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Strategies and action
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Strategies and action
On this page you will find a brief summary of CESESMA's principal
strategies and interventions, as set out in our Strategic Plan 2010-2014.
You can also find photographs of many of these activities in our
Photo Album.
Training young community educators (promotores and
promotoras)
What is a promotor / promotora?
They are young people - both girls and boys - generally aged
between 12 and 18 from the rural communities. Through participation
in activities with CESESMA, they are empowered to take on a
leadership role in their communities, working with groups of younger
children on a range of informal educational activities. They are
educators, animateurs, organizers and activists in their communities.
We believe that every child and young person has experience that
makes them unique and special. These life experiences form the basis
for a training programme that starts from their existing awareness,
enabling them to build new knowledge, skills and capacities.
To build on this basis we take as a central theme the promotion
and defence of their rights, taking account of the context, and
offering new learning opportunities that will open up new options in
the future. With these new skills and knowledge, the young people
are ready to take on the role of Community Educators (promotores),
strengthening community organisation, and sharing skills and ideas
with other children and young people according to their interests.
Profile of a promotor/a
A promotor or a promotora is a young person:
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with high self-esteem,
who respects him/ herself and those around him/her;
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who recognises him/herself
as a member of society, and a possessor of human rights;
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with knowledge of the
legal and social framework of children’s rights, environmental
protection, health and nutrition, non-violence, gender and
sexuality, among other things;
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who puts their
learning into practice in their personal life, family and
community;
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capable of promoting
the organisation of children and young people in the promotion
and defence of their rights;
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capable of forming
groups and facilitating learning processes of action-reflection,
promoting participation, resolving conflicts, planning and
evaluating group-work;
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capable of
communicating with all sectors of the community, children and
adults, in their own community and beyond;
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capable of
involvement in decision-making at different levels, and in the
development of their community;
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with tools for
analysing the issues facing their community, and working in
partnership with other community members to find solutions;
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In addition, every
Promotor/a will have an area of skill or special interest, with
tools and techniques for passing on these skills to other
children in their community.
The path of development of a
promotor/a
Step 1: Children join activity groups
See the Informal education with children
strategy below
Step 2: Children and young people opt to join a promotores/as'
training course
The current programmes are (more details
below):
Step 3: CESESMA provides practical support and follow-up
Taking into account the work-plans of the young educators, the
CESESMA team offers support in the various community activities that
they undertake, helping them increase their knowledge and skills,
strengthen their leadership and autonomy, and so reduce their
dependence on CESESMA.
Step 4: Multiplication
On completing their training course, the young promotores/as have
the basic skills and knowledge to set up and facilitate new learning
groups with younger children in their communities, at first working
alongside more experienced promotores/as, later organising their own
groups. CESESMA's project team will actively support these young
people and, in this way, a multiplier effect is achieved, bringing
large numbers of children into education and gradually reducing
their involvement in exploitative child labour.
Step 5: Development options
Area teams: CESESMA invites the most experienced and
committed promotores/ass to join the area teams, where they share
responsibility for planning, organising and evaluating the programme
of community education and development work in the area.
Associativity: CESESMA supports youjng
people in setting up small economic initiatives.
See the Associativity Strategy
below.
Promotores/as' training programme, FOCAPEC
The FOCAPEC course consists of ten two-day workshops, held
monthly from February to November. Courses are run in parallel in
the three territories, with up to 25 young people aged between 12
and 16 in each group.
The course curriculum focuses on development of communication and
organising skills, awareness of issues facing their communities, and
a sound understanding of key underlying issues: children’s rights,
participation, child labour and education rights, non-violence,
gender equality, health and environment. The diagram below
summarises the experiential learning approach used on the course.
This core curriculum is shared by all the course participants.
Alongside this they are expected to join learning groups (run by
already trained and experienced promotores/as) in their particular
area of interest, which may be organic food-growing, craft skills,
traditional dance, theatre, radio, puppetry, or reading promotion.
Key themes
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Principles of
children’s rights, The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
The Nicaragua Children's Rights Code.
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Social defence
networks for children's rights: claiming and defending our
rights.
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Impact of
globalization on our communities.
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Violence and non-violence:
causes and consequences. Alternatives for reduction of violence.
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Identity and self-esteem,
self-awareness, relations of respect, resolution of conflicts.
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Gender equality:
women’s rights, personal relationships (boyfriends, girlfriends
etc).
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Community health and
hygiene.
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Sexual and
reproductive health.
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Environmental
conservation.
Communication and organising skills
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Participation,
leadership and the role of the promotor/a.
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Forming and working
with groups.
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Promoting equality,
inclusion and managing conflict in groups.
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Planning, evaluation
and follow-up.
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Communicating with
key adults: parents, teachers, community leaders.
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Tools for community
appraisal, planning and development.
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Tools for social
communication.
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Participation in
decision-making at different levels.
Girls' and Young Women's Network
This is a network of girls and young women aged from 10 to 18,
from 25 communities in the three territories where CESESMA works.
The groups meet regularly to explore topics of interest to them and
learn about their rights as women. This provides an opportunity to
reflect on their own lives and experiences, their beliefs and
attitudes. Thus they can gradually unlearn the stereotyped roles and
cultural beliefs that devalue the position of women in our society,
and so develop themselves personally, and strengthen their role in
the family and the community.
Currently there are about 80 girls and young women participating
in the three area groups. They meet monthly, and work on issues
including identity and self-esteem, personal relationships, sexual
and reproductive health and sexual abuse. They also prepare
themselves to raise these same issues through talks and discussions
with groups of girls and young women in their home communities.
Returning to their communities, these young promotoras organise
activities to explore the issues within their community. In
particular we want to enable the young women to raise the issue of
violence and discuss it openly in the community, so it is no longer
seen as normal.
In this way the Girls’ and Young Women’s Network is not just
another educational activity, but rather a process for the training
and empowerment of young promotoras, and a space to develop
community action in defence of girls’ and women’s rights.
Training organic agriculture promotores, FOPAE
Objectives:
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To develop knowledge and skills for the
production, conservation, preparation and consumption of healthy
food, and the responsible management of the natural resources
existing in the community and its environment.
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To promote the diversification of family
vegetable plots with ecologically sound farming practices, thus
increasing the availability of food and strengthening the
domestic economy.
Course organisation
One year course consisting of monthly two-day workshops: one day
of theory and one day of practical work. Between the workshops, the
participants put their knowledge and skills into practice with
children and young people in their communities, with the support of
a CESESMA worker.
Course themes
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The role of the
promotor/a
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What is "The
Environment"?
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The natural resources
in our community
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The soil as a living
organism
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Soil conservation
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Cultivation and
management of the family vegetable garden
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Diversification of
the vegetable garden
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Pest control without
chemicals
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Keeping domestic
animals
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The family diet:
conservation, preparation and consumption of the produce of the
vegetable garden.
Informal education with children
In each community the promotores/as organise children's activity groups on
a range of relevant topics which children and young people join
according to their interests. These groups include both children and
young people who attend school, and those who are outside the school
system, thus encouraging interaction between school and community.
The young promotores and promotoras who run the children's activity
groups have themselves been trained through CESESMA's Promotores/as' Training Programmes:
FOCAPEC, Girls' and Young Women's Network, and FOPAE.
The current range of activity groups includes:
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Traditional dance
Nicaragua has a strong and vibrant folk-dance tradition, with
roots in both the indigenous tribal cultures and the European
settler cultures blended together over almost 500 years, and
particularly strong in the rural, mountainous north of the
country. Dances have traditionally been passed down through the
generations within rural communities. CESESMA has supported and
promoted traditional dance for seven years. This is a
sustainable, cyclical process, with promotores/as trained in
traditional dance forming children’s dance groups in their
communities, from which emerge the new promotores/as who go on
to be trained and themselves become the next generation of
trainers.
The coming of globalised media, principally television, to
these rural communities currently poses a threat to local folk
culture. There is a risk that children will believe that the
global pop culture they see on TV is in some way superior to
their own traditional culture, and will lose interest in
learning about and preserving this. Because of this, we believe
it is now more than ever vitally important to strengthen the
positive aspects of traditional folk culture in these
communities
See our Traditional Dance photo album.
Most children in rural Nicaragua receive some primary schooling
although many drop out and few are able to go on to secondary
school. Thus most children learn the basics of reading and
writing. Few, however, get beyond this, and there is no culture
of reading for personal growth and development, much less
reading for pleasure. Indeed many parents believe that "reading
story-books is a waste time", when children should be working.
CESESMA's children's reading programme aims to challenge this
situation, making story and picture-books (mainly donated)
available to children, organising reading and story-telling
groups, training young promotores/as to run these groups, and
through telling and reading stories, helping children develop
and practice their reading skills. Children are also lent
picture-books to take home so they can share the stories with
parents and other family members.
See our Children's Reading Programme photo album.
Crafts have been an element of CESESMA’s informal education
programmes for a number of years with macramé and crochet the
longest established. There are also embroidery groups, and a new
course in making artificial flowers has recently started. These
crafts are a valued part of local culture, and although mainly
used for decorative purposes, the products are much appreciated
and the makers respected for their skills. We consider it
important to continue to promote and support these crafts in the
local communities.
See our Crafts Programme photo album.
See Photo Album
There are also arts and media groups, as part of our Media and
Communications strategy
See Photo Album
Vocational training
Children and young people join local groups where they can train in
organic agriculture, crafts and cultural activities, which contribute to
the development of new skills and capacities. These provide them with
alternative choices in life, in terms of both personal and economic
development.
We currently have courses in carpentry and dress-making
Adult education
We provide training for parents, teachers and community leaders, to
promote changes in established practices and ways of thinking that
devalue of marginalise children and young people, ignoring or infringing
their rights.
Current programmes include:
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Workshops with parents and
community leaders
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Training Primary School
Teachers
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Training Community
Pre-school workers
Organic farming
Diversification of family kitchen gardens contributes to improved
nutrition and better health. If carried out using organic farming
techniques, it also helps to protect the environment. Therefore CESESMA
promotes organic vegetable-growing, encouraging people to make the most
of the resources already available in their communities. We run training
programmes and provide ongoing technical support to help the young
educators develop their knowledge of organic food-growing, and pass on
practical gardening skills to others in their community.
Current activities include:
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School and
community vegetable gardens, supporting children and young
people tending family vegetable plots
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Cookery and Nutrition
course
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Promoting natural
medicine through medicinal plants
Associativity: chaya growing, bee-keeping, poultry-farming
Media and communications
The social communication and media strategy makes use of a variety of
communication media to promote educational processes inside and outside
the communities, in order to inform, raise awareness and publicise
issues.
The media we currently work with include:
We also support the young people in communicating social messages
through street parades, campaigns, community fairs and festivals.
Networking and alliance-building
Networks
and alliances are established at local, municipal, departmental
and national level, in order to combine efforts in the promotion
and defence of children's rights. This diagram summarises
CESESMA's networks and alliances at different levels (sorry we do not
have the diagram available in English).
Our goal is that the
children and young people themselves participate directly in these
forums, presenting their own proposals, making their demands,
promoting and defending their own rights.
with families, local children and youth committees, school
councils, local education committees
At municipal / district level:
with Municipal Children and Youth Committees, Environmental
Committees, Municipal Development Commissions.
National co-ordination and alliances:
with the National Co-ordinating Council of NGOs Working with
Children, CODENI, and allied organisations.
International collaborations:
- Irish National Teachers' Organisation, INTO
- International Play Association: Promoting the Child's Right to
Play
- INWENT Project
Associativity
We are developing the Associativity programme as a new strategy
to meet the changing needs of the young people as they grow up.
Through the establishment of "Associativities" or small business co-operatives,
we are helping to provide alternative economic opportunities, thus
making it possible for them to remain in their communities and
continue contributing to their development.
The first associativity projects to be set up are: poultry farms
(11), chaya farms (4), bee-keeping projects (6) and dress-making
groups (3).
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