Honduras: How to promote the Right to Education

["Raquel Isaula" <raquel@rds.org.hn>]

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Subject:        	Honduras: How to promote the Right to Education
Date sent:      	Fri, 8 Aug 2003 20:55:23 -0400

August 8, 2003

HONDURAS:  HOW TO FIGHT FOR AND DEFEND THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION

This information was prepared by Jessica Pupovac
(www.rightsaction.org). Please re-publish and distribute this
information, citing Rights Action. If you want on/ off this e-list:
info@rightsaction.org

===

COPINH STRUGGLES TO IMPROVE EDUCATION IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES, June
15, 2003

Today I write with good news.  I have spent the last few weeks living
and working in La Esperanza, Honduras, with COPINH, the Civic Council
of Indigenous People of Honduras.  The Lenca people of COPINH have
every reason to have thrown in the towel decades ago and accepted
their fate as an impoverished, historically marginalized people
without social services or educational or employment opportunities. 

However, seeing the crucial importance of an education in changing
that reality, and knowing that it is their right to have access to
such, they organized last week and took control of the regional
Ministry of Education building, demanding placement of teachers in
rural areas and a host of political and educational reforms (see
previous article, Rights Action, included below).  A week later, 
their
movement larger and growing stronger, they got the attention of the
international press with a energetic demonstration outside of the
president?s home and reached a negotiation with the government that
consceded on all of their major points.

I found their struggle, and their acheivements not only inspiring, 
but
something worth sharing with the rest of the world, filled as it is
with so many people who believe that things ?are the way they are? 
and
that the best option is usually the path of least resistance.  I 
offer
here, then, a lesson from COPINH on how to initiate meaningful 
change.

THEY MOBILIZED a group of people around some basic points, in this
case ?everyone has a right to an education? and ?our representatives
are corrupt and do not represent us.?  They did their homework and
learned of the pattern of teachers being pulled out of, or never
showing up in, indigenous communities, and they solicited the support
of these communities in their struggle.

THEY DEMANDED TO BE HEARD.  After taking over the Ministry of
Education building and attracting nationwide press attention, they
moved to a busy street in front of the President?s House and erected
18 crosses along the side of the road, upon which they took turns
being crucified for short periods of time under the hot sun.  All day
long, as people drove to work, ran errands, had lunch and came home,
there they were.  Being such a Christian country, and being 18
crucified campesinos on the side of the road, the national and
intenational press covered the story, replete with photos, and the
president, expecting an unidentified ?foreign mission? the next day,
was in a hurry to get them satisfied and on their way.

THEY HAD RESOLVE.   The first night of the ?toma,? there was an
unmistakable sense of anticipation and celebration in the building.  
A
traditional band came from a member community to sing songs of
resistance and hope and people danced and laughed and celebrated the
fact that change was underway.  They never lost this spirit 
throughout
the week.

THEY STOOD TOGETHER.  A friend of mine who had worked with COPINH
previously told me before I headed down here that, they had taught 
him
?the meaning of solidarity.?  I thought this was a hokey thing to say
at the time, but now I understand what he meant.  Everyone was always
eager to do their part to help each other out, to share their small
blankets during the cold nights, to wait until others had their food
before taking their own.  And, more importantly, they didn?t leave ?
there was always a huge crowd of people at the toma, and before 
people
would leave, they would make sure that others had arrived to replace
them.

THEY PERSEVERED ? EVERY TIME.  Although this particular action only
lasted one week, it had a lot of weight because the people of COPINH
said that they weren?t going to leave until a negotiation was 
reached.
Based on previous experience, including an entire month during which
they occupied part of the national congress, in 2001, government
officials knew they were serious.

THEY HAD SPECIFIC GOALS TO BE MET.  They had a list of demands, they
prioritized them, and they brought them to the government officials 
in
charge of implementing them.  On the night of June 10, they signed an
agreement with the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of
Justice, promising that vacant teachers? posts would be immediately
filled, that the corrupt Deputy Director in Intibucá would be
suspended for a period of two months while the allegations of
corruption are investigated, and that a Commission for Education
Quality will be created.  The Commission will be comprised of
government representatives, COPINH representatives, a teacher?s 
union.

And that, my friends, is how it is done.  Rights Action takes this
opportunity to congratulate COPINH in this and their many other
achievements in improving the quality of life and the level of
political power enjoyed by indigenous communities throughout 
Honduras.
 For me, it has been an honor to work alongside of you.  (Jessica
Pupovac, June 15, 2003)

===

PREVIOUS URGENT ACTION, prepared by Jessica Pupovac, Rights Action.

From: Rights Action [info@rightsaction.org]
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2003 12:03 PM
URGENT ACTION - COPINH DEMANDS EDUCATION REFORM IN HONDURAS

?Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to
govern, but impossible to enslave.?  Henry Peter Broughan

[This article/ urgent action was prepared by Jessica Pupovac, who
works with Rights Action in Honduras]

Over 500 years ago, Cristopher Columbus landed in the Bahia Islands 
of
what is now known as Honduras.  Within one generation the 
colonialists
were running every pueblo and remote village throughout the lands.
Within two generations, almost every Indigenous language had been
eradicated.

Popular and indigenous movements in neighboring Guatemala, El 
Salvador
and Nicaragua have taken up arms to resist US-backed State repression
and to demand their rights on various occasions during the second 
half
of the twentieth century, but not in Honduras.  Some Hondurans I have
met call themselves a ?docile? people, beaten down so many times they
no longer attempt to get up and demand what is rightfully theirs.

But not in La Esperanza, Intibuca, where COPINH (Civic Council of
Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras) yesterday ?took? 
the
Department of Education building, demanding education reform,
particularly in the rural, predominantly indigenous regions where
teachers are scarce if not altogether absent.  COPINH is a grassroots
community development organization working for indigenous and human
rights throughout western Honduras in Lenca descendent and campesino
communities.

In this case, COPINH is demanding the resignation of a corrupt local
Director of the Ministry of Education and to address the lack of
educators in rural and indigenous communities.  With a folkloric 
music
band, a group of about ten women making the tortillas throughout the
day, and a crowd of approximately 50 people, the majority of whom
traveled from rural communities throughout the region, the people of
COPINH arrived at the local Ministry of Education at 7am yesterday
morning with no intention of leaving until their demands are met.

The recent UN Report on Human Development found that the most
impoverished regions of Honduras are the departments of Lempira,
Intibucá and Santa Barbara, not coincidentally the regions where the
largest percentage of Honduras? indigenous population resides.  These
departments, in addition to La Paz, are home to the majority of
COPINH?s constituency.

Not only are the majority of Hondurans extremely poor, but economic
development stimulation and stabilization programs, designed and
initiated by International Finance Institutions (IFIs), have
maintained or worsened the poverty of the majority.  The World Bank
and Inter-American Development Bank have invested highly in Honduras,
but with a largely negative as opposed to positive effect on poor and
exploited communities.  Recent studies show that Poverty Reduction
Strategies, implemented in many African, Latin American and Asian
countries by the IFIs, have increased the number of exploited people
living in poverty.  As the local paper El Tiempo pointed out last
week, Honduras is not exception.  According to the Social Forum on
External Debt in Honduras, ?the medicine has turned out to be worse
than the illness.? (El Tiempo, June 3, 2003)

Honduras? external debt is $5.6 billion, and even there were no debt
it is hard to believe that investing in social services and the basic
rights of the majority would be a priority of Honduras? current
administration or the IFIs.  According to Roy Guevara Arzú, Secretery
General of Afroamérica XXI, (an Inter-American organization that
fights for Afro-American rights):  ?The methods that the current
administration is utilizing are contrary to any initiative that could
realistically reduce poverty -- they are implementing more taxes,
devaluating the currency and investing little in the social sector 
...
the resources that have they only use to pay the state debts.? (El
Tiempo, June 3, 2003)

RIGHT TO EDUCATION
The immediate aim of COPINH?s demonstration is to force the
resignation of Hugo Eduardo Vasquez, who they claim is a corrupt
Deputy Director of the Ministry of Education in the department of
Intibucá.  Vasquez is a prominent member of the Partido Nacional, the
ruling party in Honduras that is notorious for corruption: last year,
the President of the National Congress and others took out government
loans totaling tens of millions of Lempira (Honduran currency) and
used it to cancel their own debts.  Under their rule, only areas of
the country that align themselves with their party receive priority
for social services. 

An exploited and misdirected country, coupled with corrupt leaders
stealing from the public purse leaves many impoverished areas without
adequate schooling.  Those communities that do have ?operational?
schools often lack funds for enough teachers for the number of
students in the community.  Approximately 16 schools in the
municipality of La Esperanza have only one teacher for 100-150
students.

Recently, many teachers have been transferred from rural, indigenous
areas into the larger towns.  Others have simply stopped receiving
their salaries.  Teacher Carlos Suezo, representative of COPEMA
(Colegio of High School Teachers), is a constant presence at the
demonstration.  He says that although he has not received a salary
since February, he continues to teach his classes.  Carlos loves what
he does and does not have a family to support.  Most do not have the
freedom to make such a sacrifice and have had to look for employment
elsewhere.

If a rural community has a school, it typically is only primary 
level.
According to UN statistics, the average Honduran receives 5 years of
education in his or her lifetime.  If a student wishes to continue
their studies and advance to middle or high school, they have to do 
so
at an average cost of L2,000 a month (for materials, lodging and
transportation).  In a region where families earn on average L40-50 a
day (less than $3), continuing education beyond the fifth grade is
nothing more than a pipe dream.  

Therefore, students from rural communities can never go on to become
teachers and return to their communities to teach, and the people are
never given the means by which to educate themselves or each other 
and
thereby improve their condition -- and the cycle of poverty and
exclusion continues.  

?All agree that the single most important key to development and to
poverty alleviation is education,? touts James D Wolfenson, President
of the World Bank, on the World Bank website.  Yet, while the IFIs 
and
governments of the wealthy and powerful ?first world? nations stress
the need for ?third world? education (?in order to improve its
education systems to have a more skillful and therefore more
productive workforce?), their policies prevent that from happening. 
Throughout Africa, Latin American and Asia, privatization of 
education
is being pushed by the global development banks, which experts say
will raise service charges, putting education even farther out of
reach for marginalized populations, and meanwhile efforts to take the
indigenous populations into account are cosmetic and superficial.

Evidence of this is found in the fact that there is little or no
disaggregated data for indigenous populations in Latin America,
although they are disproportionately represented among the 
continent?s
poor. They are largely absent from the planning, design and
implementation of development policies and programs that directly
affect their lives and communities.

However, COPINH has organized programs to train indigenous teachers 
to
teach their communities in an inclusive manner.  They have begun to
collect and organize information about the repression they face and
how they plan to combat it.  And today, they are organizing to tell
their government, and the rest of the world, that they will not be
forgotten. They are pointing out the deficiencies of the education
system in an attempt to create a better future.  

===

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for community education work in Honduras.  Make payable to ?Rights
Action?, and mail to USA: 1830 Connecticut Av, NW, Washington DC,
20009, or CANADA: 509 St. Clair Av, W, box73527, Toronto, ON, M6C-
1C0.


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