For about 3 weeks of our time in Guatemala we will be working with the Nueva Diaconia. Here is a little bit of information on the group. It was shared and translated by David Clipson, with whom we will be working and he is helping to head up Diaconia. Salome Lucas is the Guatemalan leader for this group. Please keep both of them in your prayers.
This is a translation from David below. He says it is weak, but it gives you a good idea of the focus of this group and how there are possibilities of this organization uniting efforts in Central America. I will post the translation.
Greetings from Guatemala. I wanted to share with you a letter recently
sent to the Diaconia from Carlos Cardenas, a PDA mission co-worker in
Central America.
Blessings,
Rev. Dr. David Clipson
Dear brothers Salome and David,
Thank you very much patiently waiting for me and receiving me with
dedication during my brief visit to the Synod of Guatemala (8-13 May,
2007). Thank you also for the presentation of your plans and projects,
in them I see a new light of hope shining for a better future for
those that live in desperation and the loss of credibility. With this
project the Church can do significant good for these people. I left
your presentation with a good feeling that you were working in an
opportune time to assemble all the experience of the Brothers Mam and
of other ethnic Guatemalan groups in the topic of " Diaconia" and the
relationship between the self-development of people and disasters.
Methodologically, the proposal of the Diaconia represents a huge
conceptual advance. I refer to the theoretical bases and the general
lineaments explained thoroughly by the Brother Salome Lucas and by the
Rev Dr. David Clipson in the new plan of Diaconia:
* A Federation of small Co-operatives
* Co-operatives of community base under a sustainable model
* A new type of organization
* Capital of political investment of personal and associative Savings
* Development of product, transference of value added to the rural
product to place it on alternative markets
* Just markets
* Education and Health
* Relations of companionship or associated and united groups
* Economic impact: development and transformation of animal
production, horticultural products, grains and cereals, coffee, crafts
and other actions as pure water, community health, pharmacies and
promotion of hygiene (water and sanitation, latrines and water filters)
In summary, your work will form co-operatives or associations that
address the problems identified by the community who are organized in
groups, producers' unions or small affiliations of small farmers. This
approach emphasizes the fortitude of the natural organization of the
indigenous communities and considers their participation to be a norm
of social life of these groups that does not demand additional efforts
to promote, not like the promotion methods used by the world bank and
similar organizations.
I think that integral to the new perspective of the Diaconia
is the understanding that any action to support the existence of rural
life, must include at least the coverage of the most critical services
of support to the small producer. These essential factors are the
dynamic parts of the productive chain; training, feedback, equipment,
credit, and marketing. The explanation makes it clear that this new
approach will not propose projects that serve solely as stop-gap
solutions, just planting seeds, or agrochemical, or simply about
credit or commercialization, but rather about small projects that are
integrated into a system that will realize long term gains.
This integrated approach also serves to improve the living conditions
of the participants which faithfully embodies the work of the Church
through the Diaconia and its commitment to the self-development of
people and their ability to react in time of disaster.
This approach integrates several important considerations;
* an improvement in the levels of nutrition of the population in
general, of the children and girls in particular,
* a drastic change in the education and the access to schooling,
* a major consideration to the needs of women,
* particular concern to the health concerns and food safety needs of
the family unit,
* the increase of the permanent economic level of the participants as
result of the search for the means to add value to rural products.
This will be accomplished through the transformation of existing
channels of marketing as well as the development of alternative
commercialization strategies that allow a more just dealing with rural
products and reduce the disparity of the terms of exchange that the
encompassed society promotes.
In the third place, the previous points help to understand that the
foundation of the social transformation of the communities is through
the strengthening of Christian values such as the stewardship of the
environment, the respect and protection of the ground, the water
sources and the forest, as well as the processes that promote the
respect for the availability of food for all within the communities
where Diaconia will be working.
Finally, I believe that the vision promoted by Salome in which he
describes the agricultural practices of groups who work the land
understanding the need to work in harmony with the environment is
fundamental. This approach mitigates the damages to the environment
that impact the vulnerability of the communities to react to
disasters. This approach of Management of the Risk of Disasters
deserves our attention as the Diaconia begins its programs of economic
justice that are important components in relation to disasters.
This is a grand opportunity to promote and to strengthen the relations
of companionship South - south in sharing the Central American
experiences of just commerce with the Network of Alternative Commerce
or Network COBADLY of Honduras, and the appropriate technology of the
Program of Rural Alternatives " FROM PEASANT TO PEASANT " of Nicaragua
and the Network ACT-Central America
In their past work with the Diaconia of the IENPG as well as the
Presbyterian Mayan Brotherhood HPM, Salome Lucas and Carlos Colop have
taken part in regional workshops of ACT Central America where there is
promoted the theory and the practice of the Approach of Management of
the Risk of the Disasters. This approach calls for a joint action so
that the response to disasters is accompanied by actions for the
creation and strengthening of capacities for the reduction of
vulnerabilities to disasters. I understand that Diaconia and the IENPG
are interested in giving continuity to the process of training
developed by ACT-CA as a route to be able to integrate actively to the
Forum Action of Churches Together ACT Guatemala.
It is with this logic that as an official of the Program of
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance PDA/PCUSA, I consider it pertinent to
accompany Diaconia in his process of formation, education, and
training to reach the targets and goals of the new social arm of the
IENPG in Guatemala. For this, by means of this letter, I wish to
inform them that I will be visiting Diaconia in his head office in
Quetzaltenango from 7 until June 11, 2007 to facilitate a workshop of
training on the Methodology of Project planning in Base to Results
(Results based Project Management Approach). Also I will be available
to check with more depth the plans of Diaconia or to take part in the
definition of his principal goals and strategies, as well as visit
some of the co-operatives taking part in this new program.
That God brings his blessings, with the great knowledge that together
we will join in the service to communities,
Carlos Cardenas M.
Official of Programs of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance PDA/PCUSA
CEPAD, Managua, Nicaragua