Dear friends, members and colleagues,
Our concentration on following up and finalizing our spring activities has made it difficult to find the time to update our blog, for which we apologize. Here is our report of activities during the months of April and May:
1. In the month of April one of our representatives had the pleasure of accompanying two parlamentarians of the Swedish Left Party to Guatemala, to assess the situation in that country in this year of elections. The trip provided the visitors with the opportunity to attend the inauguration of an "escuela abierta" (= "open school"). The "escuelas abiertas" function on weekends in order provide the young with activities that will keep them away from crime. Often, parents and grandparents eager for knowledge attend these schools as well. The "escuelas abiertas" are located in the poorest areas, which are the ones more at risk of fostering crime. The pictures above show a bit of the activities in this regard. The one on the left shows parlamentarians Amineh Kakabaveh and Ann-Margareth Livh in one of the classrooms of an "escuela abierta" in Puerto San José, Escuintla, in the south of Guatemala. The picture on the right shows our projects' coordinator, Dina Bern; Ing. Àlvaro Colom, president of the Republic of Guatemala and parlamentarians Kakabaveh and Livh during the inauguration of this particular "escuela abierta" in Puerto San José.
The parlamentarians also had the opportunity to meet Maya women in politics. In this third picture we see them with the governor of Sololá.
The visitors from Sweden were invited to observe the distribution of governmental bimonthly aid to mothers in San Martín Jilotepeque, Chimaltenango. The aid consists of Q600.oo (about 550 Sek) and an a bag of basic foods (sugar, oil, beans), to those that can demonstrate that their children have attended school and visited a public health clinic. The fourth picture (below) shows an image of this experience. Although we consider this a commendable program, we believe that it does not do enough to change the structure of power in Guatemala, which allows for the poverty, discrimination, impunity, corruption and crime that reigns in the country. Among other things, for real change to take place constitutional ammendments are required.
The parlamentarians also had the opportunity to meet Maya women in politics. In this third picture we see them with the governor of Sololá.
The visitors from Sweden were invited to observe the distribution of governmental bimonthly aid to mothers in San Martín Jilotepeque, Chimaltenango. The aid consists of Q600.oo (about 550 Sek) and an a bag of basic foods (sugar, oil, beans), to those that can demonstrate that their children have attended school and visited a public health clinic. The fourth picture (below) shows an image of this experience. Although we consider this a commendable program, we believe that it does not do enough to change the structure of power in Guatemala, which allows for the poverty, discrimination, impunity, corruption and crime that reigns in the country. Among other things, for real change to take place constitutional ammendments are required.
2. In the month of May we were hosts to five Guatemalan polticians and academics that participated in the seminar 'Guatemala, country at a crossroads' and which took place at the Parliament in Stockholm. The visitors were: Carla Sandoval, expert on international cooperation; Hugo Velasco, Maya Representative from San Juan Comalapa; Julio Mora, Deputy general Secretary of the political party Alternativa Nueva Nación (New Nation Alternative=ANN); Virgilio Álvarez, Dean of FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales=Latin American College of Social Sciences); and Julio Melgar, Director of the program for education and training of UNE's cadres (UNE=the official political party). We thank the organizers at the parliament, Amineh Kakabaveh of the Left Party and Bodil Ceballos of the Green Party for their support. We also thank Forum Syd for their financial support for this activity.
After the seminar we toasted the participants at the Guatemalan Embassy, where the picture below was taken. It shows, from left to right, our secretary Susan Shwan, Maya representative Hugo Velasco and our president Ann-Charlotte Trulsson.
The reader can find more information about the seminar at the following links:
www.suramericapress.com
http://www.kaosenlared.net/
http://www2.abi.bo/#
http://www.bolpress.com/art.
http://urngmaizvillanueva.
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND INTEREST!!
Best regards,
The Board of Directors
