Exploring Volunteering

Se acordó hacer la mesa de diálogo en la banqueta de la calle, en frente del edificio ocupado.

We received this press release from CUC:

You can see more photos of the occupation and protest organised by CUC and CNOC at FONTIERRAS here.

Thanks Mikkel Moldrup-Lakjer for this information. The copy of the Act that was signed by FONTIERRAS, CNOC and CUC is attached.

INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS WANTED in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Indonesia and Nepal.

Peace Brigades International is a human rights organisation which was created in 1981. It's aim is to help create a breathing space in conflict zones so that the civilian population may organise to defend its rights without fear of reprisals and violence. PBI is an independent organisation not affiliated to any religious or political institutions.

It's recruiting International Observers to work in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Indonesia and Nepal to protect organisations and individuals who have requested our involvement. You must be fluent in Spanish for Latin America, for Indonesian and Nepal you will have time to learn before joining the team. You must be able to make a minimum time commitment of 12 months.

The next PBI orientation weekends in the UK for potential volunteers are:

Friday         28th – 30th September 2007      London
Friday         2-4th November 2007     Peak District

The Orientation Weekend is the first step in the preparation and training of potential volunteers and provides an opportunity for those interested to explore the possibility of joining a field team.

The orientation weekend is designed as an informative and enjoyable weekend for anyone wanting to learn more about the work of PBI, both in Britain and abroad. as a general introduction to PBI’s philosophy, aims and work & explore issues such as non-violence, consensus decision-making and conflict resolution through discussions, role-plays, team exercises, workshops and games.

The weekend runs from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon and has a cost of £65 waged, £55 low-waged and £45 un-waged.

Information pack, application & booking form is on the PBI website or you can email: Lani Parker: outreach [at] peacebrigades.org.uk

We've just received the following information for our friends in the USA- we know a lot of readers of this blog are based in the USA and just wanted to do our bit to make sure the word gets out- volunteer accompaniers are needed now. You can also volunteer as accompaniers if you're based in the UK- contact us for more information.

The Guatemala Accompaniment Project (G.A.P.) of the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) is always looking for qualified candidates to be human rights accompaniers.  

Next training:  October 14-21, 2007
Application deadline:  August 17, 2007
Training will take place in San Francisco, CA

¢ Accompaniers act as human rights observers, providing a constant international presence to Guatemalan witnesses involved in precedent-setting genocide cases.
 
¢ NISGUA trains volunteers and matches them with U.S. sponsoring communities that support (financially and personally) the accompanier’s stay.

¢ Accompaniers share in everyday rural life, observe and report on conditions, and monitor the human rights situation.

***

Training includes the following:
¢ Workshops focused on anti-oppression themes and accompaniment philosophy
¢ Role-plays that train participants to live and work as accompaniers in rural Guatemalan communities
¢ Background on Guatemala and updates on the current political situation.

***
A candidate for G.A.P. should have:

Benefits include: accommodation and food in community, a small stipend, health insurance, a re-entry stipend, and a contribution toward international travel.

For more information, contact:

202-265-8713; gap@nisgua.org; www.nisgua.org
NISGUA; 1830 Connecticut Avenue, NW; Washington, DC 20009

Background

What is human rights accompaniment?

NISGUA is one of many organizations around the world that employs accompaniment as a vital tool in the global struggle for the respect of human rights.  In the Guatemalan context, accompaniment creates a non-violent response to the threats, harassment, and violence faced by survivors of Guatemala’s 36-year-long civil war and grassroots organizations working for justice and human rights.  To this end, NISGUA places long-term volunteers side-by-side with people in rural communities and with organizations in an effort to deter human rights violations.  The dissuasive physical presence of these volunteers, known as accompaniers, provides a measure of security and creates space for Guatemalan communities and groups to organize in defense of their rights.  Accompaniers also monitor and report on the human rights situation and alert the international community to abuses.  In the U.S., twelve G.A.P. Sponsoring Communities are committed to immediately responding to abuses and providing ongoing support to accompaniers.   

Why is accompaniment necessary?

In the early 1980s, the Guatemalan military swept through rural communities in a counter-insurgency campaign that uprooted more than a million people – many of whom fled to neighboring Mexico – and led to an estimated 200,000 dead and disappeared. According to the independent Historical Clarification Commission, these actions constituted acts of genocide against Guatemala’s indigenous population.

In 1993, organized groups of refugees began returning home and internally displaced groups started to come out of hiding.  Two years later, G.A.P. formed in response to requests from these returnees for trained international observers to accompany communities as they rebuilt after 36 years of violent civil war, which formally ended with the signing of peace accords in 1996.

As the returned communities grew stronger, their need for accompaniment diminished.  At the same time, more individuals and organizations began stepping forward to denounce the atrocities of the past.  In a deteriorating human rights climate, their actions, along with ongoing impunity in Guatemala, put them at a high level of risk for human rights violations.  Recognizing this, members of communities and organizations involved in such efforts requested accompaniment, and G.A.P. responded by gradually shifting our mandate to accompany them.  

Who does NISGUA accompany?

Association for Justice and Reconciliation: In 2000 and 2001, a courageous group of war survivors brought legal cases to a Guatemalan court against former military dictators Efraín Ríos Montt and Romeo Lucas García, as well as their military high commands, on charges of genocide against the indigenous population.  The witnesses in these cases formed the Association for Justice and Reconciliation and requested international accompaniment.  G.A.P. has responded to this request with accompaniers in the Ixcán, Ixil, and Rabinal regions.

Grassroots Organizations: Since the beginning of 2000, threats and direct attacks have increased against Guatemalan labor unions, indigenous groups, exhumation teams, and other organizations working for justice and human rights.  In response to this situation, NISGUA initiated its Organization Accompaniment Program.  A team based in Guatemala City responds to short-term requests for accompaniment for organizations and individuals. 

Abby Weil is currently working through a fellowship with the Advocacy Project at ADIVIMA. She's blogging about her experiences in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz. She kindly contacted us and it's great to have the opportunity to flag up the great work of the Association for the Integral Development of the Victims of the Violence in the Verapaces, Maya Achi. From their website:

ADVIMA is a non-profit organization that seeks to find solutions to the social, economic, educational, and cultural problems caused by the internal conflict. We'll continue to read Abby's blog about living and working in Rabinal with interest.

Written by Kimberly Kern

These last four months living in Guatemala and working as a human rights accompanier with the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR) has already been an amazing experience. The relationships I have formed, with other accompaniers from around the world and especially the families of Santa Maria Tzejá (SMT) have opened my eyes and my heart. I hope that the stories, history and current political information that I send in these letters inspires y’all to action in the fight for justice, not just globally, but in your own communities where you see blatant injustice.

The Story of Marta

A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with Marta about children and childbirth. The average age for a woman to become a mother here is 15, so obviously, a 27 year-old woman with no husband or children is very strange. Nine times she has experienced the excruciating pain of giving life, but today she only has seven children. When I asked what happened to them she told me her story¦one of many similar stories:

When the army came that day in 1982, we ran for our lives though the jungle¦ some people had no shoes¦ we couldn’t see anything in the dark¦ the branches tore our skin¦ but we couldn’t stop, it was life or death so we kept moving, she remembers.

For months and months, Marta and the group she travelled with roamed blindly through the mountains of northern Guatemala, escaping many close encounters with the army which was constantly hunting them. Most of the time, they had no idea which direction they were going.

After wandering for weeks and months, she remembers being at an encampment of people who saw the army coming and they decided to move the group, yet again. She was so weak, she couldn’t go.

I decided that I wouldn’t walk anymore¦ I couldn’t walk anymore¦ I was starving. I sat down on the ground with my two babies and said this is where I’m going to die, me and my babies.

She doesn’t know exactly what it was that made her lift herself up and keep moving, but she suddenly found the strength to keep going. The decision to flee to Mexico was a point of conflict among the wandering group. Many people thought the war would end soon or the army would give up searching for them. Many people suffered terribly and two of Marta’s children died in the mountains of malnutrition during those months of indecision.

Her strength to move forward, not just that day in the mountains, but her constant positive activity in her community, is an inspiration to me. She is a woman who was never given the opportunity to receive an education, so she cannot read or write. But she broke away from her expected role as a soft-spoken woman and mother and became a leader in her community. She says, I have a lot of opinions and think they should be heard. She is inspiring to other women in the community as well because she isn’t afraid to stand up and speak, something which she, as in indigenous woman, has worked to overcome her whole life.

Before the massacre, she was married to a man who was physically abusive and never let her get involved outside of their house. He was killed the day of the massacre and as a refugee in Mexico, Marta was introduced to a woman’s organization called Mama Maquin. From this experience, she brought back a wealth of knowledge to SMT and is a strong force in the woman’s union there. In Mexico, she also found a man who is extremely supportive of her community activity and she created a new life and a new family with him.

Rios Montt runs for Congress¦again

Unfortunately Rios Montt, a man who currently has an international genocide case against him in the Spanish Courts, registered to run for the Guatemalan Congress on May 18th. This, of course, is major news here on the ground and work will continue around the national cases against Rios Montt and his military high command. If you have not signed this letter to move the case forward, please take a moment of your time and sign it here.

If you have already signed, it would be helpful to send this link to five people that you think would like to support the people who suffered terribly during a brutal civil war and are fighting for justice.

Another interesting piece of news came out in the national newspaper, Prensa Libre, which undeniably links Rios Montt to several massacres that took place in 1982. This link, called Plan Sofia, is a military document that outlines the plans for the eradication of indigenous communities in the Quiché region of Guatemala. “The documents detailing Plan Sofia clearly illustrate an explicit chain of command, with Rios Montt at its head, through which orders of mass extermination were communicated at the height of the conflict” said Catherine Norris, an organizer with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) in Washington D.C.

“Since the demands for justice from survivors have yet to compel the Guatemalan judicial system to prosecute those responsible for genocide, we hope such brazen documentation of planning and responsibility for atrocities will prove impossible to ignore and bolster the survivors' case,” Norris told Upside Down World. Another accompanier wrote a detailed article about this plan and the effects of this news on the case.

Consulta Comunitaria (Community Referendum)

On April 20th, a very interesting and exciting action took place here in the Ixcan region of Guatemala: a vote concerning the construction of new hydro-electric dams (namely the Xalala Dam) and the exploration and exploitation of oil by foreign interests. Since a majority of land is owned and utilized by indigenous communities in the Ixcan, a popular vote was taken to see if the people that would be most directly affected by these projects were in favor of them or not. After many information sessions and talk throughout the region, a vote was taken and 91% of the region said NO to the projects.

The day of the Consulta was an inspiring day for SMT. Everyone was very excited to be part of this historical process and have their voice heard. In Guatemala, the government never asks their opinion on anything, so this vote made them feel very empowered.  I felt privileged to be present as an observer.

Semana Santa (Holy Week)

Semana Santa is extremely important here in Guatemala. In SMT, the students that are usually away studying high school or college all return for this one week festival extraordinaire. At first, when everyone was talking about Semana Santa, I thought it was going to be more of a party, but with religion so deeply intertwined in the local culture, I should have known better. I went to Catholic mass more times in the last month than in the last ten years. Other than going to mass and participating in processions of the Stations of the Cross, the two main traditions here in SMT are making bread and spending a day at the river. These two traditions also mirror the traditions of the church. Bread is made early in the week to eat during the time between Good Friday and Easter (many people in the states fast during this time). On Thursday (the Last Supper), everyone goes to the Tzeja River all day with their families and cooks enormous amounts of food.

On the Tuesday of Semana Santa, I was invited to make bread with a family. The bread is prepared in small portions with unique swirls or other decorations. At 7am we stared a fire inside a huge cob oven. It is about 10 feet high with a diameter of about 6 feet. While the oven heated, we mixed large amounts of flour and sugar in a wooden box about 8 feet long. The process, as many of you know, is a long one¦ the dough rises and gets kneaded again and again.

At 8am we started making little balls of dough that eventually turned into little decorative creations with the help of many women. By 10am the wood had become ash and coals inside the oven which was swept to the side to keep the heat in. The bread was put on metal pans and placed into the oven for about ten minutes. From the batch, we produced about 200 portions. The smell of fresh bread is only slightly beat by the taste. While we were outside baking the bread, another family had come to mix their own batch. Only three families have cob ovens, so they are shared with the neighbors.

The tradition is to eat the bread with honey, but there is also another topping called panela which is derived from sugar cane. I prefer the honey, myself.

On Thursday, we packed three horses with pots, pans, watermelons, food and hammocks and headed to the river to relax. When we got there around 8am, we gathered firewood and started making soup which cooked slowly all day. Until then, people ate bread and watermelon, fished in the river, swam and bathed, played games, listened to music and caught up with family member’s home for the holiday. I definitely missed my family a lot during this week, seeing all the smiling, laughing families together. But I am feeling more and more comfortable in SMT and have found people I consider friends to talk to about anything. I miss you all very much and talk about home considerably more than I should. Everyone just loves to hear about Texas¦ which they say, casi es Mexico(it’s basically Mexico.)

Peace,
Kimika

-Listen to Central America After The Wars – “Tale of One Village – Santa Maria Tzeja“
-Read more about the history of Santa Maria Tzeja in the book by Beatriz Manz, “Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of Courage, Terror and Hope”, published by Berkeley 2004.

Jorge Velasquez speaking at Amnesy International UK in London in May 2007 Photo: Amnesty International UK

FEMICIDE – so much pain in just one little word, says Jorge Velásquez, father of Claudina Velázquez Paíz, a 19-year-old lawstudent murdered in Guatemala in August 2005. Jorge visited Britain in May to share his experiences of the impunity still enjoyed in Guatemala by perpetrators of violence against women. It was incredibly moving to hear the courageous story of his family’s struggle to come to terms with Claudina’s brutal murder and to ensure her killers are brought to justice.

Claudina’s case was brought to prominence around the world by Amnesty International and the BBC documentary ˜Killer's Paradise’. In November 2005, the head of the Special Prosecutor's Office on Crimes against Life recognised the inadequacies of the murder investigation and reopened the case. Blood samples of five suspects were sent to Spain for DNA analysis. While this was a positive step, it is likely that critical forensic evidence has been lost because of alleged errors during the autopsy, negligent conduct at the crime scene and failure to interrogate potential witnesses. So far no significant progress has been made.

In London, Jorge spoke of how his daughter had been drawn to study law because she saw it as an important means of redressing injustice. It is a bitter irony that Claudina’s death has so effectively demonstrated how the current criminal justice system falls far short of the ideal she sought to pursue. Her father’s words brought home the humanity that so often gets lost when the fight against such human rights abuses is discussed in public. In many cases, the cloak of darkness surrounding the perpetrators and the state’s opportune inaction combine to obscure the true impact on those involved.

Jorge evoked the horror of Claudina’s death with a resolute dignity, recounting the shot to her head that ended her life and initiated the pain that has never left him. He described the contempt endured by his family at the hands of a plodding and insensitive police investigation. Officers even insisted on taking Claudina’s fingerprints during her funeral service.

Between 2001 and 2005, 2,200 women and girls were murdered in Guatemala, an average of 10 per week. Yet hardly any of the perpetrators have been brought to justice. According to police reports from 2005, the year of Claudina’s death, formal charges were presented in only 3.8 percent of these cases and only 1 percent came to trial. This poor record has convinced Jorge that the Guatemalan government cares little about the thousands of women who have been killed. With so many murders languishing in obscurity, Jorge hopes that Claudina’s death, which has attracted national and international attention, will not be seen as one terrible injustice but as representative of thousands of similarly tragic cases. He appealed for people in Britain to join him in denouncing the authorities’ failure to pursue the perpetrators.

Jorge doesn’t expect much from the crop of candidates for September’s upcoming presidential election, but believes the Guatemalan authorities cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the femicide that is causing so much pain. I hope one day there will be politicians who truly love their country and tackle the issue of violence against women as a matter of substance.

Send an appeal, by post or fax, to the Guatemalan authorities calling on them to ensure that the investigation into the murder of Claudina Velásquez is conducted in a coordinated, full and effective manner. Further information: www.amnesty.org.uk

James Rodriguez has just posted a really interesting photo essay of the recent events and demonstrations against mining activities in Guatemala. In James' words:

In conversation with Guillermo Chen, Director of Fundación Nueva Esperanza (Foundation New Hope). [Translated by Jorge Sanchez-Chiara]

Guillermo Chen: Fundación Nueva Esperanza initially developed with the objective of supporting young Maya Achí people and their families that were the victims of the armed conflict. We work with young people from the age of 12. The reason why the logo depicts a young man and woman is because we see gender equality as a fundamental part of our work. The logo also reflects the opportunities and hope given by Rio Negro, represented by the two green strips. The previous generation in the community was decimated by the Chixoy dam, and there's hope represented by the seed. This represents the bilingual and intercultural education provided for all young people in Rabinal.

GSN: What work is most commonly available in Rabinal?

Guillermo Chen: Sources of labour in Rabinal are all about the nature of survival. Many in Rabinal are rural labourers. Work is often informal, with many only finding paid labour for two or three days a week, earning on average 25 quetzals per day (approx £2).

Often families are surviving on 75 quetzales a week. There are other sources such as crafts and the production of woven mats and hats from palm. In Rabinal many crafts use the morro fruit. It's used to create all sorts of everyday objects such as cups, little basins or guacales to wash with and shakers or chinchines. It's also typical in Rabinal to work harvesting local produce such as hibiscus tea.

This leads me onto the huge problem of Rabinal's large migrating labour force. Many sources of labour do not generate much income, so many young people and adults are obliged to migrate as seasonal workers to the big cotton, coffee and banana plantations. Other look for work in huge factories dotted around the country. Here the pay is still low. It doesn't really allow workers to even pay for much needed medicines or medical treatment.

GSN: Where do people have to go to sell their produce?

Guillermo Chen: People from our communities are forced to walk many hours, sometimes two hours every day, and in extreme cases (in the most remote settlements in Rio Negro) for as long as seven hours to reach cities where they can sell their produce. Often buyers are able to negotiate low prices from labourers who depend on a quick sale to survive. This means that the huge effort to achieve a yield for these labourers is rarely reflected in the price they can sell their produce at.

GSN: What do you do to help people with their nutritional intake?

Guillermo Chen: The basic foodstuff of the Maya people living in Guatemala has been maize for centuries. It's used to make our staple food tortillas that we eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even though maize is not particularly rich in vitamins, it has allowed us to survive all the hard work, against all odds, and to have hope in the future.

Fundación Nueva Esperanza provides people with information on basic nutrition, explaining the benefits of various foods and the vitamins and minerals that they contain, focusing especially on vegetables.  

We also have talks about the use of food staples and preparation of meals, and the importance of eating fruits that should be part of the basic diet of young people in Rabinal.

Fundación Nueva Esperanza seeks comprehensive solutions for local issues such as community access to food and work. Fundación Nueva Esperanza created its own intercultural and bilingual education centre that looks at spiritual issues and community work. Our aim is to provide culturally pertinent education that, instead of equipping local youth just as receivers of knowledge, equips them for life with their families and in their communities.

Studying seated in the round is a traditional way of transmiting knowledge in Maya Achi culture. Its significance lies in the fact that does not make anyone feel superior or inferior, an approach to learning that students can then replicate in their communities. Students break conventional forms of schooling based on individualism, which, far from encouraging students to support one another, reinforce each student's isolation or sense of hierarchy by placing them in rows.

GSN: How do you teach Maya Achi culture?

Guillermo Chen: We explain the Maya calendar to the students. We also explore other important concepts in Maya Achi culture such as nahuales, which have a great influence on the students lives. They also help to explain the way we all act according to the Maya universe. This is one reason why Fundación Nueva Esperanza has made the teaching of Maya spirituality a formal part of the curriculum. Young students learn the key points of the cosmovision of Maya thought, they learn about the relationship of the human being with his/her environment: as human beings we must hold nature in the utmost respect. Nature is key in Maya thought, as the relationship with it is a way of keeping a balance between positive and negative energies.

GSN: What is a nahual? Is it a spirit?

Guillermo Chen: The nahual is a way of finding out your date of birth and the fact that part of nature goes with you all your life. The nahual is an animal that protects each person from negative energies, orientating everyone and indicating the state of your character in a wider social context.

In Fundación Nueva Esperanza's curriculum there is also space for celebration. Students take part in exchange trips, especially with other young people from bilingual and intercultural education centres in and beyond Guatemala. It is not only Guatemala that has indigenous people, there are many other people across the world who have a similar cultural identity.

GSN: What about practical work?

Guillermo Chen: Fundación Nueva Esperanza is trying, as much as possible, not to depend on funds provided by international organisations. All too often those funds come to an end as donors change their priorities. As an organisation we have decided to start running projects with young people that in small ways help to generate income in their own right. For example, we're working on planting vegetables and cultivating hibiscus tea (rosa de jamaica). We're also implementing other projects, including raising cattle which allows us to sell milk to the community in Rabinal. In the future, we are thinking about planting fruit trees, which in Guatemala is typical, and other projects that grow produce that fall within our strategic plan.

GSN: How did Fundación Nueva Esperanza come to own this land?

Guillermo Chen: The land that Fundación Nueva Esperanza has come to own has a very special history behind it. It was purchased from twelve families from the Rio Negro community, who lived next to the Chixoy dam until it displaced them and many other inhabitants of Rio Negro. The construction of the dam in the 1980's dates back to the time of the massacres that occurred during the civil war. After a long struggle, some of the people who were displaced by the dam's construction received land in compensation by the state. The families sold the land to Fundación Nueva Esperanza knowing it would be used to build an education centre for the community. Now their children and grandchildren benefit from this resource. Unfortunately the land is muddy and is not incredibly fertile, so we have to work very hard to enrich it with organic fertiliser to make it productive.  

GSN: It's very interesting to look at how rapidly Fundación Nueva Esperanza has grown…

Guillermo Chen: Fundación Nueva Esperanza started in 2003 with 30 students, and now after four years we have grown to 55 students. This represents a very strong rate of growth. This is due, in no small way, to the fact that we offer scholarships. But even more important is the fact that the community of Rabinal really believe passionately in this project. There's a strong bond of trust that grown between the families and Fundación Nueva Esperanza. Our initiatives have demonstrated very positive tangible changes to the families.

GSN: Could you talk about your approach to gender equality?

Guillermo Chen: Women in the whole of Latin America have had to face a prevailing 'macho' culture that starts from the assumption that women should look after their families, cook and devote their lives to bringing children into the world. In Fundación Nueva Esperanza we have a differente view. We have a gender equality programme with parents, teachers and students in order to maximise the girls' educational prospects.

It is a key policy of ours to encourage access to scholarships for girls. For example, if we promote 40 scholarships, we ensure an equal number go to girls and boys. This is a very practical way of tackling the exclusion of women from education in Guatemala. We believe that exclusion in education can lead to other problems, such as early marriage of girls aged as young as 13 or 14. This phenomenon is not a matter of Maya tradition, as it is all too often understood. It is actually the result of poverty of many large Maya families. The sooner girls in the family are married, the less strain is placed on often stretched family resources.

For Fundación Nueva Esperanza working with parents is essential. Mothers in particular tell us that they do not want their daughters to go through the same difficulties they suffered. Guatemalan mothers are very proactive in supporting their daughters to access education. They often know firsthand the suffering that's involved in being an illiterate mother. Typically life is full working hard in the fields, and also having to cook and look after their families. Once you speak to parents, it's clear they're more and more reluctant to allow their daughters to work without an education.

GSN: What vision does Fundación Nueva Esperanza have for the future?

Guillermo Chen: Our vision is ambitious. We are currently working with children from secondary school level (12-15 years old). However, we aim to extend our education service provision service in Rabinal. We are planning, probably this year or next, to teach health professionals which would allow young people to graduate with a professional qualification at the age of 18. But our vision goes further.  

We are also exploring the possibility of establishing a Maya Achí University, which would be able to offer an education grounded in Maya Achi principles for  young people from the age of 12 until graduation. We are thinking of undergraduate courses in subjects such as maya spirituality, natural, traditional and modern medicine. Our plan is to open the university by 2010. This is our hope but we believe it really is realistic. We have put a lot of work in developing our educational resources and there is an awful lot of support in the local community to bring this about.

Background

You can find out more information about Fundación Nueva Esperanza from their website
We also blogged about Guillermo Chen's visit to the UK back in December 2006 here
You can find more information and articles about Rabinal here…

This salsa evening Saturday 5th May at 8pm in Theatr Clwyd organised by the Clwyd Latin America Human Rights Group is to raise funds for the Movimiento Nacional por los Derechos Humanos (MNDH) in Guatemala. In February the MNDH suffered a number of intimidations reported by Amnesty International, including a break in at their offices (picture below).

If you`re interested in finding out more information about this fundraiser event, you can phone 01352 740 642 or 01244 531 702.