Greetings to CoDev from our Latin American partners

As 2020 grinds towards its end, we have received many greetings from partners in Latin America to CoDevelopment Canada and our members and Canadian partners. In addition to warm wishes, our partners have shared striking photos and video clips that demonstrate the work they have achieved even under the challenging circumstances of the global pandemic. Achievements made possible, in part, due to the solidarity of our partners and members.

To share these with the wider CoDev family, we have assembled here in a collage of 2020 Greetings from Latin American partners.

CoDev, Cafe Etico & COVID-19

Special Message to CoDevelopment Canada’s Supporters, Members and Partners Regarding Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dear Friends,

In accordance with the advice of BC’s Public Health officer, CoDevelopment Canada is taking steps to maintain social distancing and reduce opportunities for the COVID-19 virus to spread. At the same time, we recognize the importance of maintaining support for our partners in Latin America who will face huge challenges in the coming months.

As of Monday, March 23, most CoDev staff will work from home. CoDev has set up remote computer connections for all staff and established an online meeting routine that should enable us to conduct most of our business this way. However, the CoDev offices will remain open with skeleton staffing, and orders for Café Etico can still be filled. The general office phone line will still be answered, and all staff will continue to regularly respond to messages sent to their CoDev e-mail addresses.

Office hours will remain 9 AM to 5 PM,Monday-Friday.

This work routine will remain in place throughout the pandemic.

We hope that these measures will serve to strike a balance between reducing the likelihood of contracting or spreading the virus, while maintaining much-needed solidarity with all our partners in Latin America and their struggle for social justice, human rights and sustainable and equitable development.

We thank you all for your patience and understanding in these challenging times.

International Solidarity Conference 2020

Forced Migration - Popular Education- Social Investment

• An opportunity for international solidarity activists from CoDevelopment’s Canadian partners to exchange experiences and best practises from their international solidarity work.

• Deepen understandings of the distinctions between development, charity, and international solidarity.

• Develop toolkits for solidarity action in your organization.

When: Saturday, January 25, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm

Who:    International Solidarity Committees of our Canadian partners and other interested members of CoDevelopment Canada and its partners.

Where:  BC Teachers’ Federation Building, 550 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver

Registration deadline is Monday, January 20. 

The conference opens with a presentation from Daysi Marquez, Coordinator of COPEMH’s (Honduran high school teachers) project on youth migration from Honduras. Daysi’s presentation is followed by panels and workshops where international solidarity committees of CoDev’s Canadian partners share strategies and tips, and participants to deepen their understanding of solidarity and internationalist action. Workshop themes include: Using Labour’s Capital for Social Justice, International Solidarity and the Climate Crisis, Forced Migration: Canada’s Role.

Registration: CoDev members or delegates from a CoDev partner: $40. Non-members: $50

Letter to Minister Freeland on the Political Crisis in Venezuela

Enjoy a Cup of Café Etico in Your New CoDev Logo Mug!

Mugs are $7 each or 2 for $12.

CoDev was lucky enough to receive a grant from Imprint4, a promotional products company that believes in giving back to the community. In that spirit, the company awarded CoDev $500 in free logo products. It seemed only fitting that we choose coffee mugs to complement Café Etico. We’re grateful to Imprint 4 for their generosity and invite all of you to come in and purchase a mug along with your favorite Café Etico coffee.

Message from CoDev's newest partner "Totlahtol Yoltok" in Veracruz, Mexico

In January 2017, a collective of Mexican indigenous educators in Veracruz began a new project supported by CoDev and the BC Teachers Federation, Aimed at strengthening indigenous education in the  Nahuatl speaking communities of the Altas Montañas region. We share with you a message from Lucia Morales,  coordinator of the Totlahtol Yoltok ("Our Living Word") project:

Answering a Partner's Call

Our partner MEC has been dealing with an extraordinary situation.

Eleven maquila workers were jailed recently for being involved in peaceful protests forimproved working conditions, including access to potable water, realistic production targets and the rehiring of two laid off union workers. While MEC has a solid team of labour lawyers, this particular situation required criminal expertise given the nature of the charges. MEC came to CoDev seeking financial assistance to hire a criminal lawyer to defend these workers.The workers were employed by a factory owned by one of the largest Korean-based garment manufacturing multinationals, SAE-A Trading. At the time of the peaceful protest, factory management called in the military police to arrest these workers, including several from other factories who happened to be there as well. Among the arrested was a pregnant woman and one with a serious heart condition.Families of the arrested called MEC for support. MEC was successful in having all of the charges dropped except for one: “obstruction of official duties.” The Public Prosecutors Office refused to drop the charges in spite of the fact that the factory owners had dropped all their initial charges, hence the need for a criminal lawyer to argue the case on behalf of the workers.The insistence of the Public Prosecutor’s office in proceeding with charges against the workers, as well as the use of national military police to violently quell a peaceful protest are examples of a private-public alliance where industry and the jobs it creates are defended at the cost of workers’ rights. This is particularly troubling given that Nicaragua has a government that professes to defend the rights of the working class. MEC requested USD$2100 to cover the expenses. In addition to contributing CoDev funds, we also sought assistance from our Canadian Partners to help defray the costs. The BC Government and Employees’ Service Union, CUPE National, CUPE BC, the Hospital Employees’ Union and the United Nurses of Alberta answered the call without hesitation. In the end, we were able to send a total of USD$2650. MEC is using the extra funds to conduct media outreach and ensure coverage of the trial. This kind of joint effort is just another example of solidarity in action.UPDATE: The workers charged in the case were released on bail and are currently awaiting trial. Originally set for September 21, the Public Prosecutors Office delayed the trial to October 20, and then again to November 1. MEC has told us that the workers are extremely anxious, with the delays compounding their stress. CoDev will be on the phone with MEC to find out the results of the trial, and look forward to sharing what we hope will be good news for workers’ rights in Nicaragua.

Notes from Colombia

As teachers around the globe celebrate World Teachers' Day, the CoDevelopment Canada Educator's delegation, including BCTF President Jim Iker and BC Fed President Irene Lanzinger, are showing solidarity in the world's most dangerous place in the world for teachers, Colombia. The visit to Columbia comes at a crucial moment in the history of Columbia's 50-year civil war, with a peace accord on transitional justice having just been signed by President Juan Manuel Santos and the leader of the FARC, Timoleon Jimenez.According to FECODE, the Columbian teachers union representing 300,000 teachers from pre-school to post-secondary, between 1985 and 2015, 1,100 teachers have been killed with an even greater number threatened by or made victims of violence.The delegation includes representatives of CoDevelopment Canada, the BCTF, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, and the Centrale des Syndicats du Quebec. All four organizations are jointly funding a union project promoting schools as “territories of peace.”Called the Pedagogical Project for the Post-Conflict Period (PEPA), the project creates study circles around the country, where teachers gather to reflect on how public education can support the peace process to cultivate a durable peace. The project recognizes the key role of teachers in mentoring students to be peaceful citizens in a reimagined society that is democratic and respects human rights.Among the biggest challenges to establishing schools as "territories of peace" is the fact that many students' parents have been combatants on opposing sides of the civil war.Teachers are confronting these challenges with tremendous energy and commitment, emphasizing their “pedagogy of hope and love,” which they say is profoundly needed by traumatized children who have known nothing but war throughout their young lives.The delegation members met with students and teachers from an elementary school located in an active-conflict zone in the southern Colombian province of Pasto. The teachers have given their school the slogan “a paradise in the middle of the conflict.” Their courage, despite the assassination of two members of the school staff and the abduction of another teacher, was inspirational and humbling for the Canadian visitors.

Transformative Peace: a proposal for Colombia

The conflict in Colombia is the longest running conflict in Latin America. It is clear that a Colombia without war is better than a Colombia with war. So the peace dialogues underway are positive but our Latin American partner Asociación Nomadesc reminds us in this video that there are different perspectives on peace. It is important to think about questions such as: What kind of peace is being negotiated? Who is involved in the dialogues? Under what type of economic and political models is peace being discussed?

Community Development from the Ground Up

Kirsten Daub is in Nicaragua visiting the co-operatives that provide Café Ético's coffee beans. She sends us this update.Gardeners and farmers are sure to recognize the beautiful dark earth in this photo for what it is: rich compost. But there's a lot more brewing than the eye can see. Standing next to their organic fertilizer plant, members of the Flor de Pancasán Multi-Service Cooperative are proud to explain how this initiative, supported by Café Ético, is helping to both improve organic agriculture in the region and to strengthen the co-op itself.For the past four years, Café Ético has supported a project to expand capacity of the co-ops and farmers that supply our organic, fairly traded coffee. This fertilizer plant is just one aspect of the project, but it's a great one. Rene Coronado, the co-op's manager explained how it works. The co-op mixes minerals with cow and chicken manure, molasses, rice husks, and other organic materials with yeast to create incredibly rich organic fertilizer. They're about to purchase a rock breaker so they can better pulverize the minerals, making a higher quality fertilizer than a farmer could make on their own. The co-op sells this fertilizer to members and non-members alike, helping farmers increase yields, but at a much lower price and without the negative environmental impact of chemical fertilizers. Profits from the fertilizer's sales are invested back into the co-op, helping to build the co-op's capital, and paying out dividends to members.This is just one of the many ways farmers in Pancasán are working together to collectively expand organic agriculture in their community. Café Ético is incredibly proud to have played a small part in their achievements.