November 2001 Newsletter

Co-partners of Campesinas 901 Second Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 703-548-6713

E-mail: heinzen@ erols.com www.copartners.org

Co-partners of Campesinas is a US based 501(a) tax-exempt organization that supports New Hope and other associations working for women’s education and empowerment in developing countries in Latin America. New Hope (La Nueva Esperanza in Spanish) is an organization of sixty rural girls and women from five impoverished communities near Ilobasco, El Salvador, who meet twice a month to learn income producing skills and advance the education of members and their children. To attend meetings members may walk for several hours or travel by pick-up truck.

A Home of One’s Own

Throughout its nine-year history La Nueva Esperanza (LNE) has met on Saturday mornings in a large, multi-purpose room borrowed from the Parroquia San Miguel. The room is also used for youth groups, musical groups, religious instruction, and other activities. La Nueva Esperanza protects materials in large wooden cabinets, but tables are located in another part of the building and two sewing machines in a storeroom. Setting up classes requires moving tables and sewing machines across a long courtyard before class and returning them afterwards. As seen in the picture below, conditions are crowded and not optimal for learning.

Crowded Conditions in Classes

Members dream of the convenience of their own location and group leaders have worked with city fathers for several years to find rent-free (!) space. In 2000 San Miguel Parish offered LNE a building that had been a former chicken farm on the outskirts of town, but beggars will be choosers and the women voted to turn down the site because it would have required an additional half-hour walk for some members. This year LNE volunteers and officers again made the rounds of church and community leaders and were offered a building with a dream location, close to the center of town. This is not to say that everything about the building is perfect. The roof needed repairs estimated to cost over $1,000. LNE president Rosa Flores organized a spouse workday and the roof was repaired for the cost of a good lunch.

Water, toilets, and additional lighting still have to be installed and furniture purchased. These undertakings will represent a huge expansion of responsibility for LNE leadership and an exciting potential expansion of the training and education program.

Old Computers Sought

The new location, on a five-year loan, will make possible a significant expansion of the dressmaking/tailoring program because there will be space for permanently located sewing machines.

Elementary computer classes, equipped with used computers from the U. S. will be added to the training program for younger members and scholarship students. One computer is already in El Salvador waiting to be installed. The computer training will be an incredible opening for rural, female scholarship students whose only work opportunity is usually as a domestic servant.

Co-partners board members are collecting computers from east-coast locations. If you know of a give-away computer on the Atlantic Seaboard, please call Archer Heinzen (703-548-6713) or Donna Breslin (202-543-0773). We’ll be by to pick it up.

LNE Scholarship Students

Long-term Plans for the Center

It is hoped that the new center can also be used as a hostel for rural students. Country schools run only through forth or sixth grade and the education of most rural residents ends there. Students lucky enough to have a relative in Ilobasco and parents willing to support the cost of further education may be able to continue, but they are almost always limited to attending an “accelerated” weekend school. No matter how valiant the attempt, a five-day education cannot be crammed into two half-days and the education available to rural students is vastly inferior to that received by their urban peers. If a hostel could be established, rural youth would have the opportunity to attend the regular, weekday high school and have far superior work opportunities after graduation.

New Board Members for Co-partners

Three new members have been elected to the Co-partners board: Donna Breslin, Jeannette Rodriguez Alemán, and Jim Heinzen. Donna was one of the first contributors to LNE and has been a Co-partners volunteer as the designer of the web-site. Jeannette is a native Salvadoran who is now the administrator of the Multi-cultural Clinical Center, a counseling center that provides culturally and linguistically appropriate counseling to individuals and families new to the Washington area. Jim Heinzen has been a long-term Co-partners volunteer. A warm welcome to Donna, Jeanette, and Jim and many thanks to former board members Julia Gonzalez, Glynne Leonard, and Phoebe Lansdale for their support during the last four years.

When was the last time you looked at the web site???

Co-partners of Campesinas Board of Directors

Chairperson: Archer Heinzen, Alexandria, VA

Secretary/Treas.:

Gloria Martel, San Salvador, El Salvador

Rosa Irma Mendoza, San Salvador, El Salvador

Teresa Rodriguez de Sarroca, Angola

Donna Breslin, Washington, D.C.

Jeannette Rodriguez Alemán, Annandale, Virginia

La Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) Board of Directors

President: Rosa Flores

Vice President: Elisa Mercado

Secretary: Gloribel Flores

Treasurer: Edwina Peña