Community Projects!
August 13th, 2010
Faith Lee

At work, my most exciting task has been the community projects.  They are an opportunity for the women in the leadership groups to practice their leadership skills.  The programs in Honduras and Sierra Leone have done them before, but here in Guatemala it will be the first time.

Since they are new, they naturally come with a combination of opportunities and challenges.  Sometimes it has been overwhelming and I guess recently I haven´t been very excited about them.  Today however, I am reenergized.

I had been told by someone who does not work with CAUSE that people in Todos Santos were different, but the work we have seen with some of our co-workers this past week can blow one away.  Not that there aren´t hard workers in Comitancillo or that they don´t care about the participants, but here they seem to have their act together better – even the newer staff.  And it seems easier to dialog with people about their opinions on improving the programs and they are more receptive to the ideas we have to offer.

Today I met with don Pedro, the supervisor here in Todos Santos, and the leadership promoters to discuss the projects.  At this point I don´t have a good picture of what they think about the projects for several reasons, but the process of introducing the projects and the participative methodologies we would like to use went a lot more smoothly.  And it seems that maybe they understand the process goals better than they did in Comitancillo and are more willing to try.

In general, our first week in Todos Santos has gone well.  The only flaws are the cold and the pack of dogs we sometimes cross paths with.

Like our first weeks in Comitancillo, we have been shadowing the staff on their visits to various groups.  Doña Rosa, my main contact, is great to work with and has already covered all of her content.  In the class in Chiaval, most of the participants are able to write their full names.  These women and girls went up to the board without hesitation and had fairly good handwriting.  Most of the leadership groups have also finished the integral themes and are reviewing.  This fits in nicely with the projects, as it gives us an opportunity to do project-related activities not only with the leadership participants, but the literacy participants in their communities as well.