Dos Pueblos: New York Tipitapa Sister Project

155 W. 72 Street, #402
New York, NY 10023
Tel: 917-776-4246
Fax: 212-531-1921
info@tipitapa.org

	*COMEDORES (Child Feeding Centers) AND PRESCHOOLS* There are feeding centers that feed over 200 children per day and provide preschool classes. All feeding centers provide pre-school education, public health screening, and opportunities for women (and men as well) to become involved in advocacy for their communities, and assistance to the entire family. Because of the organizing efforts of the women, the Ministry of Cultural Education and Sports (MECD) has provided some materials such as paper, pencils, markers, notebooks, and crayons. However, all centers will benefit by using the existing infrastructure to educate women on the impact of the air, soil, and water on the daily lives and future health of their families. The next few projects can be considered spin-offs or evidence of the success of the feeding centers—not simply to address issues of malnutrition, as important as that is, but as a means toward achieving self-sufficiency and empowerment of women. The chicken project, for example, will enable the supply of eggs at low cost to assure a nutritious diet for the children and at the same time given women a much needed means for support of their families. a. La Mascota was organized by a group of mothers in the rural community of San Benito Agrícola when the bank seized the decade-old rural cooperative in 1991. Without land or jobs, the mothers worked with the Sister City/ COMPALCIHT coordinator in Tipitapa to set up a program to feed 50 children a day and to engage mothers in the process—by contributing time to running the program. With the support of New England Biolabs these mothers began a planned self-sustaining, worm cultivation/fertilizer project that is in the early stages of success. b. Comedor Sandy, located in a city neighborhood nicknamed “El Basurero” (after the adjacent garbage dump), was started by a group of mothers whose hungry children developed skin rashes and communicable diseases while foraging in the dump and picking up pieces of plastic, metal and rotting/contaminated food. Initially operated out of the house of the organizer of the project, the comedor was allocated land by the municipal government, upon which a permanent feeding center was built by residents of the barrio. The comedor provides a healthy and nutritious alternative to discarded scraps for a minimum of 50 children. c. Comedor Infantil Niño Jesús began in cooperation with the local government in the community of Quebrada Honda—but the government did not provide an adequate diet or ongoing support. Its building collapsed during the 1999 rains and was reconstructed with donor funds and “sweat” equity in 2001, without government help. Dos Pueblos, while visiting this new feeding center, discovered that the children were playing in the effluence from a chemical factory. Mothers reported many had undiagnosed rashes, likely to have come from this standing water. This has stimulated the idea and importance of public health education that will be added with support from New England Biolabs Foundation. d. Comedor Dr. Evelyn Abrams Mauss, located in La Esperanza, began in late 2005 after the community organized to build a potable water system supported by her family in her honor. The dedication in early 2006 that was attended by her son Peter who presented a ceramic plaque by his sister Susan led to the development of a Parents Committee to work for a feeding center and in early 2007 a pre-school that serve up to 50 children a day. Funds are being raised for a building—as these two programs are presently located in someone’s back yard.

	LOMBRICULTURA (The Worm Cultura Fertilizar Project) This project began in 2003 with New England Biolabs Foundation’s agreement for COMPALCIHT to use $3,023 of its 2002 grant for seed money for a project of self-sufficiency for women. The worm project was implemented in the community of San Benito Agrícola with mothers that have children at COMPALCIHT’s La Mascota child feeding center. A university-based agronomist from the community trained five women in early December on the techniques. A young woman was appointed project leader and also became a member of the General Assembly of COMPALCIHT. She is also participating in the chicken project and has been very successful in the production of eggs and new poultry. We are seeking funds for the latter project—lombricultura has achieved its initial goals and continues to do well (we thank you!).

	LAS CRIANZAS DE GALLINAS DE PATIO (The Raising of Chickens in the Patio Project) A program was successfully piloted among a few women connected with the La Mascota Feeding Center in San Benito Agrícola. Dos Pueblos is seeking funding to support 50 vulnerable women “campesinas” and their families in Quebrada Honda in connection with the children’s feeding center Divino Niño Jesús. The model requires an initial purchase of 10 chickens and a rooster each. Once the women receive their allotment and successful raise offspring, they then turn over a rooster and 10 chickens to women in a next group that has been screened for interest and commitment. It is a pyramid scheme that works!

	LA FINCA SOLIDARIDAD (Model Farm) The achievements of this 35 acre farm include production of various food products, improvement of the irrigation system, and provision of food to the feeding programs described above.

	PROGRAM FOR STREET YOUTH The problem of youth at risk is enormous. With only one public school it is hard to even describe these children as dropouts. Rival gangs throughout the community have presented problems for everyone. Major success is notable—a reduction in violence in several communities and organizing youth to think about futures for themselves. When Dos Pueblos volunteers last visited in January-February 2004, we were amazed by the infrastructure the youth had created and their desire to become positive influences in the community. They have organized sports teams (rival gangs now compete on the soccer field); they are patrolling communities to assure safety for all. One example of their strength and dignity was when they asked to join us for our annual meeting with the Mayor. To watch them, with dignity, politely describe the problems in the community was breathtaking. The meeting resulted in a commitment of a soccer field and help with dealing with their police records that interfere with obtaining jobs. (We are certain we have met several future leaders). The groups—still with their gang names such as The Crazy Bats and The Little Bad Ones—meet and plan and organize for a better life. To see rival gangs together trying to get us to consider supporting their organizing efforts brought tears of joy, because in previous years we saw only despair, hostility, and hopelessness.

	POTABLE WATER Two communities organized themselves to seek help in bringing water to their homes; they each had to walk over a mile to obtain fill buckets. In both cases, COMPALCIHT carefully screened the leadership to be sure that the community would contribute labor and other resources—we raised the very modest amount of money needed to buy tubes and pipes while they secured government approval. La Esperanza (Hope) is a refugee community living along the Pan American Highway. To receive photos of 92 families digging ditches and running pipes is remarkable. To be invited to the dedication and to see the pride of the community is extraordinary.

	SOCIAL PHARMACY The Social Pharmacy was created because of the tremendous need for affordable medication. Funding was received by COMPALCIHT from a Guatemalan-based organization—ProSalud—that provides medications at cost. Residents bring their prescriptions to be filled at a modest cost. When we visited in early 2004, we were impressed by who came—the Red Cross, for example, brought a doctor’s prescription and purchased medication to bring to a high risk pregnant woman who could not leave her home. The volume has steadily increased and will, in fact, serve as a base for the new Environmental Health Promotion project described below. Hundreds of residents have benefited and COMPALCIHT is able to reinvest the revenue in the program.

	DR. EVELYN ABRAMS MAUSS ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION PROJECT In January 2003 a valued supporter of our project Dr. Evelyn Abrams Mauss died at the age of 86 while distributing leaflets for the first pre-Iraq peace demonstration in New York. Many of us had recently traveled with her to Tipitapa, Nicaragua, and never met a more energetic person! She was an extraordinary person—one of the first women Ph.D.s from Johns Hopkins University, she published widely including an article about childhood lead poisoning in the community just outside Tipitapa. She followed up with that study that changed the practices of a battery factory that was poisoning the children. Soon after her death, her husband discussed the possibility of an environmental health promotion project using the model of health promoters—community residents who would teach and educate others about conditions in the environment, public health prevention methods, use of the “botiquines” which are community medicine boxes, and implement programs in their community. We submitted a proposal to the United Nations One Percent Fund—and combined with funds raised by the Mauss family this project has begun. Dr. Irving Mauss, a retired chief of pediatrics at a local university hospital, has now, at age 90, become as an active member of the Board as Evelyn was. He has involved his family and friends—his daughter-in-law, for example, is eager to go with us in January 2005 to visit the people of Tipitapa and observe the various projects we admire so. The project has completed the first stage of health promoter training that involves between 40 and 50 women and youth to provide public health education and promotion in the communities of Quebrada Honda, San Benito Agrícola, and Orontes Centeno.

	THE RAISING OF PIGS PROJECT Begun in the spring of 2007 and funded by the Blossom Fund, this project is aimed at self-sustainability of the feeding centers by raising and selling pigs in the market place.

	THE COMPUTER SCHOOL FOR YOUTH AT RISK Funded initially with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation that provided computers and the Weyerhaeuser Foundation that provided technical training support, the school has graduated over 200 youth and young adults. It is fully-licensed and is presently in contract with the national government to provide to workers in commercial, non-profit and government agencies. The school has had a major impact on the community—as families visit the COMPALCIHT office and work on organizing to improve conditions in their barrios.

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Dos Pueblos is a registered 501 (c) 3 organization. Cash & in-kind contributions are tax-deductible. IRS Form 990 is available at www.guidestar.org or by email request to info@tipitapa.org.