Message-ID: <199510051138.IAA20683@rjo04.embratel.net.br> Date: Thu, 5 Oct 1995 08:38:05 -0300 From: Joaquim Moura <mailto:poa-bsb@CR-DF.RNP.BR> Subject: Re: Project Santa Maria To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Dear Cecilia and every Friend,Thank you for your interest. I have been sending reports on this Santa Maria project since last February, and I hope this kind of "real-time" ongoing project discussion will interest many people also working with microloan and "micromicro"enterprise programs, mainly for such adverse conditions as we face here, placing complex defies. For instance: how do you promote local cloth producers selling when even the poorest local customers are conditioned by TV ads and soap operas that the only clothes deserve be wore are those bringing outside the famous "griffe" labels of very few international companies and stores - (quite always in English and)?
Now, let me try to answer your kind and smart questions:
>...I'd like to make some comments based on the information included in
the e-news #24:>Do you have a clear picture of your target population, ie, do you know
>exactly how many men, women, children there are in this satellite city?
> How many are coming from the countryside?
> From which states are they coming?
> How many are coming from other small/medium size cities?
> What is the real level of illiteracy? and numeracy?
I am sorry, but I - myself - am a volunteer in this project. But the project is an official governmental (local) one. So, I think that the government has these data. Of course I have my own impressions about the population, and I know that most come from the poorest states of the Brazilian northeast, very recently, running away from the drought and from the latifundium (countryside or small cities). They think that, in Brasilia, they would find a job - but this is just an illusion, as Brazil also lives an employment shortage and even here they should be more skillful to find a job. But, Cecilia, I will look for more accurate information to answer you.
>As far as I understood it, "60% of the value of all food supplies
>distributed/sold by the cooperative (?) is coming from "voluntary" work".
> Who decided the percentages allocated to each component of the equation?
> Based on what criteria?
Usually, in Brazil, many programs against hunger just give food to the poorest families. Here, in Brasilia-Santa Maria, the idea is to give 60% and to charge 40% of its commercial price. I am not sure, but I suppose the percentages were allocated this way by the Governmental staff involved in the project.> How many members in total are participating in the first phase of
> this project? (366 families - how many people are we talking about?)
Sorry again, but I am sure the staff people have this information, as well the local people involved (as the participants of the cooperative board etc.)> Who is going to "voluntarily" work for the project- age limit, > gender?
skills?... The idea is that each family send some members to help. When they come, we will identify them, including all your criteria and others.> What are they going to work on?
The groups will decide. (the 366 families are divided in 10 local groups, and each one has its coordinator.) The first meeting justo to plan the community "voluntary" work will happen next Friday. But I know they are thinking about to use their labor force to improve the environment of the local schools (clean them, recover and paint some walls, plant some trees etc.) and to cultivate community gardens (inside the schools' "campi"). Friday I will be able to describe other priorities as decided by the local participants.> If work is involved, why not remunerating the individual (cash salary),
> so he/she would have discretionary purchasing power?
First: the government doesn't have money to pay the poor to work for them selves. But it has money to buy food (through its food-agricultural programs) at large scale (and low prices), very cheaper than the conventional prices charged by the commercial small outlets in Santa Maria. This difference allows the project to request the beneficiaries their "voluntary" work (I am not sure if they have already decided if 5 or 8 hours, weekly). Second: If we pay the people with cash - not with food - for their community collaboration, many would spend it buying cigarretes, beverages, gambling etc. > It does not make too much sense to lend money to a recipient that does not
>have any way of paying his/her loan back.
I am not sure if you are familiar with community banks specialized to work with the poor. With the "poorest of the poor", we could say. Since the Grameen Bank, in Bangladesh, this model has been continuously tested and approved around the world, even in the USA, and has proved itself as the most effective tool to help the poor to overcome poverty. Would you like to know more about community banking and micromicroentrepreneurship? Tell me...>If most of your target population is illiterate ("Most are illiterate"),
>does it really make sense to distribute written material? What about using
>other means of information, eg. visual?
The handout I have the pleasure to produce (500 copies distributed last Friday to the 366 families, the Governor, other authorities and to the journalists who have attended the first food selling) was read by every family, because if you are illiterate, your son or daughter or friend isn't, and could read it for you. This is the idea, but we think it was very important that the people could take home a written material, confirming everything we had already discussed with them about the program and its possibilities, small loans, cooperativism etc. And is also important to introduce those people - maybe mainly the illiterate to the written word world, right? Of course we would like to use (also) visual and multimedia resources, but besides more expensive (for the equipment involved), it would not replace all the benefits that just the written word can bring to the popular brain development.>Looking forward to hearing from you.
>Sincerely, Cecilia Barcellos * mailto:mb14@columbia.edu
Thanks, Cecilia, you will... ______________________________________________________________ Joaquim Moura (all the controversial opinions are just personal) Youth & Citizenship Development Commission Partners of the Americas - Brasilia / Washington DC Committee SHCGN 713 - Bloco I - Apt. 202 - 70760-739 - Brazil Phone (55 61): 414-1904 (w); 273-5613 (h); 414-1898 (fax)