For returnees to El Salvador, culinary training marks new beginning

March 20, 2018

By Gerson Lara

4 min read

William Morales, 28, is one of more than an estimated 26,000 Salvadoran migrants who were returned to the country in 2017. Like many returnees, Morales struggled with employment when he arrived back in El Salvador.

But luckily, he found a path forward – through cooking.

Morales is one of 30 Salvadoran returnees ages 18 to 30 who completed a six-month program through Gastromotiva, a Brazil-based organization that uses culinary training and education to empower at-risk individuals. The Gastromotiva program in El Salvador was supported by a partnership between the World Food Programme and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Crime and Violence Prevention Project, which is implemented by Creative Associates International.

Between August 2017 and January 2018, Morales and his classmates studied culinary arts and gained work experience at local hotels and restaurants. Morales says that when he began, he was afraid of burning himself on the stove. Now, he’s at ease in the kitchen.

“This project has opened the doors to a new world. I didn’t know anything about cooking,” he says. “But I really discovered a new talent and new knowledge that I can apply to my life, and also learned how to live healthier and contribute to the development of my country.”

30 young Salvadorans recently graduated from the Gastromotiva program. — William Morales (center) and 29 other young Salvadorans recently graduated from the Gastromotiva program. Photo by Gerson Lara.

A pathway to steady employment

After completing the hands-on training, some students were able to find full-time employment where they can put their new skills to use and earn a steady income.

Morales has begun working at a local cafe that allows him a flexible schedule so he can also attend university classes for part of the day and pursue a degree in English.

“Without this program, I might still be unemployed. But thanks to them I have started a new stage in my life,” he says. “My life really has changed, because I can see that gastronomy can allow me to support myself and my home and to contribute to society.”

Gastromotiva graduate Tatiana López says before she began the program, she wasn’t working or going to school. Now, she too has a full-time job and is furthering her education at university.

“Sometimes young people think that they don’t have opportunities, that they can’t get a job, that they can’t continue their education,” López says. “I would highly recommend this program to them, because it has really helped us greatly, through both information and support. It has really helped us and our families economically.”

Both López and Morales say that while they learned how to be better cooks, they were also learning how to make better decisions for their own lives.

“My experience with this project was great, because they taught us a lot about culinary arts. But I can also say they really helped us in learning about human values, about becoming good citizens,” Morales says.

Young Salvadoran girl learning to cook. — The El Salvador Crime and Violence Prevention Program has reached hundreds of young people with culinary trainings. Photo by David Piraval.

Tapping into opportunities at home

The El Salvador Crime and Violence Prevention Project works to build more secure communities and lower the risk factors and build resiliency of youth who have the highest likelihood of engaging with criminal activity. The project has established more than 160 youth Outreach Centers across the country, connected high-risk youth with family counseling and worked with dozens of municipalities to help them engage with citizens and reduce crime and violence.

Culinary training is not new to the project – more than 1,300 people have completed cooking courses through various culinary courses in 17 municipalities. But project Chief of Party Javier Calvo says this course’s emphasis on returnees gives more focused attention to a particularly vulnerable group and is building the program’s knowledge about the links between returnees and violence and how targeted prevention activities work.

“Violence is deeply interwoven into social networks in El Salvador, and we need to understand how employment, life skills and social bonds for returnees can lay the groundwork for improved resilience and violence reduction efforts,” he says. “Our hope is that this initiative, by empowering returnees with job and soft skills, will enable them to contribute positively to their communities and reduce risk factors.”

Morales and López can now serve as examples of young people who have persevered through a challenging situation and are on a path to financial stability and self-reliance. For Morales, it has opened his eyes to the potential to find success within his own community.

“Sometimes you make bad choices and decide to migrate for one reason or another outside of the country to look for new opportunities,” he says. “But really, there are opportunities within the country, you just have to take advantage of them.”

With editing by Evelyn Rupert.

Honduras: Seeds of hope – Aiding farmers in the Dry Corridor

February 6, 2018

1 min read

Juan and Miriam are smallholder farmers in Honduras’ Dry Corridor, where prolonged drought make it difficult to sustain their crops year-round. With support from a program called the Dry Corridor Alliance – PROSASUR, Juan and Miriam have been introduced to water harvesting systems, irrigation and other tools and practices that will help them be more resilient in the face of climate extremes and other challenges.

Tipping the scales: Combating childhood malnutrition in the Dry Corridor

February 5, 2018

1 min read

Children in the Dry Corridor region of Honduras are at increased risk of malnutrition due to the food insecurity associated with extreme climate. A project known as the Dry Corridor Alliance – PROSASUR is working with community volunteers to keep babies healthy and empower their mothers with knowledge to support their nutrition.

Growing up strong in a food insecure region

February 5, 2018

By Jillian Slutzker

7 min read

A dozen squirming babies and their young mothers are lined up outside of Petronila Carcamo’s home in Chaguiton, a small rural town in the southern Dry Corridor of Honduras. Today is weigh day.

The mothers huddle together holding their babies and chatting as they wait for their chance to see if their children are growing at a healthy rate. One by one, they hand over their babies to Carcamo, who gently places them in a swing hung over a tree branch that functions as a scale.

“Congratulations! Your baby is growing and is at a normal weight,” she calls out along with the number on the scale for the babies on track. Their height is also recorded before being handed back to their mothers.

Petronila Carcamo counselor weighing baby. — At her home, Petronila Carcamo sets up a makeshift clinic once a month to weigh and measure the babies in her neighborhood and help to provide nutrition counseling to their mothers. Photo by Skip Brown.

For those underweight or falling behind in height, an on-site nutrition counselor provides advice that can mean the difference between thriving and malnutrition. On this day, only one baby and mother need to visit the counselor- a sign that, for many, the monthly visits are resulting in changes at home and healthier babies.

Carcamo, a mother herself of a 2-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son, turns her front yard into a pop-up clinic once a month for the 42 kids in her neighborhood who are younger than two years old. In between growth check-ins like this, she visits the families to make sure their youngest members are staying healthy.

As a volunteer nutrition monitor, she is a critical part of a project known as the Dry Corridor Alliance – PROSASUR, an acronym that roughly stands for “Promoting Food Security in the South” in Spanish.

Petronila’s daughter Emily (pictured above with Petronila). — Petronila’s daughter Emily (pictured above with Petronila) takes part in the program her mother helps to support. Photo by Skip Brown.

Operating in 12 municipalities in the southern departments of Choluteca and El Paraíso, the project is implemented by Creative Associates International in partnership with the Honduras Strategic Investment Office, Invest-H. It is one piece of the larger Dry Corridor Alliance and receives funding from the World Bank through the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program.

Carcamo has a busy role with a big responsibility, but one that she knows is important for her community.

“I decided to do it because you have to take advantage of projects like this. Because of this project, they’re practicing things that they’ve never done before. We can see when children are gaining or losing weight,” she says.

Fighting malnutrition in first 1,000 days of life

Children in the Dry Corridor region of Honduras – so-called because of its intense rainy season interrupted by long periods of drought due to climate change – are at increased risk of malnutrition due to the food insecurity associated with extreme climate.

According to the World Bank, 58 percent of children younger than age five in the Dry Corridor suffer from chronic malnutrition, characterized as underweight, with stunted growth, and with micronutrient malnutrition. These problems early in life can have permanent consequences, explains Ninoska Bulnes, a medical doctor and the nutrition and health component lead for the project.

“Their growth directly indicates their cognitive development, which has to do with abstract thinking and all of the skills that the baby needs from preschool to adolescence,” she says. “Everything that happens in those first 1,000 days indicates their quality of life. The more malnutrition we have, then it is a population with a much higher incidence of chronic illnesses.”

By intervening early, the project aims to prevent these problems. It works with 3,000 households with children age five and younger, including 3,750 kids under two, as well as with pregnant women. On the front lines are trained community nutrition monitors like Carcamo who are the first to detect the signs of malnutrition and refer families and children for more intensive counseling and support.

A goal of the effort is to diversify diets to provide key nutrients to growing minds and bodies, but this can be difficult in an area plagued by poverty and unpredictable harvests. Nutritious foods can be hard to come by and expensive.

“Keeping in mind that these are families that find themselves in extreme poverty, one of the biggest challenges is diversity of diet and behavioral change,” says Bulnes. “The nutrients that we’re most looking for are those than substitute or contribute to improving iron deficiency, which is connected to development, especially in children’s brains and intelligence. Cheese products and proteins are essential for growth.”

Through initiatives like counseling on dietary guidelines, feeding practices, food safety and sanitation, and establishing small gardens, the project works with families to overcome those barriers.

Though only six months into the project, parents are already seeing progress in their children, including Karen Oneyda Cruz, whose son Branden is one of the children Carcamo supports.

“Last month I brought my son to be weighed, and he lost weight. Now in this month, he gained weight. I think it’s good to bring them for weighing because that way you see the change,” she says.

Karen Oneyda Cruz (far left) with other mothers. — Karen Oneyda Cruz (far left) brings her young son and daughter monthly to Petronila’s house and says she is following the advice of nutrition counselors and sees the results in her son. Photo by Skip Brown.

Tackling health holistically: Water, sanitation and nutrition

In the Dry Corridor, nutrition problems are compounded and interconnected with others—including a lack of clean water, dirt floors, and unsafe cook stoves to name a few. Nutrition counseling and support alone can only go so far, explains Bulnes. For example, a healthy diet can’t protect you against water-borne diseases or worms, a common problem when children eat and play on dirt floors.

“We describe a healthy home as one that has an improved floor, that has a stove, that has water harvesting, roof improvements, etc. That’s what the project purports as well- achieving a healthy home, but at the same time the people have the knowledge and put in place key practices that assure their improvement of the health and hygiene within the home.,” she explains.

Heyli Cano and her children. — With project support, Heyli Cano and her children will receive updates to improve sanitation in their home, including a paved floor and a clean cook stove. Photo by Skip Brown.

For this reason, the project pairs nutrition support with small home improvement projects like paving floors, installing latrines and more efficient stoves, and constructing rainwater harvesting systems to collect and store the most valuable commodity in the region for use in the household and fields during the long stretch of drought.

“We’re not only talking about telling a mom that it’s important to wash her children’s hands and how to wash their hands,” says Bulnes. “If they don’t have a faucet, if they don’t have a water harvesting system, they don’t have the instruments that will help them adopt the practice.”

The project expects to improve 2,000 households with these projects and, in the process, raise the health of thousands of the region’s children.

Carcamo’s family will be getting a paved floor, a water filter and a clean cook stove. Cruz is due to receive a new floor, water filter and latrine.

“I think that it will help my children so they don’t get sick, they grow, and what I wish for them will come true,” says Cruz.

A community at work

With a problem as widespread as malnutrition, the solution requires input from the entire community.

“We need participation of citizens, of local authorities, household members, health volunteers and promoters in the monitoring of nutrition and growth of each of these children, and obviously to provide them access to health services when we detect a problem through our monitoring,” says Bulnes.

Community volunteers and the program’s promoters. — The program is succeeding at keeping children healthy in large part due to the dedication of community volunteers and the program’s promoters who support them, like Olman Orriel Aplicano (center). Photo by Skip Brown.

In addition to local monitors like Carcamo, the project relies on a network of other volunteers who reinforce the nutrition messages to their neighbors and help them stay on track, as well as key staff known as promoters, who serve as a support system to the volunteers.

The promoters make regular visits to the communities, helping out on weigh day, motivating families and making sure they have the knowledge and services they need.

Nutrition Promoter Olman Orriel Aplicano says that it is rewarding work and it is also critical to the region he calls home.

“It’s beautiful when the child reaches that expected weight. “My hopes and vision are that we improve conditions. My goal is that there are not children in the state of malnutrition; that they grow well and with a strong mind so that when they go to school they can learn well.”

He adds, “If we want that child to have a future, we have to watch over their present.”

With reporting from Honduras by Evelyn Rupert and Amalia San Martin.

Ask the Experts: The rule of law in Latin America

February 1, 2018

By Jenny Murphy

5 min read

Insights from Don Chisholm, Director of the Justice and Citizen Security Office at USAID Mexico.

The rule of law can be easily shaken when the justice sector is unable to deliver services, when criminal groups wield political influence, when citizen security is threatened or when corruption undermines governments.

Many countries struggle when these issues compound and feed into one another, causing an overall deterioration in the rule of law.

For example, facing low marks in criminal justice, constraints on government powers, corruption and other factors, Venezuela ranks the last of the 113 countries surveyed in the World Justice Project’s 2017-2018 Rule of Law Index.

Region-wide, 16 of the 30 indexed countries Latin America and the Caribbean fall in the bottom 50 percent globally. The factors across which Latin American and Caribbean countries struggle most include order and security, criminal justice and civil justice.

To talk more in-depth about the unique rule of law challenges facing Latin America and the Caribbean, I spoke with Don Chisholm, Director of the Justice and Citizen Security Office at the U.S. Agency for International Development in Mexico.

The following are excerpts of our exchange, the second part in a series of interviews with fellow rule of law experts and practitioners. To read the first part, an interview with Hamid Khan, Deputy Director of the Rule of Law Collaborative at the University of South Carolina, click here. To learn more about Creative’s Rule of Law work, click here.

Murphy: For a number of years, USAID, bilateral and multilateral donors have discussed rule of law trends. What do you see as trends of rule of law in Latin America?

Chisholm: I see the most important rule of law trend in Latin America being how to address impunity. The criminal justice reforms that swept through Latin America 20 to 25 years ago were mainly an expression of the increasing concern for human rights in the region. However, with the growing criminality over the last 15 years, the inability of the justice sector to deal with it, and the higher expectations of the citizens, impunity has become the foremost concern, and how to deal with it the most urgent need of the justice sector.

Murphy: How do these trends impact the design of programs moving forward?

Chisholm: It has several impacts. The term impunity needs to be defined and this requires a lot of input from many sides – from the host country, from NGOs, and from international partners. We should have programs that are specifically built to help our counterparts address impunity, while, of course, ensuring that they don’t roll over due process guarantees. Also, more than ever before, we need to look beyond our government counterparts and seek out other stakeholders who suffer from impunity or otherwise are eager to contribute; whether civil society, the private sector, academia or political parties.

Murphy: What is the role of justice service delivery toward rule of law development?

Chisholm: Sometimes, we think of impunity and the effectiveness of the justice sector only in terms of grand corruption, homicides, femicides, disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and other crimes that shock the conscience. However, far more important to citizens in their daily lives may be lower-level pervasive crime, such as simple assaults and robberies. In many cases, if the justice sector can’t deliver on addressing these quality-of-life crimes, it will take a significant toll on its legitimacy and, ultimately citizen perception of the strength of the rule of law.

Murphy: Why is understanding local culture so important for rule of law development?

Chisholm: Without understanding the local culture and dynamics, we fall into the trap of trying to impose models that have worked elsewhere. We have seen this at times in Latin America. An example would be the use of plea bargaining, a tool which is widely used in the U.S. and an essential part of the functioning of our justice system. However, given the history and presence of corruption in the justice sector in Latin America, the idea of prosecutors and public defenders reaching agreements (as opposed to fully litigating cases) raises a lot of concerns about fundamental fairness for citizens.

Obviously, what works in the U.S. may not work elsewhere. USAID and its implementing partners, both loaded with local expertise, are ideally positioned to ensure that local culture and dynamics are an inherent part of our rule of law programming. Our intimate knowledge of the local political dynamics, culture, and history allows us to operate successfully in what is essentially a political field.

Murphy: How do rule of law and crime and violence prevention overlap?

Chisholm: I think the biggest point of overlap between the two is in the area of juvenile justice. For instance, where countries have effective juvenile justice systems, young offenders are sent to jail. If they have access to cognitive behavioral therapy and vocational training while in jail – the hallmarks of crime and violence prevention programs – studies have shown that they’re far less likely to commit crimes once they’re out of jail. So functioning together effectively, the rule of law and crime and violence prevention mechanisms can pull youth criminals off of the streets and then make it far less likely they’ll continue being criminals.

Murphy: What can government and civil society groups do to support rule of law in challenging environments?

Chisholm: This question acknowledges the limits of being able to promote the rule of law where, for instance, government and civil society actors are in danger because of their efforts. This was the context I saw on a trip to a Western African country almost 10 years ago. Given the violence between different competing groups in that country, no prosecutors wanted to tackle sensitive cases that went to the core of this violence. However, I noticed after sitting in a day of hearings in the criminal courts that the justice sector was effectively dealing with intra-family violence cases. It made sense – none of these cases touched upon the interests of the elite.

The lesson learned for me was that we should look for opportunities to support the government and civil society in challenging environments wherever they can work, even if it doesn’t seem like it will immediately have a significant impact. Small, incremental improvements are an important piece of the puzzle to generate larger-scale sustainable impact.

Murphy: What do you predict will be the biggest challenge to rule of law development around the globe in the next three to five years?

Chisholm: The independence of justice sector institutions is critical for the success of justice systems that can investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate crimes against anyone, regardless of their wealth, power, or position. Justice systems throughout the world struggle to carve out and maintain this independence.

In many places in Latin America, the penetration of justice sector institutions by organized crime or the sway held over these institutions by the political elite make independence difficult. Given the fragility of these institutions and the growing lack of confidence in them by citizens, I think efforts to build or retain this independence will be even more difficult and will need sustained engagement of civil society and private sector actors.

Improving health one home at a time in Honduras’ Dry Corridor

January 29, 2018

7 min read

For Dayra Escalante and Olman Aplícano, the drive to the remote community of El Llano isn’t easy. They ride motorbikes more than an hour outside the city of Choluteca over a pothole-ridden highway and narrow, rocky roads.

Arriving in baseball caps and blue jeans, they park their bikes and walk to the shade of a sprawling tree to address a small crowd of women who have gathered with their young children.

The pair are in this patch of Honduras’ Dry Corridor region to assist in measuring the children’s height and weight and to help educate the families on keeping their kids healthy.

“We know that the weighing happens monthly. And how often do we measure height, does anyone remember?” Aplícano asks the semi-circle of women seated on plastic chairs and wooden benches.

A handful of mothers call out the answer: “Every four months.”

After explaining the process, Aplícano and Escalante lend a hand recording data as each woman brings her child first to a scale hanging from the tree and then to a height measuring board resting on a small table.

Aplícano and Escalante are “promoters” working with a project called Dry Corridor Alliance (ACS) – PROSASUR. The project is funded by the World Bank through the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program and is implemented by Creative Associates International in partnership with INVEST-Honduras.

ACS-PROSASUR aims to reduce chronic childhood malnutrition, which is prevalent in the Dry Corridor due in part to food and water insecurity, poverty and lack of access to medical care.

The project provides food security planning, health education and support for household works to improve sanitation and hygiene.

Olman Aplícano (far left), monitors and staff measure the height of a child. Photos by Skip Brown.

As promoters, Aplícano and Escalante’s job is to keep the communities informed and engaged with the project and oversee interventions, such as the height and weight monitoring, which is followed by counseling for parents whose children are not reaching their expected measurements based on age. They collect valuable data on not only children’s growth, but also household conditions, poverty and the needs of a community.

Escalante says that after they begin building local awareness and trust – which includes identifying leaders and convening a public meeting – the project is able to make inroads into even isolated communities that can be wary of outsiders.

“Once we’re there, once we do the community assembly, the families always have their doors open to receive us. Sometimes we don’t even need to plan visits, we just arrive impromptu to see how they are,” she says. “We always refresh their minds on what the project is and always socialize what the project expects from them and what we’re going to provide in terms of basic sanitation.”

Promoters like Escalante and Aplícano are vital in ACS-PROSASUR’s efforts to reduce childhood malnutrition, diversify diets and improve health for poor and extreme poor families.

Dr. Ninoska Bulnes, Director of the project’s health and hygiene component, says she depends on the promoters to work at the local level to get to know families personally and be a connection between remote areas and the office in Choluteca.

“These community agents are like the social fabric that works around the community. It’s a human platform and promoters really promote behavioral change, they motivate the households,” she says. “For us, it’s fundamental.”

Dayra Escalante (far left) helps monitors track height and weight measurements.

Community leaders step up

While Aplícano and Escalante are constantly on the road traveling to different municipalities, they have some built-in support in each. The promoters rely on leaders who live in the communities to help with activities and continuously spread the word about nutrition and hygiene.

In El Llano, Isabel Betancourt talks with mothers and helps them seat their children in the hanging scale, reading their weight aloud for others to write down. Isabel was elected as one of five “monitors” by her neighbors at a community assembly.

Monitors preside over the monthly measuring of children in the community and help ensure that families attend the sessions in order to accurately track children’s growth. Often the monitors themselves will benefit from the project, whether through nutrition counseling or household improvements.

Betancourt says that preparing for the monthly reunions and convening the families on the sixth of every month is a lot of work, but it’s worth it to see mothers better understanding what their children need to stay healthy.

“It’s a big responsibility, but I want to see the development of my community and of the children,” Betancourt says. “That’s why I felt committed when they elected me in the first meeting that we had. I accepted because I’ve always liked to work for the community.”

Aplícano explains that the collaboration between the promoters on the project side and the monitors within the communities together ensure that mothers can better understand how their children are growing and make changes at home if necessary.

“The mothers never realized how their children were growing, so we did visits with them. I have visited mothers alongside the monitors to check up on the families and give some advice about improving the health and hygiene conditions for a child,” he says. “For example, in cases of diarrhea, how do we treat it? Chlorinating, boiling the water, washing the child’s hands each time he eats and always keeping the house clean.”

Monitor Isabel Betancourt (right) weighs a young child on a hanging scale.

Youth serve their neighbors

While respected community-based leaders like Betancourt are a major asset to their communities and ACS-PROSASUR, the project is also focused on engaging the next generation.

Jairo Carranza, 17, is bouncing a baby on his lap, chatting with some of the women. He lives right next door to the meeting point for weighing and measuring, and is the only man present aside from project staff.

Carranza and Cynthia Suyapa Cruz, 22, were nominated by the community to be youth volunteers and will assist with promoting good sanitation and hygiene.

Both say that they hope to give back to their community and help nearby families improve the conditions in their homes.

“That’s why they elected us as youth volunteers, because we’ll be at the service of the community and we are from the community,” Suyapa says. “To benefit the community, to help them. Not only with weight but with hygiene, so that there aren’t as many illnesses and the children live well.”

Across the municipalities, ACS-PROSASUR will help families make improvements to their households, focusing primarily on replacing dirt floors with concrete, installing or improving latrines, upgrading wood-burning and inefficient stoves and putting water filters in place. Other undertakings may include fixing roofs and setting up water harvesting systems.

Without these changes, families and particularly young children are more susceptible to sickness – from unfiltered water, bacteria and smoke inhalation. Diarrhea and pneumonia are common problems that can hinder a child’s growth.

“What we’re looking to do is help the community, so they have better protection with hygiene,” Carranza says. “We want to see changes in the homes, even in our own. If someone doesn’t have water in the latrine, you have to help. Same if someone doesn’t have a floor. That’s what we’re looking for, to work as a team.”

Jairo Carranza, a youth volunteer in El Llano, will support his neighbors in improving household sanitation for their children.

Carranza, Suyapa and other youth across the Dry Corridor project will receive trainings on sanitation and hygiene and become a resource for their communities. Working alongside the community monitors and with support from the project promoters, these volunteers will be an important asset to their neighbors.

Promoter Escalante says that this web of volunteers is crucial to keep educating and guiding families. For example, she says, the project can install a new cook stove, but still needs to be present to coach people on how to properly use it.

“I’m a promoter in two municipalities. I can’t give myself to all of the homes in all of the communities. We’re organizing this group of youth so that once the technologies are implemented, with supervision and checking in from us and the volunteers, we keep educating the home,” Escalante says. “Making that change in the culture of the family, from the youngest up to the oldest.”

Bulnes, the project’s health and hygiene lead, says that empowering young volunteers with the ability and knowledge to help improve their communities will ensure that the situation continues to improve even after the end of the five-year project.

“We leave a capacity installed in the community through this web of volunteers,” she says. “They truly work voluntarily and for a love of their community. Often, they leave their own homes to dedicate themselves to the protection of others, to guide the mothers, invite them to participate, motivate them. It’s their leadership.”

With reporting by Jillian Slutzker and Amalia San Martín in Choluteca, Honduras.

Caribbean youth harness power of geo-mapping

January 17, 2018

By Kathy McClure and Evelyn Rupert

5 min read

Bank, nail salon, veterinary clinic, police station, hardware store, soup kitchen: A team of young people walk through the streets of Soufrière, Saint Lucia, collecting information on the town’s landmarks and building up a map of their community.

Using an app on their phones, these asset mappers are gathering data on “assets” in Soufrière – community centers, businesses, public spaces, organizations, even locations with free Wi-Fi – that are resources for the town. The group was introduced to asset mapping through the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Community, Family and Youth Resilience program, which is implemented by Creative Associates International.

Nehia, 17, a youth asset mapper from Soufrière, Saint Lucia. — Nehia, 17, an asset mapper from Soufrière, Saint Lucia. Photos by Kathy McClure.

They will upload the data they collect onto Open Street Map – an open, crowd-sourced mapping platform. Where large mapping services like Google and Bing might have just a fraction of the full picture of this small town, these youth can create a map of their own communities from the ground level.

Asset mapper Nehia, 17, says she signed up to keep her busy and learn something new as she searches for a job after finishing high school. As a group supervisor, Nehia’s participation in the mapping gave her a unique chance to practice leadership skills and teamwork to get the job done.

And now that the mapping is complete, Nehia has a much fuller picture of the potential employers and resources that could help connect her to a job.

“I want to see more youth employed in Soufrière, and for myself I plan to use the information that I was able to collect to start in my own job search,” she says. “Most of us are finished school and starting to look for jobs or opportunities for training, and this will help a lot.”

Using data to prevent crime and violence

Youth collect info about assets in their communities using an app called Vespucci and Open Street Map.

Operating in 15 target communities across Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Guyana, the Community, Family and Youth Resilience program works to prevent crime and violence by supporting family networks, communities, service providers and government agencies to implement successful approaches to reduce crime and violence and increase opportunities for highly vulnerable youth.

Mapping these communities not only highlights existing positive resources, but also raises awareness about what is lacking, like vital social services, law enforcement or employment opportunities. They also reveal areas where crime and violence crop up. And as asset mappers collect data about where crime and violence primarily occur, the maps will pinpoint “hotspot” locations that can be prioritized by the community and program.

Program Chief of Party Debra Wahlberg says this information is a valuable resource that provides baseline data and a guide to the communities that can inform future interventions to promote security.

“Communities will be able to use the maps to design and implement activities to build on the positive assets within the community and also implement activities to address the hotspot locations,” Wahlberg says. “This will have a positive impact on reducing levels of crime and violence, making it safer for the entire community.”

For example, the asset mappers’ observations and data will feed into project-established Community Enhancement Committees, which will work at a local level to make recommendations and implement violence prevention initiatives. The information will help these committees prioritize problem areas and inform their decisions.

The mappers’ information is already producing some valuable insights. Nehia says that as her group began looking more closely at their town, she noticed some areas that could be improved, such as better street lighting and cleaning stretches of beachfront littered with trash.

Open Street Map of Castries, Saint Lucia.

“I learned a lot about some of the things the community needs and some of the things they don’t have,” Nehia says. “I can now with the mappers present to [the Community Enhancement Committees] some of the issues, some of the things that our community needs and some of the things that they can do to enhance the community, especially for the young people and older folks.”

Turning to youth such as Nehia to chart out these communities is a way to get the younger generation involved in finding solutions to the problems their communities face.

“Having youth within the community do the mapping is a marvelous way to engage younger citizens to appreciate that this is ‘their home’ also,” Wahlberg says. “They have a role to play in keeping their community safe by engaging with other community members and contributing toward solutions to reduce crime and violence.”

Ted Lawrence, USAID’s General Development Office Director, says involving youth in asset mapping early on in the program underscores the important role they have to play in achieving positive change.

“Young people continue to be the driving force for USAID’s initiatives,” he says. “Efforts like this highlight the vast potential of youth to affect change, and, improve society at large. We look forward to partnering with Caribbean youth to create safe communities.”

New skills and new perspective

Creative’s Cate Johnson with a group of youth asset mappers.

While the finished maps bring a wealth of information to the program, the asset mappers themselves, and communities at large, also benefit from the process of collecting data and building more complete information about the assets around them.

Cate Johnson, Technology Associate in Creative’s Development Lab, traveled to Saint Lucia to take part in asset mapping training of youth there. She says the activity not only introduces youth to a new technical skill, but builds leadership and communication and gets them thinking in new ways.

“Mapping viscerally engages youth – it brings any subject matter to the familiar context of ‘home,’” she says. “Youth begin to think spatially about what assets exist in their community, and to define what an asset is for themselves.”

Johnson says that during the training, the participants were amazed that they had the ability to make changes to an online map that would be available for anyone to see. Using a crowd-sourced platform, she says, can empower neighbors to share information and improve a community’s knowledge of itself.

“Asset mapping can actually allow you to give that storytelling power back to the communities,” she says. “They get to share the information. That’s one of the big reasons that we did this, to put that power into the hands of youth.”

With the work of the youth asset mappers, the story of Soufrière is now more complete.

Nehia alone has made dozens of tweaks to her town’s map, pinpointing and updating information for churches, medical offices, hiking trails and more.

She says the mapping will help her and the rest of her community locate and learn about their surroundings and generally empower fellow mappers with new knowledge.

“I think that this could take them really far if they take it seriously, they never know what they could do,” she concluded. “It will be very beneficial for the community, and it was really beneficial for me.”

Salvadoran youth get hands-on intro to computer science with Microsoft

January 12, 2018

By Gerson Lara and Evelyn Rupert

3 min read

A group of young students stare intently into their computer screens, trying to guide a doodle robot through a puzzle. But instead of using a keyboard or other controls, the players must program their robot to execute a series of commands to complete the challenge.

It’s a fun activity, but it’s also a lesson in the basic principles of coding and computer science.

The kids are gathered at an Outreach Center in the municipality of Apopa to take part in an “Hour of Code,” part of Microsoft’s “I Can Program” initiative in Latin America. The Outreach Center is one of more than 160 across the country that are supported by the El Salvador Crime and Violence Prevention Project, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented by Creative Associates International.

Salvadoran girl using computer to code. — A girl walks herself through the “Lightbot” Hour of Code tutorial. Photos by Gerson Lara.

The event is a continuation of the project’s longstanding partnership with Microsoft; together, they’re putting new technology and skills in the hands of children and youth vulnerable to gang recruitment.

Hour of Code seeks to get youth interested in digital programming from an early age through an hour-long, hands-on tutorial, working individually or in small groups. Instead of writing out complex programming script, the tutorials let early learners click and drag simple commands, like move forward, turn left and right and jump up. The programming gets more complex as students get the hang of basic ideas.

Javier Calvo, Chief of Party of the Crime and Violence Prevention Project, said cultivating knowledge and interest in computer science can help youth build resiliency in difficult environments and connect them with new opportunities.

“In a region where many youth face difficulties with violence, unemployment and lack of educational opportunities, initiatives like the Hour of Code can stimulate creativity and collaboration and better prepare youth to enter the workforce,” he said. “We hope that this will spark a continued interest in technology as an alternative to more risky behavior that are all too present in the communities where these kids are raised.”

Bridging the digital divide

In addition to the group gathered in Apopa, nearly 50 other Outreach Centers participated in the Hour of Code remotely, and the lesson reached 450 youth ages 4 to 25. Half of them were female students, who often face additional barriers to accessing educational and work opportunities in technical fields like computer science.

Young boys get some help solving a difficult level.

The Crime and Violence Prevention Project’s alliance with Microsoft has also allowed it to offer Microsoft Academy certifications to youth through FORMATE vocational education centers, giving at-risk youth valuable training to help them find jobs and succeed in the workforce.

Microsoft donated 14 tablets to the Apopa Outreach Center and trained coordinators of all the Outreach Centers so that they can continue teaching coding and computer science to children and youth.

Gracia Rossi, Director of Microsoft El Salvador, said its I Can Program initiative is one way in which technology can unlock the potential for youth across El Salvador and Latin America.

“Microsoft maintains a constant commitment to emphasizing the relevance of learning and the application of computer science. Through I Can Program, more youth can get involved in technological innovations that are indispensable in the development of the region,” she said. “We are thankful to USAID, which made it possible to bring technology to youth from the Outreach Centers and open doors to better work opportunities.”

Seeds of hope for farmers in Honduras’ Dry Corridor

December 14, 2017

By Evelyn Rupert

8 min read

CHOLUTECA, Honduras – Juan Escobar has been fortunate with his cornfield. This year the corn has quickly grown well above his head, dropping tiny flowers in his hair as he walks through the rows.

But the rainy season is coming to an end, and the toughest part of the year for farmers in Honduras’ Dry Corridor – when the heavy rains stop and months of drought settle in – is still to come.

Escobar and his wife Juana Mercado Pineda, who raised 10 daughters in their remote community of Siete de Mayo, have no reliable means of storing the large amount of water that falls during the rainy season for use throughout the rest of the year. The unpredictability puts both his fields and his family at risk.

“How are we going to collect water? We don’t have water, because here water is scarce,” Escobar says, seated in a plastic chair on the edge of his field. “From January on, we have very little to drink, little potable water. Life, it’s very expensive. We must buy water from where there are wells in order to bathe.”

But next dry season should be different. With help from a new project in the region, Escobar built a water harvesting system that will allow him to save rainwater and irrigate his field.

A project known as ACS-PROSASUR, an acronym that roughly stands for “Dry Corridor Alliance – Promoting Food Security in the South” in Spanish – is providing Escobar with the tools to harvest water and the knowledge to sustain the system through rainy and dry seasons to come.

The system will funnel rainwater from his roof through pipes and filters into a large geomembrane bag. Escobar will then be able to hand pump the water into a raised tank, and from there water will trickle down into his fields and provide drip irrigation.

Juan walks through his cornfield. Photos by Skip Brown.

For Escobar, the idea of irrigating his field was novel, as was the composting system the project helped him build out of plastic trash cans that allow him to fertilize his crops. But as a lifelong farmer who knows the difficulties of the soil and weather, he was prepared to give these new practices a chance.

“I knew what they were going to do, but until now we’ve never done it here,” he says, sweeping his hand toward the home where he’s lived for more than 40 years. “God willing, it will all work out well. In the harvesting of corn, we always get it right. But now with the water harvesting, we will no longer have losses because we’ll have enough water. That’s what we want.”

Building resiliency for the most remote

Escobar and his family are not alone in their struggle for water. Only about 25 percent of families in the region have access to water at home – a problem that goes hand-in-hand with dire food insecurity.

These are challenges that underlie every initiative of ACS-PROSASUR, which is working in 12 municipalities in the southern departments of Choluteca and El Paraíso to improve livelihoods and build resiliency for 6,000 poor and extreme poor families.

The project is implemented by Creative Associates International in partnership with the Honduras Strategic Investment Office, Invest-H. It is one piece of the larger Dry Corridor Alliance and receives funding from the World Bank through the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program.

The project will help families develop business and food security plans and provide farming tools like biofuel systems, complete small household projects such as installing clean cook stoves and laying concrete over dirt floors, and offer trainings and technical assistance. The project seeks to refine farming practices, diversify crops and connect smallholder farmers to markets to both raise incomes and improve health.

More than 3,000 families will receive water harvesting systems like the one at Escobar’s home, for a total of nearly 1,000 hectares of irrigation.

Rony Alvarez, a technician who has been working closely with Escobar, says the project is reaching families that have often been overlooked.

“Assistance sometimes has stayed within a privileged group and hasn’t reached those who really need it. I’m someone who thinks that we’re in a country where a few people have a lot and a lot of people have little,” he says. “That’s why I like this project, because we’re coming to help the people who are most in need.”

The Dry Corridor region of Honduras struggles with compounding challenges like food and water scarcity, poverty, illiteracy and high levels of migration. Alvarez says he thinks putting change in motion at the household level can start to turn things around for families like Escobar’s.

“We believe that by establishing land parcels that can be planted all year round, we can generate jobs and help people stock up for household consumption, as well as to sell their excess crops and generate incomes, so that young people don’t have to migrate and can stay in the region,” he says.

Rony Alvarez (left) and Delia Herrera Muñoz work with Juan Pineda. — Rony Alvarez and Delia Herrera work closely with Juan to implement new practices and technologies.

Helping families plan for better futures

In addition to installing the water harvesting system, the project is giving Escobar other tools to help him improve his yield. He received assistance planting his corn more efficiently this year, is experimenting with different types of corn seeds, and will continue learning new practices to be more productive.

ACS-PROSASUR is focused on “smart” agriculture – practices that take the weather instability into account and allow a family to be resilient in the face of dramatic changes in climate they will see throughout the year.

Poor and extreme poor families that meet certain criteria and have access to some land will be supported by the project in implementing agricultural business plans to increase productivity and raise their incomes by up to 30 percent. For those without land for planting, non-agricultural business plans will identify other ways for families to generate income and connect to the value chains in their communities.

For many families, low incomes contribute to food insecurity and poor household living conditions, which can have long-lasting repercussions on health, particularly for children.

Escobar’s wife, Juana, stands over her wood stove, flipping thin corn tortillas on a metal pan she’s placed over the flame. Through the project, Mercado says she’s learning some new recipes, like for tamales made with green corn.

The cooking tips are one small way ACS-PROSASUR is helping families like hers improve their food security.

And soon she will have more ingredients to work with as the project helps the family plant a small garden of new vegetables and basic grains. For the couple – and the flock of grandchildren sitting in the kitchen, some scrambling to finish homework before heading off to school – the garden will help diversify diets and improve nutrition.

“I hope for some help, that they’ll be able to plant corn, beans, all kinds of vegetables that you can plant in the summer,” she says. “They’re going to plant squash, carrots, onions, lettuce, string beans and cucumbers.”

Juana Escobar making tortillas. — Juana makes corn tortillas over the fire.

Changing mindsets, sharing knowledge

But building trust and changing long-standing traditional practices is a challenge, particularly in isolated communities like Siete de Mayo. The project depends on a network of staff and volunteers to keep up with hard-to-reach families, braving steep, rocky roads and navigating around herds of cows and flatbed trucks laden with agricultural workers on their crowded commute.

Rimen Martinez, environmental specialist for the project, says generating sustainable change at the community level requires a continuous process of training and knowledge exchange among neighbors.

“If a home adopts the technology, it will be easy to replicate that type of technology at the community or municipal level,” he says. “So it’s a process that requires a lot of knowledge-sharing, a lot of training, because you have to influence people’s culture, the culture of the home.”

Working with Escobar early on in the project’s five-year lifespan is part of that plan to spread knowledge across the region.

Edgardo Varela, who leads the project’s agriculture component, says Escobar’s reputation and influence as a community leader – and his friendly and talkative nature – make him well-suited to pass on what he’s learning from the project to his neighbors.

“When we give him a technology, he can teach others how to use that technology without the help of a technician,” Varela says. “With the leadership that he already has, the technology we’re going to pass on won’t be transferred through technicians, but though a producer. And people understand much better farmer-to-farmer than if a technician teaches them.”

Juan and Juana's grandchildren. — Two of Juan and Juana’s grandchildren sit in the family’s kitchen before heading off to school.

Raising hopes

Though only in the first of five years, the project has stoked excitement among the communities and has begun to see results.

Its continued success, however, will hinge on support and full engagement from the communities, explains René León, Project Manager and Senior Associate for Creative’s Workforce Development and Youth Practice Area. And he’s already noticed families’ willingness to not only participate, but to do what they can to ensure that the project’s initiatives take hold.

“I can see the desire of the community to be integrated and to be actors of the project,” León says. “To be active actors and not passive actors sitting and waiting for what the project can do for them, but how they can collaborate and incorporate themselves into the project so that the project can achieve better results and be successful.”

León contends that “it’s expensive to be poor” in the Dry Corridor, because impoverished families lack the up-front resources it takes to increase productivity and improve living conditions. With ACS-PROSASUR interventions, León and his team are working to empower families in poverty and extreme poverty to make positive change happen.

This change is welcomed by Escobar, who has labored over his field largely on his own over the years, plowing fields with oxen, tilling and planting. Today, he has some help from one of his 21 grandchildren and some new techniques from the project.

Escobar says he’s looking forward to seeing the positive effects that having a bit of extra assistance will produce in future harvests.

“God willing the coming year we will have the help that we need. We will no longer have to go around borrowing pickaxes and shovels,” he says. “That’s what we’re looking for, for some help, because as farmers there are so many things we don’t have.”

With reporting in Honduras by Jillian Slutzker and Amalia San Martín.

Honduras: Proponte Mas

December 1, 2017

A farmer’s hope for his fields and family

November 20, 2017

By Evelyn Rupert

3 min read

Growing better in Honduras’ Dry Corridor.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/242996915

CHOLUTECA, Honduras — The rainy season has painted this area of southern Honduras a vibrant green, and farmers’ corn grows well above their heads.

But in a few months’ time, much of the landscape will be dried to a grim brown, and many families in this region will struggle to collect enough water.

The Dry Corridor stretches across the southern part of Central America, hitting its residents with extreme swings between rainy and dry seasons, exacerbated by climate change and weather phenomena El Niño and La Niña.

Juan Escobar has maintained a small cornfield and garden for more than 20 years in the largely rural municipality of Namasigue, outside of Choluteca city. He says he has been relatively lucky with his corn harvests – but every year brings a new challenge for his family.

How are we going to collect water? We don’t have water, it’s scarce here. From January on, we have very little potable water to drink. Living is very costly – we have to buy water from where there are wells just to bathe.
Juan Escobar

A helping hand for harvests

A project known by its Spanish acronym PROSASUR, part of a larger Dry Corridor Alliance, is stepping in to provide technical assistance, agricultural business plans and food security support to farmers like Juan to raise household income and improve nutrition.

The project is implemented by Creative Associates International in partnership with the Honduran government’s Strategic Investment Office, Invest-H. It is funded by the World Bank through the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program.

With help from the project, Juan built a water harvesting system that will allow him to collect and store rainwater to irrigate his crops throughout the dry season – something he’s never done before.

This winter had us scared, we lost a lot of water. But now with the harvesting of water we will no longer have losses because we will now have enough water for that. That is what we want.
Juan Escobar

PROSASUR assisted Juan in building a water harvesting and irrigation system similar to this one, but with a large bag for water instead of a tank. Juan has also been introduced to new fertilizer techniques – the project helped him build a simple composting system to create biofuel, which will benefit his fields and gardens with low-cost, abundant and natural fertilizers.

With new seeds and better farming techniques, Juan’s harvests and garden will be heartier and more productive, allowing him to feed his family and produce more income from selling his produce.

(Left) Juan and Juana Pineda (Right) Rony Alvarez with Juan Pineda.

There is nothing that I like more than to plant in the earth, because my dad told me. ‘Look, if you keep planting you will have everything each day.
Juan Escobar

Passing knowledge to neighbors

Juan and his family were selected to be early beneficiaries of the project in part because of his position as a leader within his community.

The project team believes that as he learns and implements new techniques, he will pass that knowledge on to his neighbors so the community can benefit from stronger harvests and more income.

The leadership that he already has, or the technology that we are going to give as a project, won’t be transferred to others through the project technicians, but through the farmers. And people understand much better farmer to farmer than if a technician teaches them something.
Edgardo Varela, PROSASUR Agriculture Component Coordinator

Juan says that he’s hopeful about the help the project is bringing and the impact it will have on his harvest – and he’s willing to do his share of the work to make it successful.

First thanks to God, who has offered to help us. That is what we’re looking for, because as a farmer there are so many things you lack.
Juan Andres Escobar

Photos and video by Skip Brown

Eight mediation centers offer a space to quell conflict in El Salvador

November 2, 2017

3 min read

Eight Salvadoran municipalities have inaugurated conflict mediation centers, safe spaces where the minor disputes that too often escalate to violence can be peacefully resolved.

El Salvador Attorney General Sonia Cortez de Madriz formally granted accreditations to the centers – in Ahuachapán, Apopa, Colón, Ciudad Delgado, Mejicanos, Olocuilta, Santa Cruz Michapa and Zacatecoluca – in a recent ceremony.

The mediation centers are supported by the El Salvador Crime and Violence Prevention Project, a program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented by Creative Associates International.

USAID El Salvador Director Peter Natiello said during his remarks at the Sept. 26 event that the mediation centers will be able to cool tensions within communities before violence erupts.

“We often hear about minor disputes that regrettably end in tragedies, because a neighbor plays loud music at midnight, or a dog knocks over the neighbor’s trash and makes a mess. They’re small things, but they can lead to a quarrel,” he said. “These are the things we can manage better, and the mediation centers offer a space and a way to confront these differences.”

Investing in violence prevention

The centers will be staffed by 29 mediators, all of whom are municipal government employees who underwent 100 hours of training and earned certifications in alternative dispute resolution. They will help neighbors and family members navigate and settle the conflicts that when left unresolved can contribute to crime and violence in a community.

USAID is contributing $100,000 to the initiative. The Salvadoran attorney general’s office is investing $15,000 in training and the IRIS Foundation, an organization dedicated to nonviolent communication, is putting $25,000 toward the implementation.

The USAID-funded El Salvador Crime and Violence Prevention Project is working with 55 municipalities across El Salvador to implement violence prevention plans, with a focus on at-risk children and youth. More than 165 Outreach Centers – safe spaces for youth to play, do schoolwork, participate in trainings and workshops, and join in activities like sports teams and philharmonic orchestras – have been established across the country.

Creative Senior Associate for Citizen Security Ben Rempell said that the conflict mediation program will give these municipalities another mechanism to prevent violence and will complement the rest of the project’s work.

“With the work of the mediators, these municipalities add one more resource to their toolbelt to prevent violence,” he said. “The mediation centers will work in tandem with the rest of the project’s interventions and activities to promote more peaceful communities.”

For the community of Zacatecoluca, the project’s initiatives, including several existing Outreach Centers, are helping residents promote security, citizen engagement, opportunities for youth and now, conflict resolution.

Municipal mediation center coordinator Flor Cerpas said in her September remarks that these efforts are helping her community take ownership of violence prevention.

“Today is the day when our work becomes official, where as a municipality we become active participants and protagonists of solutions rather than mere spectators,” she said. “Mediation is the best tool, if not the best peaceful weapon to open a window of opportunity for a culture of peace.”

Reporting by Rene Urrutia and Gaby Quiros in El Salvador.