The IJATZ - LA SEMILLA project is the development of a multi-functional community centre focussed on psychosocial rehabilitation, economic reactivation, children's education and professional training, and which is evolving according to the needs identified by the community of Panabaj.  The idea of the centre is rooted in and promotes the strengthening of the Mayan Tzutujil culture. 

The idea for this project was born from the people: we do not have large funds available for construction, but we do enjoy the freedom to be able to adapt the projects to the ever changing social context in an integrated reconstruction process.

THE SITE

The centre is situated less than 500m from the place where the government is building temporary houses for the affected people, and where they are going to construct permanent housing: for a community obliged to undertake such difficult changes we believe that it will be a help to have their own place, designed and built by them and in accordance with their needs. 

THE ACTIVITIES:

  • For the Women: economic reactivation and training
    1. Trainings in alternative handicraft production and creative recycling
    2. Improving the quality of traditional handicrafts
    3. Sale of products on the international market and fair trade
    4. Work in the centre's restaurant which will offer traditional Tzutujil dishes
    5. Cooking and cake making courses
    6. Computing and Spanish courses
  • For the children: education and culture
    1. Courses in Mayan culture (language, traditions, history and mythology)
    2. Extracurricular courses in computing and Spanish
    3. Indigenous Art School offering music, paining and theatre
    4. A playground
    5. Psycosocial support
  • For teenagers: professional trianing
    1. Workshops in carpentry, plumbing and electrical work
    2. Training in hotel management 
    3. Extracurricular courses in computing and Spanish
      • For all the community:
        • Psychosocial rehabilitation through community activities at the Centre.
        • Employment opportunities in the construction
        • Improving the quality of life through the incorporation of families in housing within the community ecotourism project: volunteers from the Centre can stay with these families
        • Employment opportunities as Tzutujil language teachers in courses offered to volunteers and tourists.
        • Disaster preparedness and risk prevention: education on preserving the environment.

HOW TO START:

The land where the Centre is to be built has been donated to ADECCAP by the Catholic Church, and the volunteers, as advisors to ADECCAP will be in charge of the construction of the Centre (using local labour and materials), and its functioning until the community members are trained to take over the management. 

In order for the centre to be of help to the people as quickly as possible, we will begin the following activities while the construction is going on.  The activities at the Centre aim to complement the reconstruction process in Panabaj.

We are still in the emergency phase as the majority of community members do not yet have a regular income.  In order to assist with economic regeneration, some of the first activities will be to employ men from the community in the construction of the centre and to equip an existing building on the site with weaving equipment so that women can begin their handicraft workshops.  

Continuing in chronological order, activities to improve the quality of life for the community will include: professional training for teenagers and women and creating activity and study spaces for children.

 

All the activities have been designed in collaboration with the Community and are subject to change according to the needs or requirements of the members. 

OUR WORK IN PANABAJ

The situation in Panabaj is complex, due to the devastation provoked by Stan, by the historical and social context and by the enormity of the reconstruction process.  The national context is also very relevant: in Guatemala the completion of the peace accords in 1996 and respect for human rights are goals which are still far from being achieved:  the assassins of innocent people from the armed conflict remain unpunished, freedom of speech and the press are not guaranteed, as is reflected in the high number of political homicides in recent years.  The Maya continue to be the poorest group in the country: they are not guaranteed rights to a dignified life, to education or sanitation. Poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy characterise a great part of the Guatemalan indigenous population.  The world of the ladinos (non-indigenous peoples), the capital, and the rural Mayan areas are two different countries far away and foreign, where different languages are spoken: racism is a sad reality. 

The development needs for the area of Panabaj have deep roots and complex solutions: the Mayan Tzutujil of Panabaj, as is commonly seen in many indigenous villages worldwide, have fought for respect of their culture and they have never ceased to look forward; however the road is long and now even longer still. 

Our work here, at this stage of the reconstruction process

The current reconstruction process here in Panabaj is challenging human rights, including the right to live according to ancestral customs.  Our work here can not be exclusive and can not interrupt the daily life of the people. Our project encourages the integrated development of the area

which could put human rights in danger including the right to live according to their ancestral customs, it can not be exclusive and can not be separated from daily reality: our project leans towrads the integrated development of the area and the extreme poverty as ways to confront the different phases of the stabilisation phase and the urgent necessities that arise here that can not be foreign.  Our objective is clear, that our work will be flexible to meet the demands that present themselves, we hope that those who would like to collaborate with us share our wide vision of support to the Mayan Tzutujil of Panabaj and share the desire with them 'to make a path to walk" (Antonio Machado).

Nuestro trabajo aquí, en esta realidad y en este momento de reconstrucción integral, que puede poner en peligro los derechos humanos de los damnificados y su derecho a vivir según  su cultura ancestral, no puede ser exclusivo y no puede prescindir de la realidad cotidiana: nuestro proyecto tiende al desarrollo integral del área y la extrema pobreza de medios para enfrentar las diferentes fases del proceso de normalización y las necesidades urgentes que surgen aquí no pueden sernos ajenas. Nuestro objetivo es claro, y nuestro trabajo será flexible a las exigencias que se presenten, esperamos que los que quieran colaborar con nosotros compartan nuestra visión amplia de apoyo a los Maya Tzutujil de Panabaj y quieran con ellos

“hacer camino al andar” (Antonio Machado).