability and outreach of the Center’s programs. Some of the other organizations include Cultural Action of Guatemala, Sagrada Tierra, and Pastoral Social/Caritas.
The target population belongs to rural communities in Peten, Huehuetenango, Quiche, Alta Verapaz, San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Solola, Retaluleu, Suchitepequez, Sacatepequez and Totonicapán, the region where the indigenous population is concentrated, with limited resources, with the highest rates of illiteracy, and mortality. The inhabitants live in poverty and extreme poverty, with a lack of access to education or credit, or specialized technical support, and there is a chronic lack of jobs. The rural indigenous people represent 38% of extreme poverty in the country according to the UNDP - the families who must live on less than one dollar a day. The level of poverty in some areas rises to 62%, and in some municipalities of Sololá, San Marcos, Totonicapán and Alta Verapaz the poverty line reaches to 87% of the indigenous population.
|
Margaret (Maggie) is serving at Passionist Social Services (SSPAS) in San Salvador. She will also be assisting in the School for Parents, which does formation work for parents of children who attend the school. Maggie loves kids and has always been involved in teaching, which is her primary responsibility at SSPAS. Their program serves children between ages 3-12, and Maggie is engaged in morning classes, afternoon tutoring, workshops in out in the communities on self-esteem, math, english, theatre, dance, art, etc. She is also involved in planning, pedagogical and methodology work, and assisting in the School for Parents, which does formation work for parents whose children attend the school.
In May of 2009, Maggie received degrees in Religion and in Mathematics, from Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. She has been tutoring in an after-school program since 2005, and has been a calculus tutor in Amherst College in 2008. Maggie spent the 2007 Fall semester in Colon, El Salvador as an English teacher, and spent the summer of 2008 as an English Teacher in Jardines de Colon under the sponsorship of Fundahmer. In addition, she has made Spring-break trips (as well as one in June, 2007) to Yabacao, Dominican Republic as a tutor.
Click here to read an article about Maggie on the CatholicSpirit.com.
|
Olivia is the Director of Programa Velasco for Asociación Nuevo Amanecer de El Salvador (ANADES). ANADES offers head-start education programs, community development in rural areas, integral health care, and organic agriculture at the farm. Olivia is in charge of the program’s finances, maintaining contact with donor sponsors and the center’s families; providing education programs to children in poverty; developing relationships with the families and single parents that come to the center for assistance through interactive workshops and educational seminars; and provides families with opportunities to create personal financial stability and develop business management skills through micro-credit lending to women and organizing training workshops.
Prior to VMM, Olivia spent the summer of 2007 in Morazan, El Salvador as a volunteer at a computer center and in Santa Tecla, El Salvador working at Hogar de Niña’s Natalia de Siman with Global Volunteer Network. She returned for a semester of study in 2009 with the Casa de la Solidaridad Program, where she accompanied the community of Mariona at a Meditation House and taught English and participated in meditation, art therapy, massage, and yoga classes.
You can read Olivia's blog here.
|
Bethany is the Grassroots Solidarity Education Coordinator at The SHARE Foundation. She: coordinates and facilitates Sistering Delegations -- schools and churches in the US that financially and spiritually support communities in El Salvador, many of which visit every year or two; assists with the planning and facilitation of General Delegations to El Salvador, during important anniversaries for example, or events like the Salvadoran elections where people come to be international observers; and collects testimonies through interviews and meetings with people here in El Salvador who are involved in SHARE projects as a way to put a very human face on the development work that SHARE does.
Prior to SHARE, Bethany worked with CAUSA (Oregon Immigrant Rights Coalition), in Salem, OR, where she planned, organized, and lead delegations, coordinated visits to Oregon’s federal representatives, and delivered presentations on immigration. While a student at Goshen College, Bethany interned with CRISPAZ (Christians for Peace in El Salvador) for 8 months in 2008, where she coordinated with organizers to plan delegation itineraries and lead delegations, providing interpretation and facilitation of corresponding activities.
Click here to read the reflection written by Bethany on her recent trip to Chalatenango and her participation in the CCR's annual scholarship youth assembly.
|
Beth became involved with the efforts to the flooded and landslide affected communities near Santiago Texacuangos after Tropical Storm Ida in November 2009, which led to establishing the Friends of Santiago Texacuangos to raise money for the founding of a Salvadoran NGO Colectivo CEIBA. While with VMM, she will continue with this project which “uses educational, technical and scientific tools that permit community members to generate a relationship with the natural environment through an integral process that includes: organic agriculture, risk management/community organization, socio-cultural animation, and the arts (painting and poetry therapy).” Colectivo CEIBA supports communities in their own process to build resilience to the reality of climate change, by reconstructing lives in a way that catalyzes change.
|
Prior
to VMM, Beth studied at Santa Clara University, where she was very
active in the student activist community and also received a $1,500 Jean
Donovan Fellowship to become a Catholic Relief Services intern in El
Salvador analyzing agricultural development projects. She continued her
studies in El Salvador with the La Casa de la Solidaridad program in the
fall of 2007 and then studied environment and development in
Northeastern Thailand in the spring 2008, where her final project
resulted in the opening of an organic farmer’s market. The year after
graduation, she received a Fulbright Fellowship to study in El Salvador
for a year. Her research focused on “Community Resilience and Tropical
Storm Ida: How Marginalized Salvadorans with no NGO or Government
Support Cope with Climate Shock”.
|
Andrea comes from Virginia, England, and the past 16 years, northern Indiana. She is a member of the global Mennonite church, and spent eight months serving with a Mennonite congregation in Argentina after high school. At Goshen College, Andrea majored in Art, while also studying religion, international studies, and participating in various music/drama groups.
During her college summers, Andrea was a volunteer in diverse faith communities. In addition, she spent one semester studying and volunteering in Egypt. Formed by these intercultural experiences in faith and art communities, Andrea felt called to the volunteer position at the Cultural Center of Batahola Norte (CCBN). She appreciates greatly the joint support provided through Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMM) and the Friends of Batahola Volunteers (FOBV) program.
In Managua, Andrea co-teaches the English class with her co-volunteer, Sam Estes. She is active in helping lead art workshops for at-risk children and youth in a CCBN project in another neighborhood. In addition, Andrea updates their volunteer blog and helps in visual communications for the CCBN. As volunteers, Andrea and Sam focus their mission-work on accompaniment, working for social justice, and nurturing Christian spirituality.
|
Samuel was born and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona. He attended Carleton College in Northfield, MN, where he majored in Religion and Latin American Studies. Samuel studied in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua in the fall of 2006. He first became acquainted with his project partner, Centro Cultural Batahola Norte (CCBN), during a home-stay in Managua as part of his study-abroad program. He also spent six weeks in Colombia in the summer of 2007 facilitating workshops in the Alternatives to Violence Project. After graduating from Carleton in 2008, Samuel moved to St Paul, MN, where he was a volunteer for two years with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps and then spent a year at Casa Guadalupana Catholic Worker House.
Sam is involved in various projects at the CCBN. He co-teaches the English class, accompanies boys’ and men’s groups in the violence prevention project, and facilitates workshops and tutoring sessions for CCBN scholarship students. Along with Andrea, his co-volunteer, he maintains a blog about his experiences working at the CCBN and living in Nicaragua.
|
Kristin and Billy come to VMM from San Jose, CA. Kristin was serving as an Associate Campus Minister at Archbishop Mitty High School and a Freshman Religion Teacher. Billy was an Associate Campus Minister at Bellarmine College Preparatory school. They met in graduate school, studying theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. They were married in 2009 and after prayerful discernment regarding international missionary work, they accepted their roles as missioners with VMM.
Billy and Kristin are serving as English professors at the Institute in Waslala, Nicaragua, helping to educate the students in the mission of the school in order to provide educational opportunities focused on diversified and sustainable agriculture. Additionally, they will serve in the local parish, assisting with the various ministries offered to children, young adults, and the elderly.
|
|
