A DESCRIPTION OF OUR COMMUNITY

Our community, La Esperanza (Hope), is a squatter settlement located to the south of Guatemala City in the area of Mezquital. The colony La Eseranza and the nearby colonies came out of an invasion of approximately 40,000 people in 1984. These communities began in the 80s with the arrival of people displaced from rural areas during Guatemala´s 42-year Civil War that the country suffered.Today the are six locations in our areas. the colony Mezquital, Villa Lobos I, Villa Lobos II, El Bucaro and y La Jolla. Even though our group is located in La Esperanza, we help people from other nearby communities in our medical clinics and schools. La Esperanza has more than 5000 citizens, and the nieghboring communities have hundreds of thousands more.

La Esperanza has a cooperative that works improve to achieve better housing and water at affordable prices. In the 19 years since its creation, La Esperanza has changed from being a squatter settlement with shacks made from scraps of tin, plastic, wood and cardboard, without a sewage system, lacking electricity and potable water, to a colony with cement block houses, undreground sewage pipes and other basic services. These improvements were carried our with support from international organizations like UNICEF and the active participation of the population. At the same time, new squatter settlemts have arisen on the margins of the established communities due to the poverty in the countryside and in the colonies themselves. A squatter settlement that recently converted into a community is La Jolla (at right, cerca 1999), which was sits in a ravine between two sectors of La Esperanza. This ravine was under water during the rains of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and the residents were forced to sleep in the school in La Eseperanza.

Without a doubt, La Esperanza continues to suffer from many of the social problems that characterize marginalized populations like delinquence and gang violence, discrimination against women, domestic violence, alcoholism, drug addiction, illiteracy, unemployment, child and adult malnutrition, the lack of health services, child abuse, and with that, the lack of sufficient schools for the children. Depression, fear and apathy are common in these situations.

The extreme poverty that characterizes La Esperanza obligates many mothers to work, leaving their younger children enclosed at home, with neighbors or older relatives, or they wander arouund by themselves in the streets, which places in risk the physical and psychological integrity of the children. In the contexts described above, the children of La Esperanza have few opportunities of access to the medical services they deserve, in some cases for lack of financial resources and in many cases for apathy, disinterest or lack of information of the parents, which impedes the optimal growth and physical development of children

Many families are disintegrated, in which mothers are the ones responsible for the economic income of the nuclear family and in some cases, older children also work to help out. The average monthly income of a family is not more than Q. 1500 (less than US$200) In the case of integrated families, where there is still a father, the monthly income can reach Q2000 (US$250). This income is only when two or three members of the family have work, when they have to rely on informal jobs, with which a fixed monthly income can never be established.

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The Beginning of UPAVIM

UPAVIM came into being when a linkage was made with a group from Bemidji, Minnesota through an organization called "Sister Parish" -- which pairs US and Central American churches in a relationship based on inter-exchange.  The first delegation from Minnesota arrived in March of 1989 and met with eight women from La Esperanza.  It was during this visit that they agreed to establish a dental clinic which was finally dedicated in November of 1990.  In December of 1990 we discussed the need of constructing our own building in order to have space for our many programs.  Up to this time we were working in a building owned by the Catholic Church.

We began the construction in 1992 and finished in 1994 with the supporrt of Rotary Clubs District 5580, "The Self-Development of the People of the Presbyterian Church, USA", Levi Strauss y Elizabeth and Charles Davis.

We began making crafts in 1991 to pay for the Healthy Babies program and to give women jobs. Our first craft products were burrettes and ponytail holders ("scrunchies") and the first big order was 50 bags for a Leche League conference. With the completion of the building in 1994, we expanded the day care facilities and the crafts production. During this time, various UPAVIMas made trips to the United States Alternative Trade Conferences and we increased our sales through organizations like 10,000 VIllages and SERRV.

During this period we expanded the day care center and began integrating the Montessori method into our pre-school classes. We began planning on opening our own school some day, and several women were trained by Dr. Lilian Moncada Davidson, profesor of Queens College, New York, and by other teachers experienced in the Montessori system. In the following years, the teachers have continued their studies in the United States, El Salvador, the Conference of the Reading Council in Guatemala and in workships organized by the Secretary of Social Well-Being of the Presidency of Guatemala. The Kellogg Foundation financed a trip for two teachers to Brazil to observe a similar project.

Through these investments in human resources and the expansion of the market for their crafts, UPAVIM has grown from a small community health project to a successful cooperatively run business that provides social services in a growing community that recieves very little attention from the local or national governments.

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UPAVIM Today

UPAVIM today is a 60+ member cooperative assocation with 20 employees and more than 50 women working as seamstresses. The employees work as teachers, nurses, administrators, cooks, cleaners, secretaries, and a baker, who is the son of an UPAVIM woman. UPAVIM has employees from outside the community, including a general manager, a full-time doctor and a dentist who works twice a week.

We continue to expand our crafts production through links with other groups and through new lines of crafts. In 2002, we joined AGEXPRONT, the national trade organization that awarded us a prize for Best Non-traditional textile exporter. Look out for our new product lines in development, including embroidery and paintings on clay.

Also in 2002, the Montessori day care finally became a legalized school and the Center for Alternative Learning was born. It currently employs four teachers, and the first promotion will graduate sixth grade next year. Thanks to the hands-on, peer tutoring approach, the contrast between our school and the two primary schools in the nieghborhood is dramatic. This has already realized a dream of ours, and we hope to contiue to add more students and teachers to our school.

Our biggest challenge right now is finishing the construction on the Annex. We began construction of a four-story building in 2000 and we have completed the first floor and the basement, and begun construction on the second floor. We accomplished this with the support of the Global Fund for Women and we also thank the Palmer Foundation for a recent gift toward the building.

The Annex already houses the bakery, school and the reforzamiento, and will also have space for a soy milk production facility, a typewriting school and a senior activities center. The equipment in the bakery was bought with help from Rotary Clubs of California, and the initial stages of the soy facility (which include a large, refrigerated room) was thanks to support from the Palmer Foundation, the Woods Family Foundation and individuals.

With your support (whether through donations or just buying and marketing our products), we can accomplish these goals and make UPAVIM a self-sustainable women´s cooperative dedicated to training women of our community and providing better lives for our famlies.

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