Annual Report 2009
Bringing development
together
Table of Contents
2 Letter from the Director Notable Events in 2009
3 4 5 6 7 8
First Capacity Building Workshop of the Year Women’s Weaving Cooperative Reunion Computer Classes for NGO Staff Begin New Partnership with International Foundation EntreMundos Website Launched in Spanish First Workshop on Setting-Up of Cooperatives Launch of New Look EntreMundos Magazine EntreMundos Partners IAHA Election Day in Pacutama and Chuicutama Capacity Building Programme Restarts Innaugural Eco-Tourism Workshop
Plans for 2010 9 The Volunteer Programme
11 13 15
Eco-Tourism Workshops Capacity Building Programme Volunteer Events
17 Financial Report
19 The EntreMundos Team
Letter from the Director To our Contributors, Colleagues and Friends Over the last two decades, the volunteer tourism market has grown rapidly. It is in response to the huge demand that exists to be directly involved in development projects abroad instead of just ´donating money.´ In the past, volunteering typically ment a significant investment of time, generally requiring people to spend several weeks or months supporting a project. Todays volunteers are seeking a one-off or short-term volunteer position; they want to combine travel and voluntary work. Many travel agencies have begun to realize that there is a high-end tourist market that is attracted to volunteering and have started to offer a multitude of options for people interested in mixing small periods of volunteering in with their holiday travel. But there are emerging ethical concerns about the benefits of volunteer travel, with some groups suggesting that it can do more harm than good. EntreMundos wants to prevent that volunteer work is misdirected and organised more for the benefit of the untrained traveller than the recipient(s) of their efforts. Our organisation is an intermediary which facilitates and connects organisations and volunteers, both national and international. By providing guidance, workshops and lots of related information on our website and our magazine we hope to help maximise the impact of each volunteer and organisation.
Yet van Oenen, Director EntreMundos 2008 - 2009
Yet van Oenen Director of EntreMundos
Notable Events in 2009 January The First Capacity Building Workshop of the New Year In the Western Highlands of Guatemala, there has for some time now been a significant and demonstrated need for high-quality development assistance to local indigenous NGOs. For grassroots non-profits with scarce resources, the programmes offered by EntreMundos to build their capacities and effectiveness, are vital to the development of these organisations, their communities, and the country as a whole. One of the main pillars of our work, the constantly improving and evolving Capacity Building Programme, run in partnership with Planet Wheeler, has already delivered high-impact training to over 90 organisations here in the Western Highlands and in January we kick-started the New Year with one of our most successful workshops to date on the theme of Project Planning.
February Women’s Weaving Cooperatives Reunion Held at EntreMundos In the second half of 2008, a series of workshops were conducted for women’s weaving cooperatives in the communities of Chirijox and Chuacruz. To bring this series to a close, a final workshop was held at EntreMundos premises in Quetzaltenango. Themes covered during the day included an introduction to international exports, quality control, the history of traditional weaving patterns, as well as a popular talk on the importance of self-esteem and taking pride in Mayan culture. The aim of this final workshop was to bring these two communities closer together and to encourage them to share their experiences and knowledge. It was also intended as a way of introducing the cooperative members to the city of Quetzaltenango – and important commercial centre within Guatemala where opportunities to market and sell their products are much greater and more diverse than in the towns surrounding their communities.
Notable Events in 2009 April Computer Classes for NGO Staff Begin In April we were delighted to be able to begin offering beginners and intermediate computer courses, specifically tailored towards NGO managers and staff. These courses are designed to provide organisations with greatly enhanced internal and external communication, higher visibility and improved capacity for fundraising. With the importance of information technology never greater, the chance for small-scale NGOs to learn vital IT skills and, within a matter of weeks, be able for the first time to have information and photos describing their organisation online, combined with the ability to communicate with this new audience and support, is something of significant value to our local partners.
May EntreMundos Announces New Partnership with the International Foundation In May of 2009, EntreMundos welcomed a new partner, the International Foundation, who co-funded with EntreMundos a further Community Capacity Building Programme. The first component of this programme was a series of workshops on the Setting- Up of Cooperatives. For this, EntreMundos began working with the rural, indigenous communities of Pacutama and Chuicutama - two communities forced to relocate after having their homes destroyed by Hurricane Stan in 2006. The second component of the programme focussed on the theme of eco-tourism and specifically targeted rural indigenous communities that were also in the initial stages of developing cooperatives to more efficiently manage their natural resources. By working extensively to build the capacities of these newly formed cooperatives and by providing professional ongoing support and assistance to these communities, we can help create projects with long-term sustainability that will provide a vital source of revenue to rural, indigenous, whilst at the same time safeguarding their traditional cultures and the surrounding natural environment.
Notable Events in 2009
June The EntreMundos Website is Launched in Spanish The Spanish version of the EntreMundos website was launched in June has been designed to give more information about our vision mission and activities as well as being a learning tool for local NGOs in the Western Highlands of Guatemala for capacity building and other themes relevant to the local NGO sector. Included on the site is information on many topics such as local fundraising ideas, how to write an introductory letter and full proposal as well as information on free online resources for NGOs and links to other internet sites dedicated to development issues. It also includes electronic versions of our capacity building training manuals and many other free online publications of interest to development organisations.
August First Workshop Held With Support of the International Foundation The first workshop of the Setting up of Cooperatives Workshop Series took place on the 7th August. The goal of these workshops, held in the communities of Pacutama and Chuicutama, was to form a functioning and effective cooperative of women in the two communities and bring them to a uniform standard of product quality so as to enable them to sell their products internationally. At the end of the year Y’abal, a partner organisation of EntreMundos, with their established market contacts in North America and Europe, will then take over responsibility for generating orders and thus creating a vital, long-term, sustainable source of income for the families of Pacutama and Chuicutama.
Notable Events in 2009
September Launch of the New Look EntreMundos Magazine The significant increase in new magazines, tourist maps and guides launched in the Western Highlands region over the last year has unfortunately had a significant effect on revenues generated from advertising in our free, bi-monthly, bilingual magazine on human rights issues in Guatemala. Despite this now fierce competition for advertising space, we at EntreMundos remain committed to the need for a publication dedicated to freedom of speech and the promotion of human rights accessible to everyone. In September, we launched our new look magazine created with the collaboration of graphic designers Sergio Villatoro, Marco Reyes and Mauricio L. Vassaux.
October EntreMundos Partners the Inter-American Health Alliance (IAHA) In October 2009, the Inter-American Health Alliance (IAHA) officially took over as our fiscal sponsor for US Dollar donations. IAHA is a U.S.based non-profit that was started by volunteers to support development operations in Guatemala. IAHA’s status as a tax-exempt organisation allows U.S. donors to receive a tax discount on their donation to EntreMundos. IAHA charges no fees for this service so that the maximum amount of all donations go directly to EntreMundos projects. IAHA now also assists EntreMundos in fundraising, publicity and facilitating online donations.
Notable Events in 2009
November Election Day in Pacutama and Chuicutama As part of the series of workshops on the Setting up of Cooperatives run in collaboration with the International Foundation, the 3rd November marked the day when women’s weaving cooperative members in the villages of Pacutama and Chuicutama, elected their board of directors. The progress that has been made in these two communities is a tribute to their motivation and commitment and this day marked a real step towards self-determination. This group will now have responsibility for the management and control of the cooperative for the next two years.
First Workshops in the New Planet Wheeler Programme Year The Planet Wheeler Foundation (formerly the Lonely Planet Foundation) has been supporting our work at EntreMundos since 2006. In 2007, thanks to their generous support, we were able to launch our inaugural Capacity Building Programme. Our 2009-2010 Programme represents the third year of this continually improving, vital development initiative for local NGOs here in the Western Highlands of Guatemala.
Notable Events in 2009
December Inaugural Series of Eco-Tourism Workshops Held at EntreMundos The global tourism market represents one of the most important income streams for many countries in the World and, particularly for developing nations, their ability to attract tourist revenues is increasingly becoming one of the most vital factors in a country’s or region’s development. For this reason, many rural indigenous communities in the Western Highlands of Guatemala are uniting, forming basic structures of cooperatives and, with community leaders, attempting to identify how they can manage their natural resources most effectively to attract tourism and generate vital income. The Eco-Tourism Workshop Series brought together members from a number of such cooperatives and communities and, over the course of four days, conducted high-impact organisational training to provide genuine impetus to these fledgling projects. In the New Year we will be conducting follow up visits in selected communities to further develop these projects and hope to be able to continue to expand this new initiative further into the coming years.
Plans for 2010
Volunteer
Plans for 2010
The Volunteer Programme After our most successful year to date in 2008 with regard to volunteer interviews, 2009 was to prove a lot more challenging. A combination of factors including the global recession, the H1N1 virus and an increase in serious crime within the country being reported by the international press all had a significant impact on the number of people travelling to Guatemala. Despite these difficult circumstances, we remain strongly committed to our placement service and the value of volunteerism as a important means to assist local partner NGOs, many of whom often lack the resources to recruit assistance themselves. Some of the improvements we plan to implement over the course of 2010 are to raise the profile of our volunteer service online and to actively seek more long-term volunteers before they leave their home country. We are also currently looking into the possibility of partnering with international universities to offer intern programmes to their alumni.
Programme
Plans for 2010
Eco-tourism
m
Plans for 2010
Eco-Tourism Workshops To follow up on the success of the Eco-Tourism Workshop Series held in EntreMundos in December, we will be offering additional workshops for participants in their communities. The themes to be covered will include more in-depth project planning, production of marketing materials and advertising. As well as this we will also assist in the creation of websites for each of the participating organisations and offer free web hosting. The websites will be available in Spanish and English and for many represents the first time organisational information and marketing material for their projects has been made available online. Depending on the success of this scheme, we are also looking into the possibility of providing this free website creation and hosting service for other organisations as part of the Computer Courses in the Planet Wheeler Capacity Building Prgramme.
Workshops
Plans for 2010
Capacity Building
Plans for 2010
Planet Wheeler Capacity Building Programme The third year of our Capacity Building Programme run in partnership with the Planet Wheeler Foundation is already underway. In 2010 we will be continuing this programme with eight more in-house capacity building workshops, a new series of rural workshops and two more computer courses. The in-house workshops will continue on the themes of project planning and fundraising and well as introducing the new topics of volunteer management and child protection policies. With regard to the computer courses, we also hope to be able to offer a more one-on-one service by providing additional teaching assistants to further cater to differing skill levels within the groups.
Programme
Plans for 2010
Volunteer
Plans for 2010
Volunteer Events In a new approach for our volunteer events programme we will be working more closely with local language schools and small NGOs to create new and interesting volunteer activities for a half or full day. While short-term group volunteer activities are not appropriate for all organisations and projects, there still remain many that can benefit from this form of one-off assistance. It is also a very good opportunity for organisations in the early stages of their development to raise awareness of their activities and fundraise on a local level. A large part of our work at EntreMundos is to link organisations with resources and the many language schools that operate in the city and the students that attend them are also an important part in this network of resources. By creating stronger links between schools and local projects we can help establish a stronger base on which small projects in their initial phases of their development can build.
Events
Financial Information Condensed Financial Information For Year Ending 31st December2009 OPERATING REVENUE 2009 2008 Foundations Q188,961.02 Q54,665.40 National and International Donations Q55,378.41 Q38,059.40 Advertising Sales Revenues Q35,521.00 Q44,255.00 _____________________________________________________________________________ Total Operating Revenue Q279,860.43 Q136,979.80 OPERATING EXPENSES AND CHANGES IN NET ASSETS Programme Services Planet Wheeler Workshop Programme International Foundation Workshop Programme Volunteer Programme Magazine
2009 Q86,185.31 Q77,690.25 Q10,808.29 Q45,350.00
2008 Q59,082.70 n/a Q22,409.18 Q49,285.18
_____________________________________________________________________________ Total Programme Services
Q220,033.85
Q130,777.06
Management, Fundraising and General Expenses Q20, 779.00 Q12,495.47 _____________________________________________________________________________ Total Operating Expenses Operating Revenue Over Operating Expenses
Q240,812.85 Q39,047.58
Non-Operating Activity
Q143,272.53 (Q6,292.73)
n/a
n/a
Total Operating Revenue & Non-Operating Activity Q279,860.43
Q136,979.80
Total Operating Expenses
Q240,812.85
Q143,272.53
Increase / (Decrease) in Net Assets
Q39,047.58
(Q6,292.73)
_____________________________________________________________________________ All amounts are displayed in Guatemalan Quetzals (GTQs) with exchange rates as of 31st December 2009 as follows: 1 EURO = 11.75 GTQ 1 USD$ = 8.20 GTQ 1 AUS$ = 7.32 GTQ
Financial Information
The EntreMundos Team
Staff: Yet van Oenen Director Ian Taylor Development Coordinator Melissa Wiams Volunteer Coordinator Editor Valeria Ayerdi Jocelyn Bates Project Coordinators Diwy Tomassen Board: President Vice President Treasurur Secretary Vocal Vocal
Manuel Rodolfo Sanchez Diaz Sergio Fernando Villatoro Curnes Thomas Anthony Lingenfelter Yovani Alberto Cux Chan Glenda Gabriela Lopez Ximin Lucas Edward Vidgen
Staff for 2010: Director Development Coordinator Volunteer Coordinator Editor
Jocelyn Bates Ian Taylor Marloes Nijboer Valeria Ayerdi