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The “S” Word Comes After San Ramón

Several years ago, there was a Technology project in India called “The Hole in the Wall.” Computer kiosks were set up in poor neighborhoods and children were given free access to the Internet. The kiosks were small rotundas with the central equipment installed inside and all around terminals were accessed through openings in the walls, hence the name of the project. It was believed that given the access, the children would learn the technology; consequently, their performance in school would improve.

To everyone’s surprise, parents started complaining that children who had been doing well in school and used the kiosk were now failing. An inverse effect! They were failing to present homework and their attitudes in school had deteriorated. Inquiries showed that the children were using the kiosk solely to play computer games.

On July 8, 1999, a very interesting project started here in Honduras, spearheaded by UNESCO and COHCIT (Honduran Science and Technology Commission). It was called “Solar Villages”. A prefabricated structure (kiosk) was installed in a remote village and solar panels were used to power electronic equipment, including a classroom with 11 computers. The kiosk serves as a Community Center. The computers were connected to the Internet using a satellite dish. The satellite signal was donated for the first years, after which the project was supposed to become sustainable. Henceforth, the community was expected to pay about US$4500 a month for the Internet signal. For the small village of San Ramon (pop. <1000), that amount is literally astronomical and the computer project died out.
However, COHCIT continues to promote these telecenters. The newest project will apparently be in Copan, where an artisan group is being evicted from an old school building that will now house this new “Education and Technology” venture, according to a recent report in HTW.

Now, please understand that the whole objective of this column is to see Education and Technology projects come true. About three months ago, I spoke with Dr. Mario Lanza, the top guy in charge of technology investments at the Ministry of Education. I pointed out that they’re investing in offline school computer labs, which as Martha Thompson, a school director in La Lima described, go into leaky classrooms and die out. On the other hand, COHCIT is building first-rate technology centers for unsustainable projects. Why don’t they add two plus two and build the technology centers near schools, share the resources and with the reduced cost, invest in sustainability, I asked?

“Remember San Ramon,” he answered.
Three years from now, we don’t want to hear the same story about Copan. Therefore, the question is: If San Ramon is the rule, why do Community Technology Centers (CTCs) continue flourishing with excellent success in other poor countries?

The M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) operates 12 Knowledge Centers near Pondicherry, India, which serve about 40 villages where the vast majority of people live below the poverty line. The centers are connected through a hybrid of wired and wireless networks. These centers are operated by local staff, usually women’s groups, trained by the Foundation.

When I wrote in the Benton Foundation’s Digital Divide Network about the problem at San Ramon, Jayne Craven of the UN Volunteer Agency wrote back saying “Listen to Arun.”

Arun, Subbiah Arunachalam, of MSSRF says, “If we start with the idea of reaching out to the poorest of the poor, it will be unrealistic to expect to reach a stage of financial viability in a few years. There will have to be some element of subsidy.” Notice that these projects do not bear fruits overnight. The Foundation has supported the Knowledge Centers for 6 years.

“Several armchair critics, with no field experience in dealing with poverty whatsoever have written about the sustainability of our project,” says Arun. “There is nothing wrong in such subsidies.” The project has won two international awards.

“Suddenly sustainability is an issue for hundreds of independent initiatives while the same agencies continue to support huge development projects that swallowed millions during several decades with very little results: White elephants giving birth to blind mice,” says Arun. “If we come to think of it, those development organizations that often are hard critics of small NGO projects are not sustainable either: They exist because of the constant flow of funds from elsewhere (generally taxpayers).”

Arun goes on to suggest a different approach to sustainability. That was three months ago. Recent studies on sustainability by organizations such as the World Bank and United Nations support her view.

These studies claim that other returns, such as educational and social benefits, must be factored in. What effect would it have on gangs, if an ex-gang member became a successful web designer? What if artisans could sell their art on the World Wide Web? What if housewives could supplement their income by working part time at a technology center? How do you measure these results?

Yes, computers can facilitate human, social and economic development in a community. Nevertheless, simply putting the computers in an old school doesn’t make it sustainable or educational. Alfred Bork of the University of California at Irvine, during the same discussion in the Digital Divide Network, said, “The solution is to have enough high quality culturally sensitive learning material to justify satellite distribution.”

What Alfred and Arun are telling us is that you must have lesson plans and teaching materials ready and that you must have people to deliver them. In Arun’s project, the Foundation trains local personnel to manage and operate the Centers. Alfred Bork of UCI has many community learning activities that can be implemented in a telecenter.
Oh! And did I forget to mention it? The community groups that support the 12 centers in Arun’s project are artisan groups. They make incense sticks, weave rugs, and sell them worldwide through the Internet.

So if the City of Copan is evicting an artisan group and rejecting their offer to include a telecenter in their operation at the old school, they’d better think twice. They must be sure that the educational component in the new offering is strong and sustainable, with well defined lesson plans for knowledge advancement, with a focus on training and employing capable people from the community and with a clear target to benefit many community groups, such as artisans and children.

Because Sustainability, the “S” word, starts after you’re connected.

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Garifuna, Huairou women fight for the rights of their community

This continues last week´s article, the first in a series of articles about the women of the Huairou Commission and Groots.

By Helen Drusine

Trujillo, HONDURAS — Their poverty and suffering provide a stark contrast to the beauty that surrounds them – the sparkling blue waters of the Caribbean on one side and the lush tropical forests of the soaring mountains peaks on the other.

At home, mares with their colts graze outside quaint thatched roof houses, pigs with their young, chickens and goats roam everywhere. Although horses seem to be plentiful, in some towns most people still prefer to carry firewood and other material back from the fields on their heads with other heavy bundles suspended from their foreheads.
The Garifuna believe that this way of life is now being threatened by what they call “invaders” — large, wealthy land owners, many of whom are armed, and cattle ranchers. In addition, they say the government is attempting to sell their land along the coast to tourism developers. Tourist development, they fear, would leave them waiters and maids on their ancestral lands.

One weapon the natives have created for themselves is the Comite de Emergencia Garifuna de Honduras. Based in Trujillo, the Garifuna capital, the Comite was formed by the Garifuna women, who found themselves without government help in facing the devastation caused by hurricanes Mitch and Michelle.

Now the Comite also works on human rights issues in l6 communities. One of these issues is the construction of an illegal highway through mountainous communal land. Last year, the wealthy cattle ranchers of the town of Sico without permission built this road that passes through the mountains from the coastal town of Iriona Viejo to the inland town of Sico. The road builders bulldozed numerous fields, felling cocoa, mango and plantain trees and destroying yucca, bananas, corn, taro and arrowroot crops, cultivated by the subsistence farmers of the area. The road cut a swath through old growth tropical forest passing above the protected forest watershed of three reservoirs that serve 11 towns. Their formerly pristine water supply is no longer potable. The erosion caused by the massive deforestation causes the soil to enter the water supply. The oil from cars is also washing into it. When it rains, the water looks like chocolate, say the region’s inhabitants who have been reporting a lot more illness, especially among the children.

On a recent visit to the area to inaugurate the opening of another, legal road, the Honduran president, Ricardo Maduro, said the water looked like “tamarind juice.” However, according to Shende, the government has done nothing to close the road although it admits its illegality and the harm it is causing. Meanwhile, the only option is for residents to try to catch rainwater, but rains have been infrequent and many have no money to buy the buckets and barrels to store adequate amounts.

A permit to build the road was denied by the Iriona Viejo mayor’s office and no authorization was given by the national highway authority. No environmental impact study was done, nor was the required environmental permit extended. Road building machinery ran over some 15-20 acres of crops, but nearly l00 are now unusable because armed ranchers keep the villagers out, according to residents. Vegetation was destroyed, streams blockaded and rerouted, flooding nearby cornfields, and existing bridges were destroyed. The mayor, as well as the president of the local community group, has received death threats.

“More than 10,000 Garifuna are now without potable water. A 15 kilometer road was opened... in order to exploit natural resources that for decades had been protected,” according to the local paper Costa Norte. “The situation is so lamentable. The water which comes (from these reservoirs) is so dirty that it is not fit for human consumption.”

Victoria Suazo, an Iriona Viejo resident, wants the new government (which took office earlier this year) to get rid of the road. “We want to bring the old government to court and insist the new government close the road down,” she says. “We want to be reimbursed for all our lost land and crops.” In addition to the contamination of the water supply by humans and machinery, residents fear that by creating soil erosion and deforestation, this project may contribute to the supply’s ultimate disappearance. The community had proposed that an old route once used by the Standard Fruit Company that does not go into the mountains and would not cause ecological damage be upgraded and used instead. The ranchers refused.

“This illegal highway affects our water. When it rains it is pure mud,” says Pastor Suazo. “There has been so much illness since it was built — diarrhea, vomiting, fevers, parasites, fungal infections. We are also finding human feces from construction workers and the houses built by the invaders who came because of the road. There were no houses before. We are all afraid the kids will die.”

Iriona Viejo is not the only town where the Comite works that faces severe human rights abuses. In another Garifuna town, Vallecito, their land has been invaded, their crops bulldozed, two people have been shot at, a thatched roof house was set on fire with children inside and two months ago a training center where community residents were learning about the mechanization of agriculture was burnt down. They believe that one of the country’s richest and biggest landowners, an uncle to the former president and owner of most of the palm oil plantations in the country, is paying people to attack them. They feel they are under siege. The rice and corn they used to grow, they now have to buy and since there is almost no employment, that is difficult. They used to go alone to tend their crops, now they can only go in groups.

In Punta Piedra, a cooperative of 39 women was formed to cultivate and fight for the land. These women have marched on the capital twice, but they said no one would listen to their grievances during the four days they protested in front of the chamber of deputies. The second time, in April, they slept on the street on pieces of cardboard underneath the building and played drums so the government would notice them. They said they were told that the government would release money to the National Agrarian Institute so that the invaders could be reimbursed for the houses they had built and leave the Garifuna lands. The money was never released, they say.

Formal complaints have been made to the ministry of the environment and other government institutions and both civil and criminal law suits have been filed by many of the communities affected.

Other work of the Comite involves projects with young people. They meet with them to determine what kinds of programs they themselves want. One group is trying to form a musical group, which the Comite hopes will keep them from joining a gang or getting involved with drugs. They have the drums but are trying to raise funds for a piano, guitar, electric drums and a violin. Another group wants to build the first basketball court in their town.

The Garifuna are afraid that the art of making utensils needed to make casave, a bread made from yucca, will die out with the old people, so in one town the Comite is providing tools, materials and two months of training to a group of young people so they can learn to make wood crafts and other salable items. They want to be able to replicate this in all the villages.

The Comite buys as many tools as possible for the towns it works with. Each town elects representatives (at least half are women) to run the local tool bank and lend out the tools to the farmers who need them. The delivery of seedlings is done in much the same way. Ginger and plantain seeds, for example, are collected by members of the Comite, who take them by truck and boat to the villages. There they are distributed to the farmers by representatives of the tool bank, with the agreement that after the harvest they will give back a certain portion of it to other farmers and to those community members who can no longer work either because they are too old or disabled. What is not donated to the sick or elderly can be used in a children’s breakfast program.

A free breakfast program for 125 kindergarten children in Punta Piedra is another program launched by the Comite – the only free, complete daily meal program in the country. In this town without electricity, telephones or sources of employment, many children suffered from poor nutrition. Some were not going to school because they had nothing to eat.

The Garifuna have many traditional and medicinal plants, and Balaire, which the Comite is now trying to save, is one that has become increasingly scarce. A thorny, wild vine, closely resembling bamboo, it has been used for centuries to make everything from cooking utensils to furniture. However, with deforestation, the areas where these plants were growing wild have been lost.

The Comite is pioneering a reforestation program for this vine. Growing it against tall trees in the partial shade of the tropical forest will also help promote an entire ecosystem, which the people will then want to preserve, Shende says. She believes that the cultivation of this vine is an example of sustainable use of the land and an attempt to keep the traditional culture alive. The pilot project will be carried out in eight villages with everyone, including the teenagers, pitching in to help. According to agronomists, the Garifuna will be among the first communities in the world to plant and cultivate this vine.

“The Garifuna, in some towns, were given title to their lands in l90l, but their rights continue to be ignored,” says Shende. “A just solution needs to be sought or it could be a powder keg. And, to make matters worse, the government now wants to eliminate the institutes that deal with land reform. The Garifuna have a right to decide what is in their best interest, to determine how they want to develop their land. They have a right to self-determination and to continue their practice of sustainable development. One of their chief demands — access to clean water — is a human right.”


A Review: “Mea Culpa”

Felipe Acosta in a dramatic moment of the play “Mea Culpa”

By ROSIBEL GUTIERREZ

Jesus (Felipe Acosta) and his present, yet absent, friend Demetrio star in an interrupted soliloquy. They are just two of the alcoholics who inhabit the underworld of the dirty sidewalks of Tegucigalpa and Comayaguela.

Jesus remembers with nostalgia the time when he had work and a mother; a loving mother who instilled in him that their misery was a result of the will of God: The Divine Power had sentenced them to the most wretched of misery.

Our character survives selling bottles that he finds in the trash, but even in his infinite poverty he retains a grand sense of humor. Speaking in good and vulgar Honduran throughout the whole work, he sustains fictitious conversations with the President of the Republic and with the Cardinal (with the help of a telephone he finds in the trash). In a poignant moment, Jesus thanks God for every day of life he has been given, for the asses he is able to eat from time to time, for the swigs from a bottle that people sometimes give him; he can dream about being a soccer star. Jesus speaks without a break, with his friend Demetrio as a silent interlocutor.

This work reflects the light and shade of life; the light and shade of the landscape of existence. The characters are condemned to death: by society, by God, by themselves... who should take the blame? The two friends are living a nightmare, but they dare to live it with the courage and innocence of those who share the high cost of living but not the emptiness.

This is a synthesis of the play “Mea Culpa” (My Fault), written by a national artist of renowned talent, Felipe Acosta. The debut was Friday 5 September in the Reform Theatre of Tegucigalpa. At the moment, Felipe Acosta is a member of the Bambu Theatre Group, an independent group founded in Tegucigalpa in 1990. “Mea Culpa” is the third work he has written, and the third that has been shown by the Bambu Theatre Group, the others being “La Hora Final” (The Final Hour) and “Poema de Amor” (Poem of Love). The Director of the play is Danilo Lagos, also a member of the Bambu Theatre Group, who has 19 years of experience. His works have previously been broadcast on the radio, on television, and in short films and videos.

The production “Mea Culpa” seeks to put diversion and entertainment alongside each other, as a form of theatre impregnated with messages that contribute to the education and transformation of the consciences of its viewers and of society.

“Mea Culpa” will be shown through September on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7.30 p.m.




Olimpia vs. Motagua......Titans clash to provide high entertainment

Matchdays inspire an electric atmosphere within the grounds of the Tiburcio Carías National Stadium

By PETER SIMON

Central American soccer isn’t renowned for its impressive record of crowd safety and peaceful matches. Honduras itself holds the mantle for being the only country in the world where the result of a match has lead to full-scale war, the Football War of 1969 with El Salvador.

With this in mind, it was with some trepidation that I went to the Estadio Nacional in Tegucigalpa to watch one of the capital’s local derbies of the season, Olimpia versus Motagua.

“Be sure to sit in Sombra Sur and not Sol,” warned bar manager Fernando Rojas the previous evening. “If you sit in Sol you are likely to be pelted with pee bags,” came the reply to my inquisitive expression.

I heeded his advice and bought my $4.50 ticket the following morning for the Sombra Sur section, a cut above the $3.40 fans pay for the Sol section. The upper echelon of soccer fan pays an inflated $11.50 for improved comfort and guaranteed dryness in the Palco section.

Entry into the stadium proved to be very easy with no form of security search carried out, although several soldiers patrolled brandishing larger-than-average weapons to ensure that calm reigned within.

Nothing could have prepared me for the atmosphere on the terraces. The infamous Sol sections weren’t the riotous dens expected, rather two heavily separated areas filled with a few hundred of each team’s most die hard supporters in league to see who could sing and chant the loudest.

Sombra Sur was certainly more muted and less densely filled but still had its own unique atmosphere. Young children swarmed the banked seating offering beers and cigarettes, pizza sellers from the town’s chains paraded their freshly baked goods and, on a more controversial note, a man was selling endangered Giant Turtle eggs despite the occasional abusive cry from the more environmentally-minded soccer fan.

The 17,180 expectant supporters had worked themselves into a frenzy by kick-off, cheering a bolt of lightning that earthed itself on the overlooking mountain and a commercial jet passing at what must have been no more than thirty meters overhead.

Kick-off itself was greeted with a torrential downpour causing thousands of fans to head to relative safety under the small awning that surrounds part of the stadium. The Sol fans seemed oblivious to the soaking and continued to sing and jump throughout as Olimpia took the early initiative, with Marcelo Fererreia scoring after nineteen minutes and again twenty minutes later.

“We could have scored four in the first half,” said Chelato Ucles, head coach of Olimpia, speaking after the match. “But Motagua’s goalkeeper was playing well and kept them in the game.”

Motagua livened up in the second half, possibly due to the improved weather conditions, and even managed to pull one back in the 79th minute through a wonder goal from Juan Yalet.

This, however, was not to be enough and Olimpia were by far the stronger team on the day, winning 2-1.

Upon the final whistle the Motagua fan sitting in front of me, who seemed to be going through an emotional ordeal during the match, assured me that his team never beats Olimpia in the league but always in the trophy.

The feeling in the stadium was one of pure enjoyment by both sets of fans alike. Motagua and Olimpia supporters sat next to each other in perfect harmony and the police reported just one arrest for a minor incident. This was a far cry from the European matches I am used to watching where fans are totally segregated and exit the stadium at opposite ends.

The match was very entertaining and none of the hostilities anticipated came to fruition. Entire families came and supported their teams vociferously without letting the rain dampen their spirits. The only downside was the mountain of rubbish left at the end and the authorities’ delay in the clean up operation.

 

Garifuna Huairou Women Fight for the rights of their community

This is the first in a series of articles we will be sending out on the women of the Huairou Commission and Groots. An article on the Garifuna will be published in American Legacy Magazine in September 2003

By HELEN DRUSINE

Trujillo, HONDURAS — Mayor Florentina Palacios is frustrated, angry and worried. She worries about malaria and about dengue fever, about contaminated water, about the theft of her community’s ancestral lands. She also worries about the loss of traditions and culture.

Palacios is one of the 250,000 Garifuna, an Afro-Honduran people living on the North Coast, who are marginalized and ignored by the government of this predominantly non-black, Latino country. She is angry now because the people of her community cannot get the fuel they need to power road-building machinery. The road would make it possible for them to build new homes further inland so they will be safe from the huge waves that accompany hurricanes.

Palacios, vice president of the committee for reconstruction of roads and housing in Santa Rosa de Aguan, describes how her town was the coastal town hardest hit during Hurricane Mitch four years ago and how it has still not recovered. At the time, more than 40 people died, more than 200 houses were washed out to sea, the town lost its  kindergarten, its primary, its high school and its health center. Not even cement buildings were spared the hurricane’s fury. And last year following Hurricane Michelle, the town was again cut off, areas flooded and two houses fell into the waves after the sea cut away the coastline.

“I am writing a book called Mitch and the Destruction of the World,” Palacios tells a visitor, trying to fight back tears. “The first chapter will be ‘The Land and Big Landowners.’ The second chapter will be ‘Mitch, The Road and Housing.’ Because I am living what is happening, because we lived all of this.”

Aguan, perched on a sandbar at the mouth of the river, was hit both by high seas and the flooding river. Floodwaters killed hundreds in the broad, flat Rio Aguan Valley and put entire towns under water. An estimated 30 acres of land where houses, schools and churches
once stood became rivers and lagoons. More than half of their cultivated fields were washed away.

Broken palm trees, rutted roads and rivers still without proper bridges are visible reminders that another hurricane could strike at any time. A school bus, half submerged in a river that was once the main road into town, is a silent witness to all that was lost. The inhabitants of this Caribbean coastal village know it can happen again. That is why they are so anxious to rebuild their homes away from the low-lying part of the coast.

“Here we have a small community trying to do all the right things — take care of the environment, stop deforestation, protect its water supplies,” says Suzanne Shende, a Trinidadian American human and civil rights lawyer who has been working with the Garifuna for six years. “Every international conference and all the aid agencies say they want to mitigate the consequences of natural disasters and here is a community trying to do just that. And yet when a community needs such a small thing as fuel, the international donors aren’t there.”

After both Mitch and Michelle, the government’s reconstruction efforts focused mainly on the central parts of the country and left the Garifuna to fend for themselves. So the Garifuna women came together to try to save their communities on their own. The Comite de Emergencia Garifuna de Honduras, based in Trujillo, the Garifuna capital, was formed. And despite Palacios’ concerns and the problems the Garifuna still face, the Comite has been able to transform the lives of many of the people whose lives it touches. In the past four years, it has raised money and built houses for single mothers, supported artisans, farmers and fishermen, and set up kitchens to feed children and the elderly.

In Trujillo, the Comite built 13 houses for people without resources who had lost their homes, sent materials to help repair more than 40 schools, provided equipment and medicines for hospitals and health centers, repaired cultural centers, houses, schools and small businesses, and delivered donations to the needy. These had to transported by whatever means available — by boat, canoe, horse, mule, horse cart, pickup truck, or on foot. Because of the bad roads, many of which are impassible during the rainy season, there is no established method of transporting medicines and supplies.  In conjunction with the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Comite is trying to buy boats.

After the hurricane even stems and seeds utilized by Garifuna farmers were not available (although international agencies and the government provided the seeds used by the Latino population, says Ana Lucy Bengochea, Comite secretary) so the Comite looked farther away for seeds they could donate to the villages most in need. Its work includes collecting seedlings from one town that has a surplus and taking them to other towns that have none, often by pickup truck across rutted and sometimes flooded roads and then by boat across a river to a still isolated town. Three towns are only accessible by boat.

It works on communal projects such as planting a coconut tree nursery or transplanting tree seedlings. The Comite bought 2,000 hybrid or resistant coconuts for 16 towns after disease killed a majority of the region’s coconuts. Now people are awarded a coconut plant after completing work on a community project —- repair of a bridge, reforesting the beach with coconuts, cleaning up the piers and waterways, or cutting the grass around the kindergarten and health center. It also brings agronomists to communities to teach them about the cultivation and diversification of crops so they can combine this knowledge with their traditional knowledge.

“We have these young academics talking with 70-year-old women who are planting according to the cycles of the moon,” says Shende.

The Comite is also beginning to plant yucca, mahogany and hardwood trees with the aim of reforesting Barranco whose productive capacity was destroyed by Mitch. The homes in this area, a small peninsula jutting out from Trujillo, were all destroyed so its residents now live in Trujillo and are transported there once a week by the Comite to work in the newly planted fields. The Comite is looking for funding to rebuild those houses so the people can move back and tend their crops more regularly.

“The Comite gives us so much,” says Sotera Martinez, who at 69 still leaves before dawn to walk two hours each way to tend her crops in an area near Trujillo and then carry home firewood on her head in the afternoon. She lost her house and all her fields in Barranco.
“It transports us to the fields, it provides us with seeds, it helps us establish nurseries. It brought in an agronomist to talk to us about diversification and sterilizing the seeds. Now we are also planting ginger for diversification in addition to our more traditional crops such as yucca.”

The Comite, which reaches 9,000 people, also teaches community members to write proposals, evaluations and reports, and basic typing and computer skills.

And it was the Comite that bought the land so the people of Aguan could rebuild their houses. But the land just sits there. The only access is by boat across the river. The heavy road-building machinery they finally got the government to donate stands idle. The building materials necessary to construct their homes cannot be effectively transported without a road. The town doesn’t have the $50,000 needed to buy the gasoline to power the trucks. Few have responded to their requests for funds. A student volunteer from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, on a recent visit here, felt so sorry for the inhabitants that she donated $100 so they could buy one barrel of fuel to at least begin construction.

The present struggle for the people of Santa Rosa de Aguan is the road. But the Garifuna in this country have long struggled against injustice and discrimination. More than 300 years ago, according to one theory, they escaped from slave ships that were shipwrecked off the coast of Saint Vincent. On that island they mixed with the Carib and Arawak Indians. In 1797, after the British defeated the French, they were deported to the Bay Islands in the Caribbean and then made their way to the mainland coast of Honduras. Most live in seaside villages of huts with steep thatched roofs and cultivate traditional root crops such as manioc or yucca, yams and taro (After Mitch, it was reported that nearly 90 percent of the crops supporting Garifuna villages were wiped out). Many are boat builders and fisherman. One dozen villages are without electricity and telephones. Few have hot water and health care is minimal.

The Garifuna have retained their African roots through their unique language (a mixture of Arawak, Carib and Bantu with a sprinkling of French, Spanish and English), dances, music, stories, drumming and religious beliefs that somewhat resemble other African-based religions like Santeria and Haitian Voodoo. They also have traditional foods, medicinal herbs, farming and fishing methods, handmade instruments and cooking utensils. Many of the smaller towns still try to be self-sufficient. They have asked the government for bilingual, bicultural education to protect their culture. Recently, UNESCO declared the culture an Oral Patrimony to Humanity.

Dynamic new face of politics in Copan Ruinas favors education and technology

BY JENNY LANZA DE JAMISON AND JESSE W. JAMISON

Special to Honduras This Week

On August 24th, Mayor Mauricio Arias chaired a New England style town hall meeting in Copan Ruinas, for the purpose of democratically deciding the future of the old colegio, Dr. Jesus Nunez Chinchilla, located in the central plaza of the pueblo. The meeting was scheduled to begin at 9:00am. All residents were required to register at the entrance of the Popol Nah Salon, and given a printed number for voting purposes, after the proceedings.

According to Honduran law, all municipalities are required to hold a minimum of five open meetings annually, but as Marcio Suazo, legal advisor to the Municipality told us, few people generally attend them. In his nine years in Copan Ruinas, the maximum number of attendees that he has seen was 110. This time, however, much to the amazement of all, the side doors had to be opened to accommodate everyone. There were approximately 1,000 residents of Copan Ruinas and surrounding villages present.
The principal points of contention were that the property, which the old colegio occupies, belongs to the Municipality, but is presently being rented by a group who calls themselves “The Association of Artisans.?

The Association has taken the liberty of renaming the old colegio, Dr. Jesus Nunez Chinchilla, “The Artisan’s Market”. The members of the Association, in fact, are owners of tourist souvenir shops, operating on public property, intentionally misrepresenting themselves as “artisans,? and who are not serving the public interest in any real sense. This has provoked heated controversy during the entire mayoralty of Mauricio Arias, and he was determined to put the issue to rest, by letting the public decide the destiny of this valuable community asset.

To further fuel the passions surrounding this already incendiary issue, only three of the eight regidores (town council members) were seated at the dias with the Mayor. Five regidores, four nacionalistas and one Liberal, were conspicuous by their absence.
The meeting began when Lic. Suazo welcomed all present. Mayor Arias led the assembly in the Himno Nacional (Honduran National Anthem), followed by a prayer by Pastor Faustino Arias. Suazo then gave the people a synopsis of the ongoing dispute between the Municipality and the Association during the past two plus years.

Former Mayor Julien Gamez Interiano signed an indefinite contract on behalf of the Municipality with the Association, before leaving office, which stipulates that the Association would pay Lps. 15,000 ($858) monthly for the rental of the old colegio. Mayor Arias claims that this contract is not valid, because the property belongs to the Municipality, and no one has the right to either sell it or rent it indefinitely. In January 2003, the Municipality offered the Association a limited contract to rent the property, but the Association would neither sign it nor discuss the matter. From June 2003 until the present, the Association has discontinued rent payments entirely. After Lic. Suazo’s review, the floor was opened to questions and comments.

Patronato Antonio Melchor asked why the Association members do not rent or buy a different location in town to operate their businesses -- one that does not belong to the Municipality. The Association members did not respond.

Next Flavia Cueva stood and with great emotion, trembling hands, and a cracking voice told all present that her grandfather, Juan Ramon Cueva, presented the Municipality with the property, and stipulated that it was to be used specifically for educational purposes. She said that it was an outrage for the old colegio to be used for crass commercial enterprises.

Erika Duke Hueso, Secretary of the Association, was then recognized. She said that the Association pays Lps. 15,000 monthly to the Municipality for rental of that property, and they were not opposed to having an educational project in the old colegio. In fact, she said that the Association was willing to donate two sites on the premises; one to the Chorti, to sell their craftwork, and the other to the Municipality, for educational purposes. Mayor Arias retorted that the property at issue belongs to the Municipality, and the Association does not have the authority to “donate” sites there to anyone.

Patronato Antonio Melchor reiterated his original question: Why doesn’t the Association rent or buy another locale to operate their businesses ? one that does not belong to the Municipality? The Association members responded by leaving the meeting in a collective huff.

Jorge Posas, who represents an organization called CCCC (Centro Comunitarios de Comunicacion y Conocimientos), was recognized. He said that his organization was prepared to begin a pilot project in Copan Ruinas, offering the free use of computers and free computer classes at the old colegio. Furthermore, these computer connections would not be on Hondutel’s antiquated 36k phone lines, but will be digitally connected via satellite. His organization was also prepared to offer this service to all schools and private homes as well. This would be exclusively for the use of the residents of Copan Ruinas and the surrounding villages. The equipment would be donated by COHCIT (Consejo Hondureno de Ciencias y Tecnologia).

He further informed the audience that Copan Ruinas and the surrounding villages have an illiteracy rate of 70%, and 69.2% of the people suffer from malnutrition. This computer education project would help change those statistics.

The Association wants the computer education project to be located at the old cuartel (military barracks), which is crumbling due to benign neglect. At present, the Municipality does not have the funds available for necessary renovations.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Mayor Arias instructed all those in favor of the proposed project to stand to the left side of the Salon; all who opposed to stand to the right. The vote was unanimous. An Act was passed, signed by Mayor Arias, and witnessed by Antonio Melchor and Stanley Mata of the Committee of Transparency, along with two others. The meeting was promptly adjourned.

By dealing with the issue of the old colegio in such a direct, democratic, transparent, and forthright manner, Mayor Arias demonstrated dynamic leader-ship, seldom seen in Central American politics. Interestingly, Mayor Arias is the first Liberal mayor in the entire history of Copan Ruinas, since its incorporation in 1893. His resolve in this matter will undoubtedly affect the lives and destinies of all Copanecos for many years to come, propelling us into 21st century technology. Thanks to Mayor Arias, soon all the young people of Copan will be able to go wherever their talent, intelligence, imagination, and character will carry them.

The Association members declared, after the fact, that the town hall meeting was invalid, because a quorum of regidores was not present. However, after doing some research, we found this assertion to be false. The rules section of the OCDIH´s (Organismo Christiano de Desarrollo Integral de Honduras) Manual of Open Public Meetings clearly states: “Members of the (municipal) corporation have the obligation to attend these sessions, however, the lack of a quorum of the corporation will not impede the fulfillment of public meetings.” Case closed!


 

Don’t Shoot the Messenger

On May 25, 1990, a group of youths from Canada, the United States and Norway began talking through the internet. The group grew and became Kidlink, an international network dedicated to promoting inter-youth worldwide communications to benefit their communities.

In 1991, children from all sides of the conflict in the Middle East used the Kidlink Network to have a discussion about peace in their communities. This forum was publicized and became an important part of successful peace negotiations in that region at the time, though perhaps they’ve stopped listening lately.

13 years later, Kidlink has grown into a full world organization with 120,000 children from 140 nations taking part in their programs in more than 20 languages. It has spawned thousands of community programs.

In 1993, Odd de Presno, founder, donated all Kidlink rights to a global organization that has received world recognition from important institutions such as UNICEF, UNESCO, the World Bank and many well established universities. Also, the Kidlink Institute is an educational and pedagogical center that supports all Kidlink Programs.

But the objective of this article is not to sing high praises of Kidlink. We want to see how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can bring Quality into Education. Applied to the Honduran model, we understand Quality means to re-focus education towards creating a free, independent, critical and creative thinker out of each student, not a “regurgitator of facts”, as Marta Thompson aptly describes.

When youths within different warring sides of a multi-ethnic, religious, cultural, armed conflict use internet to hold a peace talk that becomes an important part of world events, that shows that those youths are critical, independent and creative thinkers and, also, proactive. They are acting to promote their positive objectives.

And this is what we want of Honduran students. So a program like Kidlink, dedicated to promoting inter-youth communication through the internet is definitely part of the solution. Don’t shoot the messenger. There is more to ICTs in education than meets the eye.

ICTs are not only bridges that span to remote rural villages, they also broaden the learning experience by incorporating multi-media resources. A movie can be used to teach students how to build a windmill, with close-ups and instant replay. But even if the equipment is there, the teacher must be trained to employ it.

Kidlink offers educational programs that teach the teachers how to create Kidlink communities in their class groups. The Kidlink Network functions at many levels like special places where youths can save digital artwork, special chatting channels for youths, teachers and parents and supplementary information spaces.

More important, these programs are about creating a quality person out of each participating student, about helping them discover their own value in the new global village and about encouraging them to think critically and constructively about their community.

The Kidlink Lesson Plans cover the US, British and French technology educational standards. The Lessons link up to primary and secondary school curricula, like science, social studies, mathematics, written and oral language, and foreign language. They can be executed as in-class material or as an after-hours learning experience.

Since Kidlink is really a network, like Yahoo, there are no software or registration fees, the only cost involved is in doing workshops to train teachers and volunteers. Kidlink is one of hundreds of lesson plans found in the Internet that use ICTs to bring quality into education at a reasonable cost.


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