community solutions-- visual health and youth empowerment

These are some photos from our recent workshop with a great ngo- community solutions.
they were founded by two ex-peace corps volunteers in guatemala and we are lucky enough to be participating in their pilot program in here in ecuador.
we are learning all about visual health including how to give eye exams. We will be selling reading glasses and are now educated in how to test the people in order to give them the correct perscription and make sure they understand how to use their glasses. many people living in rural towns believe they are simply losing their sight and have spent years unable to read or sew. the moment a person recieves the correct perscription and realizes they are not going blind is an amazing moment! with community solutions and a select group of committed young people we will be organizing campaigns in nearby communities to better educate people about visual health and give eye exams and sell reading glasses and sunglass and very reduced rates. This program also functions as a small business for the youth involved who will make a small profit. This is a great opportunity for the young people in palmar who often struggle to find work. It empowers them and creates a chance for them to help themselves and help their community. This is only a very brief summary of some of the work we have been doing with community solutions. i hope to write more soon!

Leadership Conference 2008

Club Kiwanis Churquiragua and the Peace Corps Ecuador Gender and Development Committee Leadership Conference 2008

**** so this conference was something that another volunteer grace and i were in charge of last year---- it was one of the greatest challenges i faced during peace corps and by far one of the most amazing experiences of my life. we had to plan and run this conference in everyway... right now i can only upload a coupla photos but hopefully more soon. i have fallen way way behind updating my blog as this conference was nearly a year ago but asi es la vida. much love!!!****

“Eres la Luz que Ilumina el Camino”

The 9^th annual Club Kiwanis Churquiragua and Peace Corps Ecuador Gender and Development Committee Leadership Conference was held July 31- August 3 2008 at the Sacred Hearts Retreat Center in Conocoto, Pinchincha. 55 young Ecuadorian women from various provinces and cultural backgrounds were selected and spent four days attending seminars and workshops on small business, sexual education and developing leadership skills through teamwork.

The young women arrived in the afternoon of July 31st at the scenic and peaceful Sacred Hearts Retreat Center where they were assigned small groups to help the girls meet new people and develop new friendships. The first activity was a motivating and passionate presentation by a past scholarship recipient, Verónica Paucar who spoke about overcoming the many obstacles she faced as a young indigenous mother attending the university and how she rose above the challenges and graduated.

The first night each young woman presented something to the group that represented her home and/or culture for “Cultural Night” which has become a Leadership Conference tradition. This night served to break the ice between the girls and increase their self-confidence.

The first full day focused on small business workshops: how to find funds and how to start and maintain a small business. These workshops were given by PCVs and Elvira Bravo, a successful business woman from Mindo. The girls also participated in two hands-on craft-making workshops where they learned how to make earrings and weave bracelets. PCVs from Anti-TIPs (a peace corps volunteer run-initiative that educates and works to prevent human trafficking) defined and presented the reality and risks of human trafficking in a dynamic workshop.

The evening activity was the showing of “Bend it Like Beckum”, an inspirational movie that highlights a young woman who overcomes many challenges in order to pursue her dream of playing soccer.

The second full day focused on sexual and reproductive health with workshops on: Sexuality and Affection in Adolescence, “Me and my Sexuality”, HIV/AIDS and a question and answer segment which allowed for the girls to ask questions without feeling self-conscious.

The last morning included a poster contest where the girls split into small groups and were given materials to make a poster representing the conference and what they learned. Each group presented and explained their poster. The contest was followed by an awards ceremony where each girl was presented with a certificate commemorating her achievement.

Interwoven through-out the conference were several activities to build self-esteem, inter-personal growth and team building.

1.) Each morning a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) led an optional aerobics class to promote healthy body images and get the girls motivated to start the day.

2.) The young women were given daily journal writing exercises to encourage self-expression and personal reflection.

3.) “Como dejar que mi propia luz brille”. In their small groups the girls each lit a candle as they shared what they learned at the conference that they would bring back to their communities.

4.) The bonfire on the last night was a very unifying event in which the girls wrote one thing they thought they could not do on a piece of paper and one by one each girl threw her piece of paper in the fire and said, “ I can”.

Overall, the conference was very successful in that the participants were exposed to new information and given the tools and increased self-esteem to put their knowledge into action in their communities.

Below are several of the many similar quotes from the participant’s evaluations:

“Si la veo distinta ya que con estos temas, hemos aprendido a valornos a nosotras mismas a los demas a toda la sociedad, estas temas nos han impulsado a seguir adelante.”

“Ahora primero me valora como persona tengo una Buena autoestima, mi manera de ver el futuro es major porque sea como sea voy a cumplir mis metas como la mujer de la provincial del cañar (Veronica Paucar)”

“Si, porque voy prepara para el futuro voy con mas fuerza a superar todas las adversidades que se me pueden presenter voy con las ganas, la fuerza, la Amistad, el Corazon y el recuerdo de lo que aprendi aqui”

Our community bank began in January 2009 with 20 members. The majority of those involved are active participants in our youth group while the remaining associates are parents and neighbors of said youth. Our community bank meets every Saturday night to update the group on the status of funds, give out loans, address issues, hold a weekly raffle and plan future fund raising events. As of March 2009 we have held two big events including a town bingo night and a raffle of foodstuff both of which (on top of our weekly raffle) were very successful in increasing our bank’s balance. For May we are planning a mother´s day raffle.

The community bank is an experiment for me as well as the youth group and we are learning how to do this as we go and while the peace corps manual has served as an instrumental and important guide it has been just that, a guide. I never thought I could start a community bank of all things. I am terrible with numbers and math but I really really believe in the project.

What is a community bank? A community bank is a group of committed people who pay a certain amount of money each week ( the amount is decided by each group in our case we pay $1.50) and the money paid is kept in a sturdy wooden box about the size of a basketball that has three locks with three keys. The group elects a board consisting of a president, secretary, treasurer and two auditors, three of these officers keep a key and the treasurer keeps the box so that in order to steal money a total of four people would have to conspire against the group. After a certain amount of time in our case three months the bank is ready to give small loans to members with the following stipulations: the loan is to be paid back within one month with 10% interest. The idea is that these small loans would be used towards micro-business plans etc but the member is not required to explain to the group the reason for the loan. In one month the loan is re-paid to the group with the 10% interest. The idea is that people keep taking loans to better their lives and the money made from the interest stays within the group so that when the bank liquidates ( as we plan to in one year) each member will receive back all of their weekly payments plus the interest. In order to increase the income a group may decide to fund raise for example we have done a raffle and a bingo night. All the profits are returned to the bank box and eventually to the members.

Many women in my village aren’t allowed to work because their husbands won’t let them but the community bank is a chance to earn a little extra cash and perhaps through a loan start a small business out of their home.

We gave out our first loans this past Saturday which is really exciting! I am nervous to see that everything gets paid back but I guess only time will tell.