Centro Explorativo

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Revision as of 21:05, 27 July 2007

Nourish International, Chapel Hill Summer 2007
Project Guatemala and Partner CES

Who is CES and why did we choose to partner with them?

Community Enterprising Solutions (cesolutions.org) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit started by two former US Peace Corps volunteers that served in Guatemala. Their methods and philosophy are highly congruent with Nourish International's values. They are exactly the type of organization that we want to partner with. They work to empower local Guatemalans and train them so that they can develop themselves. In essence they seek job creation and development of educational opportunities for the communities they partner with. One of their most successful project is Ixil Stoves which trains artesans to build cooking stoves that reduce the risk of pulmonary infection and household energy costs. It has sold over 200 stoves in the Ixil region of Guatemala benefiting over 1,000 locals with an initial investment of under $1,000.

What is our investment funding?

In 2007 Nourish International, Chapel Hill invested just over $10,000 in the construction of CES's "Exploration Center" in the village of La Pista, Quiche. The village is a former refugee camp that is 20km away from Nebaj, the nearest moderately-sized town. La Pista's 20,000 residents (includes other nearby smaller villages) are incredibly dependent on Nebaj for day to day life. The Exploration Center would house the first library in the area and it would be the first building with internet access. Both of these resources will serve in nourishing the community's intellectual and economic long-term development.

Preliminary budget

Local Volunteer Support/ Proj. Mgmt $750 Subtotal

$750

Building Construction $3,000 Books $1,500 Computers $1,500 Internet $600 Teacher Salary for One Year $2,080 Subtotal

$8,680

Greenhouse Construction $1,000 Seeds and Agricultural Materials $300 Subtotal

$1,300

TOTAL $10,730

The Exploration Center

Called "Centro Explorativo" in Spanish, the center believes that "The brain is not a glass waiting to be filled, but a lamp waiting to be lit" and its goals are:

• "To offer fun and productive after-school classes and activities so that children and youth can become better educated and improve their analytical skills and creative thinking."
• "To teach high-quality library and internet research skills"
• "To provide access to appropriate resource books and the internet so that children and youth can better conduct research and learn about the world around them"
• "To provide children and youth alike with access to fiction books in order to instill a love for reading"
• "To be an "educational incubator" of new ideas and concepts for schools and projects throughout the region, country and for other rural communities in the developing world"

The center will have desperately needed and wanted books, research materials, computers with internet access, as well as a local teacher and a greenhouse. The teacher will be a local from the area that is in addition trained by CES to provide computer literacy training for the community. The center will provide free after school activities led by the teachers open to children from 3 to 12 years old. It will also serve older youth in the community by providing the necessary research materials and space to complete successful school projects. The greenhouse that will be constructed on the premises, not too differently from last year's project in Argentina, will serve to boost the local economy and provide the necessary agricultural development and diversification that La Pista needs to start its own marketplace. Currently every resident in the area must walk the 20km needed to reach Nebaj in order to make their day to day purchases, CES believes that the Exploration Center is just what the community needs in order to develop its own market. The greenhouse's profits will also offset the monthly expenses of the center.

Why are we investing in this initiative

All of CES's initiatives are integrated. They have made it clear to us that every initiative is pushing along everything, so by supporting the center we are supporting everything else. However, this particular project has been a dream of CES for the past 3 years, especially since many of their employees in Nebaj are originally from La Pista. One such employee is graduating soon as a teacher and would be the perfect permanent staff of the center. In addition, CES has assured us that their other entrepreneurial initiatives are working at capacity. For this reason, Nourish's investment in the Centro Explorativo is exactly what they need at this time to continue their expansion in Guatemala.

More importantly, the Nourish team that will be volunteering in the summer will help create the infrastructure and be most effective in this project than anywhere else. Our mission states that "we believe in the immense intellectual capital of students' ability to make significant contributions to challenges facing poverty stricken populations," it has been made clear by our community partner that nowhere will our member's intellectual capital be more useful than in this project. It is for this reason that NI-CH has chosen to invest its time and resources in the establishment of an Exploration Center in La Pista, Quiche in the country of Guatemala.

Other important aspects of the project

• Nourish International expansion to Guatemala
• Research on the impact of NI's investment
• Research on the preparation for cultural immersion in NI members
• Academic development of NI members

NI is expanding to Guatemala?

We sure hope so. Carlos Toriello, NI-CH International Projects chair and Guatemalan, has been talking since winter break 2006-2007 to students at three of Guatemala City's universities, Universidad Rafael Landivar, Universidad del Valle and the Universidad Francisco Marroquin; with the intention of starting a Guatemala chapter of Nourish International. Currently the plans include at least one visit from Guatemalan university students. We are also investigating the possibility of having information sessions at each university after the completion of the project to have the opportunity to talk about NI directly to the university community. We believe this would be a great first step toward the establishment of our first international chapter.

What's this talk about research?

In order to gage NI's impact on poverty reduction it is necessary to conduct research on our investments. The research will analyze the impact of an Exploration Center in La Pista and therefore develop data on the impact that both CES and NI are having. CES has been interested in doing this in the past but lacks the time and resources to develop it on its own. They have expressed great interest in this idea and also have the professional experience needed by our students to conduct accurate and effective research. We also want to research how prepared our students are for the cultural immersion experience that a relief project represents in order to improve future experiences. Nourish International will have considerable gains from this research and will use the findings to improve our operations.

Did you say something about academics?

Indeed. Currently we are developing the necessary faculty relationships at UNC in order have an academic component accompany the experience. Dr. Altha Cravey from the Geography department has expressed interest in working with us to develop a syllabus that could represent 1 hour of academic course credit. Also, Linda Quiquivix, a doctoral student studying under Dr. Cravey (and also a Guatemalan), will be accompanying NI students on the project in order to have on-site assistance with the academic work. We hope that in this way our students will learn as much as possible about the reality of poverty in Guatemala and will understand enough about this reality to make meaningful connections to the community.

So...who can go?

In order to keep our personal impact on the community to a minimum, NI-CH has decided to send no more than 8 people this summer to Guatemala. We have asked our community partner to inform us about the type of activity the volunteering will take and also with a list of qualifications volunteers need in order to be effective in La Pista. This is what CES wrote:

Activities

   * Assist in construction
   * Design and assist in outreach/marketing campaigns
   * Assist in development of education materials
   * Development of games/instructional material for entrepreneurs and youth
   * Administrative, logistic and marketing strategies for greenhouse
   * Training in home gardening techniques
   * Design of webpage for Exploration Center Educational Annex in La Pista

Links

Other Projects