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FUSANMIDJ
Latin America & the Caribbean
FUSANMIDJ
Project Overview:
FUSANMIDJ (Armenia, EL SALVADOR), named for the four American churchwomen martyred in El Salvador in 1980, is a community project that works on issues of education, healthcare, public sanitation, and income generating activities for local people.
One example of a successful effort in Armenia was organized by youth from the area, who wrote a letter to the Salvadoran Minister of Education requesting the construction of a school for the youth of the community. The minister responded, and constructed the school and provided a budget for teachers and materials as well. All youth in the community are able to attend the school free of cost.
IPM supports a joint micro-enterprise initiative started by FUSANMIDJ, serving the communities of San Juan and Valle Nuevo. In San Juan, community members are seeking funds to purchase a corn grinder, which they would then charge a small fee for community members to use, as an income generating activity. This serves both the members, as they would receive rental income from the grinder, and the broader community, who currently has to travel to Armenia to use the corn grinder there. Women in Valle Nuevo would then use the flour produced by the grinder to make baked goods, which they would sell at a small bakery cooperative in the community.
Recent Accomplishments:
This project is very authentic and is the only one in this community. This women's cooperative provides income for families and strengthens the social structure of the community.
Number of People Directly Served by Project:
18 women and their families are directly served by the cooperative.
Number of People Indirectly Served by Project:
112 families of 560 people will benefit by the existence of this cooperative.
Goals for 2010:
* Our goal is to set up a grainer to be administrated by the community.
* As the grainer supports the commuinty it will also become self sustainable by the income it produces.
* Educate the community to become active in their own welfare and struggle for rights.
Community Impact:
FUSANMIDJ supports the small town of San Juan with an income generating project that benefits the community both financially and socially. San Juan is a small community of 117 families on the outskirts of Armenia that does not have running water, electricity or any public transportation. It was the wish of the community members to have a corn grinder within their town, and their wish has come true with the support of IPM and FUSANMIDJ. Corn makes up a large part of the Salvadoran diet in the form of tortillas and other products made from corn dough. A grinder is highly beneficial in Salvadoran communities as it provides women and children relief from performing the labor-intensive process of manually grating the corn into flour.
As an umbrella organization, FUSANMIDJ supports many different community organizations that work to improve the living conditions of their neighborhoods. A women’s co-operative in San Juan named ACAPAMU, is one the organizations that FUSANMIDJ supports and they are the ones that worked hard in order to bring the corn grinder to San Juan. Concepción, Arely, Telma, and Ada are four of the seven women from ACAPAMU who do the day to day administration and maintenance of the corn grinder. Much groundwork had to be done before the grinder was brought to the community. They needed to construct a building to house the corn grinder and bring electricity to the building in order to run it. Bringing electricity to the area involved writing letters to the electric company. Since they are a marginalized community, the electric company had no incentive to provide service to them without pressure from the community. Fortunately, they succeeded with both these steps and eventually installed the corn grinder. Now, the grinder proudly maintained by ACAPAMU has begun to improve the quality of life for the community members of San Juan.
The installation of the corn grinder has provided many benefits to San Juan as well as other surrounding communities. Before the corn grinder arrived, the women and children of San Juan and nearby communities made a dangerous trek to Armenia to grind their corn. Armenia is about an hour’s walk from San Juan, and it was dangerous because it involved crossing a highway. Now that there is a corn grinder in their area, they no longer have to make that journey. The grinder is also beneficial to San Juan because of the extra income it provides. They charge a small fee for the use of it, and since their grinder is more convenient for surrounding communities, people from those communities use it as well as the people of San Juan. This means that ACAPAMU is bringing income to the community from outside sources, which is a positive step towards the development of San Juan. This is good new for the women of ACAPAMU since the main goal of the co-operative is the overall development of the community. Previous to the grinder they succeeded in installing a well, or “pozo” and their successes have only spurred them to think of other ways to develop the community further. In Ada’s words, “The projects that we have done for our community are the legacy that we want to leave for our sons and daughters. This grinder represents not only an improvement for our families’ finances through the income that we make, but also in the education and the development of our children. It’s our goal that in the future we can have a more prosperous community with basic services and employment opportunities.” Their next challenges are to install two more grinders to meet the demand of the community and to start a bakery.
On a more personal level, the women of ACAPAMU have benefited greatly from the installation of the grinder both economically and socially. Before the grinder, the women contributed to their families’ incomes by working as maids or selling crops in Armenia, but the work was always temporary, low-paying, and meant traveling to Armenia. Now, members of the co-op each receive $5 - $6 a day, which amounts to about $150 monthly, and it is steady work, right in their community. Working as a maid or selling crops would earn them around $75-85 monthly. Concepción, Arely, Telma, and Ada spoke of the differences the extra income has meant for their families. They use it for buying more food for their families, school supplies for the children, and medicine. Socially and intellectually, the women are grateful for the skills they have learned through the process of obtaining and now maintaining the grinder. They have learned important community organizing skills necessary for mobilizing their community and lobbying authorities such as letter writing, and holding and running meetings.
Operating the grinder, they have learned important administrative skills such as keeping keep track of income and expenses and ensuring the grinder is in good running order. These are skills they never would have imagined learning as they grew up in a Salvadoran society which still tends to be male-dominated. Women in the society are still expected to stick to raising the children and taking care of the home. The women of ACAPAMU are doing much more than that. The women are rightly proud of their accomplishments at both the personal and community levels and look forward to the future as they take on more projects for the community.
How your donation may be put to use:
Your money will be used to build a room fro the grainer and to purchase the grainer.