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Projects Funded in 1996
Projects Funded in 1992
Projects Funded in 1995
Projects Funded in 1991
Projects Funded in 1994
Projects Funded in 1990
Projects Funded in 1993
1996
Grants
Cúnamh, Bogside and Brandywell Institute
Derry, Northern Ireland: With the culmination of one phase of
ongoing efforts to establish peace in Ireland since 1994, citizens of
Northern Ireland have had to confront their post-war lives, families,
and society, haunted by the pain of thirty years of violent conflict
in a context of continuing instability and threat.
With this grant from the Fund, Cúnamh will support, in collaboration
with local professionals, its recently initiated network of local community
workers who will reach out to those people affected by the violence.
Cúnamh will facilitate a community process whereby victims of war can
share and begin to understand their feelings of loss and bewilderment,
and the extent of the trauma the war has caused. The group focuses on
the importance of developing a healthy, supportive community that recognizes
the personal as well as societal effects of war, and at the same time
aims at building self-awareness and confidence in the people who have
been most deeply affected by the violence.
Equipo de Estudios Comunitarios y Acción
Psycosocial
Guatemala: ECAP (the Community Research and Psychosocial Action
Team) is concerned with the loss of community identity obliterated by
the death and terror tactics of the army that pitted neighbor against
neighbor in areas like Rabinal, where 5,000 people, nearly a quarter
of the population, were tortured and killed during Guatemala’s 36 years
of war.
ECAP
intends to reach the people most in need of psychological attention
and reintegration within a social project in order to deal with the
horrors they have witnessed and survived. The use of radio and the creation
of educational materials will help to reach these populations, many
of whom are widows and children, to help mend their everyday lives and
address more complex issues of mental health. Community leaders and
other resource people will be trained to identify those in need of immediate
psychological attention, and the development of leadership roles will
further enhance the "recuperation of community and cultural identity."
Fundación Nunca Más por
Salud Mental y Derechos Humanos San Salvador,
El Salvador
Post-war San Salvador is a city of refugees of the war, many of
whom are poor, unemployed or underemployed, and carry emotional and/or
physical wounds of years of torture, murder, and kidnappings. The Fundación
Nunca Más (Never Again Foundation for Mental Health and Human Rights)
has identified the psychological needs of these victims and has created
programs to encourage mental health and the respect of human rights.
The grant from the Martín-Baró Fund will support the Foundation’s work
in identifying individual psychological services for survivors, and
the creation of psychological resources to promote healing on a community
level through self-help groups. The Foundation also provides legal resources
so that survivors can begin the judicial process of reclaiming their
lawful human rights.
Medical Action Group,
Inc., Quezon City, Philippines:
The Medical Action Group includes a number of professionals whose goal
is to provide basic health services to the many victims and survivors
of torture, imprisonment, and detainment in the Philippines. The work
that they have accomplished since 1982 includes (1) the establishment
of clinics in four regions of the country, (2) the provision of medical
services to those in detention centers, (3) training on health and psychosocial
issues, (4) quick reaction team visits to prison to aid newly-arrested
detainees, and (5) advocacy and education about health and human rights,
and torture. A grant from the Martín-Baró Fund will contribute importantly
to the group's psychosocial and educational work with detainees.
Mujeres en Apoyo para
la Salud Mental Comunitaria
Ayutuxtepeque, San Salvador, El Salvador:
This year the Fund is again supporting Las Mujeres en Apoyo, a group
of women working closely with urban, marginalized women and children
who are facing economic hardships and psychosocial problems because
of war, natural disasters, isolation, individualism, and the non-existence
of state-funded mental health services. Facilitators meet weekly for
training sessions to lead support groups for women, with whom they work
to build a healthy community.
The focus of group discussions is mental health through mutual learning
that will lead to finding alternatives to shared problems and concerns
on familial, communal, and individual levels. Children facing the hardships
with their families participate in play groups that encourage healthy
development through creative play, a socially and educationally positive
environment, excursions, and celebrations of special events.
Peasant
Community of San Francisco of Asís of Salas
Moshoqueque, Chicloyo, Peru: San Francisco of Asís of Salas is
an indigenous peasant community of 1,800 families who own land collectively
in northwestern Peru, and whose rights have been threatened by international
economic development. Their many community-based activities include
enhancement of the living conditions of citizens in various aspects
of life: health, economic, spiritual, political, and social.
To continue work funded last year by the Martín-Baró Fund, organizers
will hold training workshops for citizens on human rights, gender, and
ethnic identity, and further inter-community reflection and agro-ecological
development. The group encourages a community process whereby citizens
work together to solve conflicts and address questions in a manner mutually
respectful of each other’s needs.
Proyecto de Recuperación
Integral
Joyabal, El Quiché, Guatemala: The Integral Recovery Project
is helping to break the barriers that terror and fear have created in
a very poor, rural area of Guatemala where there are no health services
or schools. Economic hardship has perpetuated much illness and poor
nutrition, and necessitated yearly migration to the coast for work.
Trained mental health promoters and teams of educators, social workers,
and technicians work together with six indigenous communities each year
on health, economic, literacy, and nutrition issues.
A grant from the Martín-Baró Fund will support mental health work within
this context. Projects and events that require mutual support and cooperation
are planned, in order to reduce fear and insecurity and to increase
self-esteem and awareness of human rights. The project is particularly
sensitive to the participation and needs of women in all areas of their
work.
Santa María Tzejá Youth
Theater Group
Ixcán, Guatemala: The return of Guatemalans from exile in Mexico
has meant a return to the memories of suffering and violence associated
with the "scorched earth campaigns" of the 1980s. The SMT Youth Theater
Group has developed production, performed by eighth graders, that provides
a medium for their audiences – locally, nationally, and internationally
– to remember, confront, and denounce the horrors and violations against
Guatemalans, mainly indigenous Maya. Another
goal of the play, entitled The Past is With Us, is to teach children
of the returned refugees and other populations about their history,
that they may know, remember, and understand.
With money from the Martín-Baró Fund, the SMT group will continue to
tour within Guatemala, sharing the stories of their people through this
very graphic and unforgettable production, and serving as an example
and catalyst for other communities seeking to give testimony to their
experiences.
Return to Top
1995
Grants
Centro de Estudios y
Educación Indigena
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala: The Asociación
promotes study and education on the national ethnic question in Guatemala,
a country composed of 22 ethnic Mayan groups and two other indigenous
groups. Leadership development, particularly with indigenous people,
covers historical, anthropological, sociological, and political issues.
This grant will support the "Forging the Identity of the Indigenous
Woman" project, through training indigenous women educators to strengthen
women's organizations at the community level. At the end of the training,
which will include issues of gender and mental health, the participants
will have elaborated a proposal regarding the re-vindication of the
rights of indigenous women.
Balay Rehabilitation
Center, Iligan City, Philippines:
The Balay Rehabilitation
Center, in Central Mindanao Region, assists women and their families
to cope with displacement and militarization caused by clan and tribal
wars and the government's counterinsurgency program. Government economic
programs are converting agricultural lands to produce products for export
instead of for its people, who are being forcibly evacuated from farmlands.
The center provides community-based counseling among women and their
families, and trains women to serve as paraprofessionals who assist
other women while healing themselves.
Centro de la Comunidad
– Partnership
for Community Mental Health, Baltimore,
Maryland, USA:
Centro de la Comunidad links service organizations and the Latino community
in Baltimore. Advocates for Survivors of Trauma and Torture is a group
of physicians, social workers, human rights advocates, and others who
work with immigrants suffering the physical and psychological effects
of arbitrary detention and torture.
Together, the two organizations have formed the Partnership for Community
Mental Health to address mental trauma and domestic and community violence
within the Latino community. The grant from the Martín-Baró Fund will
support public meetings, commemorative events arid other activities,
through which the immigrant community will address the multiple individual
and social consequences of war, political repression and exile, and
begin a healing process. The program will also train volunteer peer
counselors and offer clinical services.
Centro de Educacion y
Comunicación Popular
Ciudad Sandino, Managua, Nicaragua: CANTERA uses popular education
and leadership training to support grassroots movements in urban and
rural areas of Nicaragua, especially those dealing with poverty and
the aftermath of the civil war. The grant will fund a community training
program to provide crisis intervention services to victims of violent
crimes (primarily women) in Ciudad Sandino, which has one of the highest
delinquency and homicide rates in the country. Through the program,
nurses’ aides, teachers’ aides, and health promoters are trained in
listening skills, group process, and relaxation techniques. They then
form teams to provide crisis intervention services.
Coordinación
Diocesana de Mujeres
Chiapas, Mexico: CODIMUJ, a network of indigenous women from
the villages of Chiapas, uses education to empower women through literacy
and skills training. The women, who have participated in various workshops
ranging from bread-baking to the voting process, also learn how to train
other women. The grant will support a special workshop on dealing with
the psychological trauma that resulted from massacres, disappearances,
and the destruction of villages after the Zapatista uprising. Funding
will cover the costs for the 100 women attending the workshops. Upon
returning to their villages, the participants will be able to help others
recover from the war.
Coordinadora de Desarollo
y Formación Integral Mam
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala: CODEFIM
works toward the integral development of the Mam people through strengthening
development projects, technical and financial assistance, education
and training, health assistance, support to community organizations,
and networking with other organizations that serve the community. This
grant will support a program for Mam women. Workshops will be offered
to the women regarding personal, family and community hygiene; the impact
of discrimination, sexual exploitation, and violence against women;
the rights of Mayan women; midwives and their role in the community;
and organizing techniques.
Medicos por el Derecho
a la Salud
San Salvador, El Salvador: Doctors for the Right to Health promote
health care in rural and poor areas, preventive community health care,
and related programs. They train mental health promoters who carry out
a variety of activities, especially regarding children's nutrition,
learning disabilities, and emotional problems. They also provide support
activities for family mental health through community oriented actions.
This grant will support a mental health project in the rural ex-conflict
zone in the Morazan department.
Mujeres
en Apoyo Para la Salud Mental Comunitaria
Ayutuxtepeque, San Salvador, El Salvador: This group of women
is creating a model of community mental health based on the reality
faced by Salvadoran women who live in marginalized urban communities.
The program will train and educate women to develop as leaders and to
strengthen local groups by helping in their integral development. Training
sessions, which will take place twice a week in the three participating
communities, will focus on self-esteem, family relations, domestic violence,
and child abuse. Thematic discussions will be complemented with relaxation
techniques, handcrafts for creative development, celebrations of significant
events, and excursions. Participants learn the importance of expression,
relaxation, and self-motivation to their work on behalf of their communities.
Peasant Community of
San Francisco of Asís of Solas
Moshoqueque, Chicloyo, Peru: This
peasant community consists of about 1,400 families who collectively
own land in Northwestern Peru. Community projects include food distribution,
land litigation, and rehabilitation of an ancient irrigation channel.
The community, using legal challenges and civil disobedience, is also
trying to stop the illegal appropriation of communal forests by a cattle
rancher. The grant will assist the community in exploring issues related
to healing techniques, human rights, and conflict resolution, with the
direct involvement of families being persecuted because of their activism.
The community will organize nine popular education workshops which will
begin to create space for dialogue and leadership.
Return to Top
1994
Grants
Autonomous Women's Center
Against Sexual Violence
Belgrade, Yugoslavia: The news over the last few years has been
filled with reports of the terrible events occurring in the war-torn
areas of former Yugoslavia. Violence against women, and especially rape,
has played a role in the "ethnic cleansing" of the war. This women's
collective began in 1990 in response to the great needs of women who
have been displaced by war, are victims of violence or rape, or are
war widows. Their center includes women of Muslim, Croatian, Bosnian
and Albanian origins, and serves women from all ethnic backgrounds.
Their main goal is two-fold, to empower women and to address the traumatic
effects left by the war, including low self-esteem. This grant will
support outreach work and various group activities including discussion
groups and training courses.
Centro Coordinador de
Programas Alternativos de Salud
San Salvador, El Salvador: The Coordinating Center for Alternative
Health Programs was formed in 1989 to respond to the complete lack of
health services in the zones of conflict in El Salvador. They provided
health training and services for the thousands of refugees that were
returning to their original villages after having had to flee them in
the 1980s. Since 1989, the Center has been training members of these
communities to be health promoters. In the summer of 1993, they began
a mental health project, whose focus has been to provide basic training
to members of the community. They facilitate many groups, including
self-help groups, recreational groups for children, sports groups, and
women's groups, and are training women to be educators for a children's
center. In addition, they have produced illustrated educational booklets
on various topics, including stress reduction and natural remedies.
Comite de Mujeres Ak'
Saqb'eb'al
(Women's Committee – New Dawn) Chajul, Guatemala: Historically,
Mayan women in Guatemala have been excluded from most social benefits:
more than 70% are illiterate and more than 85% live in extreme poverty.
Due to years of violence in the area, many of the women are widows with
two or three children.
This Ixil women's group in Chajul grew out of the need to find alternatives
to the difficult economic and social situation. The project will organize
workshops to provide women with educational, organizational and administrative
training; improve the production and marketing of textiles; and start
a Support Center for Women to address the traumatic effects of the armed
conflict and consequent health problems. In
an effort to become self-supporting the women will acquire and operate
a corn mill. These programs strive to create leadership opportunities,
thereby strengthening the women's self-esteem and their understanding
of their importance in society, and to facilitate the re-integration
of returning refugees and displaced peoples in a rural community in
Guatemala, in the midst of ongoing war.
Guatemalan Mental Health
Promoters Group
Mexico City, Mexico: This is a group of Guatemalan refugee women
living in Mexico, who have trained as mental health promoters to help
the Guatemalan refugee community deal with issues related to their exile.
Political violence and repression in Guatemala in the 1980s forced over
200,000 Guatemalans to flee to Mexico and caused severe trauma for most
of that population. This group primarily supports women in the refugee
camps (there are approximately 75 promoters in the camps) in resolving
psychological and emotional issues for themselves, their families, and
their community.
Many of these refugees are now returning to their villages in Guatemala
and this group helps them deal with the difficulties and needs that
their return entails. Their philosophy and methodology recognize the
importance of mental health issues in the "reconstruction" of their
identity and the process of return to Guatemalan society.
Instituto Andino de Desarrollo
Psicológico y Sociocultural
Lima, Peru: Due to the extensive political
violence over many years in Peru, it is estimated that 50% of the population
lives in crisis and/or has had their constitutional rights violated.
More than 600,000 people have been displaced by violence, most of them
from indigenous groups, and the emotional and psychological effects
they have sustained are severe. INADEPS (the Andean Institute for Psychological
and Sociocultural Development) was started by a group of psychologists
and researchers at San Marcos University in Lima, initially to research
the living conditions of the Andean and Amazonian peoples and to promote
their human rights.
This grant is for two projects to investigate the mental health situation
in the Ayrmara and Ankara communities, both of which have been deeply
affected by war and economic violence. It supports a local mental health
promoter's work, and visits by psychologists to these communities. They
will collaborate in an evaluation of the psychological effects of violence
on children and in the development of psycho-social programs.
Movimiento Pro Derechos
Humanos del Negro
Lima, Peru: Blacks in Peru make up
approximately 13.5% of the population yet constitute more than 50% of
those in prison. Most of them live in the poorest parts of the country,
are victims of societal and institutional violence, and have their human
and civil rights frequently violated. The Movement for the Human Rights
of Blacks uses all the mechanisms within the Peruvian legal system,
as well as international conventions, to fight racial discrimination.
They offer free legal counsel to Black Peruvians whose human or civil
rights have been violated, including being falsely accused, tortured
and/or imprisoned for racist motives.
In the social realm they make their presence known by protesting and
denouncing governmental authorities, judges and police that act in a
repressive manner towards Blacks. This project, oriented to the specific
mental health needs of Peruvian Blacks, seeks to promote emotional stability
in the face of racist conflicts. Through visits to Black communities
and prisons, it will develop educational activities on identity, self-esteem,
racism and human rights.
Sarangbang Center for
Human Rights
Seoul, South Korea: Despite the election of South Korea's first
civilian President, human rights abuses persist. In order to ensure
future protection of human rights, past violations under the military
dictatorship must be resolved. In a country where there is limited professional
medical or mental health response to human rights violations, the Sarangbang
Center reports on torture cases and provides resources.
This grant will support the documentation of torture cases from 1980
to the present, resulting in the publication of a comprehensive "White
Book on Torture in South Korea." The production of this book will further
other objectives: to increase public awareness of the brutality of the
military dictatorship; to make available basic materials for human rights
education; to prepare for collective litigation for reparation and rehabilitation;
to develop a campaign to end torture; and to identify connections between
abuses and mental health.
Return to Top
1993
Grants
ATYHA,
Centro de Alternativas en Salud Mental
Asunción, Paraguay: ATYHA takes its name from a syllable in the
Guaraní language that means "meeting place." As a center that offers
mental health alternatives, it grew out of the need of communities to
face the social crisis created by widespread misery and the psychosocial
devastation left from 35 years of political repression under former
General Stroessner's regime. Started in 1985 by a group of mental health
professionals – sensitized to the issues because some of their own members
had been arrested and tortured – their activities include: group skills
training; telephone crisis intervention; medical and psychological assistance
to torture victims, street children and political exiles returning to
the country; social assistance to indigenous communities; and promoting
economic development among peasant families who have been victims of
torture.
The specific project that is funded here is in the community of Santa
Maria some 270 km outside the capital, Asuncion. The community consists
of 10 Guaraní Indian families who were targets of repression by Stroessner's
government. The families tend to be large and extremely poor with high
indicators of poverty such as malnutrition, infant mortality, and illiteracy.
The project calls for the creation of an association made up of community
members to promote familial and community development and raise the
economic level of the families through community cooperative projects.
Families
of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance
Quezon City, Philippines: FIND was started during the years of
the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines by a group of eight families
who had had family members disappear. Many people were disappeared under
Marcos' regime, a repressive technique which continued, although to
a lesser degree, under President Aquino. Although FIND'S initial efforts
were toward trying to locate their loved ones, they soon realized they
had to address the needs of the family members.
One of the objectives of FIND, whose members come mainly from the urban
poor, is to ease the tensions between family members created by the
stress and material difficulty of losing a family member. A rehabilitation
program was started for the wives, mothers and children of the missing
family member (usually men). As part of the rehabilitation program for
the children, a theater group was organized in 1991. This proposal is
for the theater project for a group made up of fifteen children between
ages 9 and 18. The sources of the theater pieces are the children's
own experiences; as such, their participation helps them to face and
explore the issues and trauma associated with losing a family member.
Guatemalan Mental Health
Promoters Group
Mexico City, Mexico: This is a group of Guatemalan refugee women
living in Mexico who have trained themselves as mental health promoters
to help the Guatemalan refugee community deal with issues related to
their exile. Political violence and repression in Guatemala in the 1980s
forced nearly 200,000 Guatemalans to flee to Mexico and caused severe
trauma for most of that population. This group supports primarily women
in the refugee camps (there are approximately 75 promoters in the camps)
in resolving psychological and emotional issues for themselves, their
families, and their community. Their philosophy and methodology recognizes
the importance of mental health issues in the "reconstruction" of their
identity, and the process of returning to Guatemalan society.
Imbali
Rehabilitation Programme
Pieter
Maritzburg, South Africa: Imbali was
the first township to experience organized political violence in the
troubled state of Natal, South Africa. The youth of the Imbali township
took up arms to defend their community against attack by forces of the
South African apartheid state. The ensuing violence claimed a minimum
of 800 lives out of a population of 35,000; and the survivors carry
the invisible signs of psychological trauma. It was in this context
that the community established the Imbali Rehabilitation Centre where
youth could work together to heal their scars and learn productive skills.
With special focus on the youth and women of the community the program
incorporates conflict resolution skills with training in music, story
telling, drama and creative writing. The participants are also trained
in technical skills, with the goal of helping them form cooperatives
to earn a living. The ultimate goal of the project is to empower the
community in its own healing and construction of a new and peaceful
South Africa.
Mujer
Ahora, Montevideo, Uruguay: Started in 1989 by women
from diverse fields – including medicine, social work. psychology, law
and other professions – Mujer Ahora brings a holistic approach to women's
health, with special attention to mental health. One of their principal
objectives is to promote awareness around issues of women's health and
to combat the marginalization of women's health issues in society.
They offer workshops, counseling, and consciousness-raising groups on
women's health. Their workshops on mental health address issues such
as self-esteem, and women's relationships with their partners, their
mothers, and their children. They also offer workshops on creativity,
releasing tensions, and recreation. In addition, they have a special
focus on domestic violence against women, bringing a personal as well
as social and legal perspective to the issue. They facilitate the formation
of groups of women in similar circumstances to explore their alternatives
together.
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1992
Grants
Asociación
de Artesanos Aj Quen
Chimaltenago. Guatemala: The Associaci6n is a group of 2300 artisans
organized in 40 local groups. Eighty per cent are women who have been
victims of political violence, and are members of Quiche, Cakchiquel,
Ixil and Kekchi indigenous communities. These women have fought for
economic survival, cultural resistance and defense of their rights as
women. The Associación facilitates processes through which these women
artisans receive just pay for their work, improve their means of production,
preserve textile art, and develop technical skills to these ends. They
propose a training project which would focus on human rights and women's
rights. They will develop a curriculum made up of two courses on community
development and organization, a special workshop on the participation
of women, and special social and technical training around these issues
for all members.
Asociación
de Capacitación e Investigación
para la Salud Mental, San Salvador, El Salvador:
Since the beginning of the cease-fire in El Salvador, mental health
problems have surfaced in the populations affected by the armed conflict.
The mental and physical well-being of the population is aggravated by
the lack of an adequate health care system, especially in the northern
and eastern parts of the country, the areas hardest hit during the war.
Furthermore, when it is available, many people resort solely to medical
attention, which can only provide symptomatic treatment.
This grant will support the group’s programs in the northern part of
the country, Chalantenango. ACISAM will provide treatment for ex-combatants
and the civilian population. In addition, they will design an educational
program for people interested in rebuilding the social fabric of their
communities in the post-war period.
Children’s
Rehabilitation Center - Panay
Children’s Rehabilitation Center - Negros, Iloilo City,
Philippines:
As a result of government repression and US-supported militarization,
many people in the Philippines have been uprooted. Among the victims
of this political situation, children have suffered the most in silence.
Thus far the Children's Rehabilitation Center is the only institution
focusing on children who suffer physical health problems, emotional
disorders and social maladjustment due to such traumatic events as arrests
and torture, forced displacement, bombing, massacre, disappearance and
other forms of human rights violations.
Most of the children and families affected by the conflicts can be found
in the rural areas. Due to difficulties in distance and security, CRC
has established regional centers which have the same program components
as the national office, but have evolved based on the particular conditions
of the area.
In the regional office of Panay, it was noted by the staff that a considerable
percentage of female adolescents had been raped. In response to this
they seek to create a program which specifically focuses on rape victims
since there are no available rape crisis centers in Panay. The grant
will be used to provide further training of staff so they will be sufficiently
equipped to render crisis intervention to victims of rape. The grant
to the regional office in Negros will be used to provide alternative,
group-based therapy with children of political detainees in Negros Occidental.
Visit the
CRC's website.
Committee
of Families for the Liberty of Political Prisoners and the Disappeared
of El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador:
The changes in El Salvador affect every aspect of the country. Among
other things, the Peace Accords have opened up the space to permit more
direct contact with the population, who little by little are losing
their fear of talking about their problems. CODEFAM’s Child Development
Center provides comprehensive attention to the growth and development
needs of children scarred by the effects of war and poverty.
The Center provides an alternative form of community, in which children
work together for a common and constructive good. In this way, these
victims of civil war, children and parents alike, will become more fully
integrated to the Salvadoran society. The Martín-Baró Fund grant will
be used to expand efforts to provide counseling and parenting education
to the children's families.
Guatemalan Mental Health
Promoters Group
Mexico City, Mexico: One of the most significant changes in Guatemala
has been the recent signing of an agreement between the Guatemalan government
and the Permanent Commissions (the elected representatives of the refugees
in the refugee camps) concerning the conditions which will govern the
refugees’ return. The operational and political aspects of these questions
are the ones receiving the most attention in the current environment.
Yet mental health issues loom large in this context.
The dilemma of returning home or remaining in Mexico has surfaced fears,
and anxieties triggered by old memories and new possibilities of again
encountering violence and repression. As a result, the community-based
health promoters are initiating more training of mental health promoters
in the refugee camps in the southern states of Mexico. Support from
the Fund will enable them to continue these efforts with a particular
focus on questions related to refugee return.
Movimiento Solidario
de Salud Mental
Capital Federal, Argentina: The psychologists involved with Movimiento
Solidario have developed programs which include clinical activities,
research, preventive community health practices, documentation and communication
focused exclusively on Mental Health and Human Rights. They propose
to develop a new program of work focused on gender consciousness with
a group of young women directly impacted by state terrorism, specifically
targeting daughters of disappeared or assassinated parents.
The grant will allow the organization to develop a group-based model
for therapeutic work that includes creative techniques such as dramatization
and art, and gender-focused reflections. The group hopes in this way
to begin a process of integrating gender awareness into its regular
services.
Stop
Torture in Korea
Berkeley, California, USA / South Korea: The division of Korea
led to a series of staunch dictatorial regimes that have justified the
systematic sacrifice of civil rights and human life under the banner
of anti-communism. Since the formation of the Republic of Korea, there
have been at least 50,000 cases of persons convicted as political prisoners.
Most of these political prisoners have been consistently and severely
tortured during investigation and imprisonment.
This grant will assist the Korea STIK office to research and document
individual cases as well as the history of torture in Korea through
interviews of survivors of torture and their families. The project will
provide STIK with invaluable information regarding the extent of organized
violence and facilitate their understanding of the social impact of
torture. By documenting the specific cases of torture, the organization
will also bring the problems of torture survivors to the attention of
the progressive community in South Korea. Such a project is the first
phase in mobilizing resources in South Korea to the needs of torture
survivors and the role they can play in stopping the repression.
Unión Nacional de Trabajadores
Mexico City, Mexico: The economic repression faced by many Mexican
workers has directly affected the harmony and integrity of their families.
Frustration and stress has led to drug and alcohol addiction, domestic
violence, child abuse, prostitution, and emotional instability.
The
Unión Nacional de Trabajadores requested support for the development
of a Popular Education School. The School will offer a context for exploring
the economic situation of Mexico and the crisis that the working-class
is experiencing now. In addition, it will build connections among workers
and workers' families towards developing a more empowering alternative
that also mobilizes towards action as workers.
Return to Top
1991
Grants
Asociación Salvadoreña
de Ayuda Humanitaria Pro-Vida
San Salvador, El Salvador: In the daily life of the majority
of Salvadorans there has existed and continues to exist a violation
of human rights from which children have not been spared. PRO-VIDA established
the Center for the Comprehensive Care of the Child, to take care of
the children who as a result of the war have become orphaned, and to
guarantee them the necessary conditions so that they could develop physically
and mentally.
Ateneo de Estudios Sanitarios
y Sociales
Buenos Aires, Argentina: The privatization of health care in
Argentina has had grave consequences for the social and participatory
conditions for sectors of the population whose access is increasingly
limited. Ateneo de Estudios Sanitarios y Sociales, proposes to provide
the isolated island community of Tigre Delta with prevention and treatment
through mental health care agents, and to encourage the Islanders to
promote health care to the community at large. This grant will support
their efforts.
Comité
de Madres de Heroes y Martires
Matagalpa, Nicaragua: The Comité has established a Child Care
Center for children between the ages of one and six, who have been orphaned
by the war, recent political killings, etc. This project will provide
educational, emotional, and material services that will allow these
children to develop as emotionally and physically healthy individuals.
This grant will assist in this project.
Committee
of Families for the Liberty of Political Prisoners and the Disappeared
of El Salvador, San Salvador, El Salvador: CODEFAM
is a non-governmental human rights organization composed of relatives
of political prisoners and the disappeared. Its focus has been to defend
the rights of people who have been imprisoned by the government for
political reasons and to provide humanitarian assistance to their families.
The grant will enable CODEFAM to expand support for psychological trauma
victims of the war, to fully reintegrate into Salvadoran society and
contribute to the peace process.
Fundacion
para el Desarrollo y la
Promoción de las Redes Sociales, Buenos Aires, Argentina:
Through its Walking Together Program, FUNDARED attempts to address the
needs of teenagers in high schools. The project is a training program
for construction of solidarity networks amongst youngster with the objective
of preventing school failure, dropout, violence, and addictions. The
Martín-Baró Fund grant will be used for the further development of the
program,
Guatemalan Mental Health
Promoters Group
Mexico City, Mexico: The violence, war and repression in Guatemala
has forced hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans to seek. safety and
refuge in Mexico. Through this program, Guatemalan women refugees are
able to understand and analyze more profoundly the problems they suffer,
principally as a result of war and exile, and create their own appropriate
solutions. The grant will be used to develop self-help resources and
training as mental health promoters in their communities.
Mental
Health: The Community as Support
Bedia, Spain / Latin America: Following their work in El Salvador
and Guatemala with humanitarian, human rights, ecclesiastic, and popular
movement groups working with survivors of torture and political repression,
two mental health professionals have compiled their experiences into
a training manual. The manual offers easily usable and clearly synthesized
material that serves as a resource on different therapeutic and preventive
experiences for work with survivors of torture and political repression
within a group setting. Support from the Fund will be used for production
of the manual, and for its distribution to mental health providers in
Latin America.
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1990
Grants
Association
for Comprehensive Health Care
Managua, Nicaragua: This association has provided psychosocial
assistance to victims of the war in Nicaragua since 1987. In the midst
of political and economic turmoil, it has been reconstituted as a non-governmental
organization (NGO) to continue this work. Support from the Fund will
be used to sustain direct services, conduct workshops and mental health
training sessions, and develop ties with the international community.
Association
of Guatemalan
Refugees United to Improve Health, Chiapas, Mexico:
Formed by health promoters, this group serves as a vehicle for the coordination
of health promoters in and around refugee camps in Chiapas, Quintana
Roo, and Campeche in Southern Mexico. The grant will be used for training
courses and mental health workshops to provide health promoters with
the skills necessary to work with refugees in exile.
Association
of Israeli and Palestinian
Physicians for Human Rights, Tel Aviv, Israel, and Palestine:
Every month members of this Association visit villages and refugee camps
in the Occupied Territories in order to provide medical services. The
grant will be used to conduct a Mental Health Needs Assessment in the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank; members are aiming to create a community-based
network of mental health workers who will work in the territories during
and after the occupation.
Center for Legal and
Social Studies, Buenos Aires, Argentina:
The mental health team of CELS has for over eight years provided psychological
resources for survivors of Argentina's most recent military dictatorship
(1976-1983). The team has begun psychological assistance and education
programs with adolescents and their families who live in one of the
marginal zones in Buenos Aires. This grant will assist in this project.
Committee
of Families for
the Liberty of Political Prisoners, San Salvador, El
Salvador: CODEFAM has established a Child Development Center which
provides a fully integrated program of psychological counseling and
therapy, popular education training, and physical care critical to the
recovery of children three months to 14 years of age whose families
have been the target of state-sponsored violence. The grant will enable
CODEFAM to expand psychological services to 100 children.
Leandro
L. Alejandro Foundation, Quezon City, Philippines:
The Alejandro Foundation will develop a human rights primer for use
by social activists and people's organizations delineating basic human
rights under the new "democratic" government. The Martín-Baró Fund grant
will be used to produce this primer to be published in six major languages
spoken in the Philippines.
Refugees
for Peace
Harlingen, Texas, USA: Refugees for Peace provides basic services
to a nascent community of refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala faced
with an alienating and often hostile environment in the Rio Grande area
in Texas. Organized by refugees, its overall purpose is to affirm the
cultural practice and value of these exile communities and to fight
for basic rights denied to undocumented residents. The grant will be
used to fund start-up operations.
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to Top
English
to Spanish translations
courtesy
of Melisa Flores
©
2007, Ignacio Martín-Baró Fund for Mental Health & Human Rights
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