Latin America Week 2002

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday April 17, 2002 15:05 by Sally - Latin America Solidarity Centre lasc at iol dot ie 5, Merrion Row, Dublin 2 (01) 676 04 35

New Struggles for Decent Housing

Latin America Week is an annual festival of educational, cultural and campaigning events held throughout the island of Ireland. The primary purpose of the week is to highlight the issues that affect the marginalised majority that live in Latin America and the Caribbean. Now in its sixteenth year, “Latin America Week 2000” focus attention on the theme of Housing or Accommodation. Accommodation is in a critical state in Ireland and Latin America and the week’s event seek to explore its root causes and the grassroots responses to it. In addition to the traditional Latin America solidarity and non-governmental constituency, a number of other specific Irish organisations and groups that deal directly with the issue of housing or accommodation will participate in the week. These include Pavee Point, Focus Ireland, the Irish Council for Social Housing and the Housing Association for Integrated Living (HAIL) amongst others.

Latin America Week
13-20 April 2002
New Struggles for Decent Housing

Latin America Week is an annual festival of educational, cultural and campaigning events held throughout the island of Ireland. The primary purpose of the week is to highlight the issues that affect the marginalised majority that live in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Now in its sixteenth year, “Latin America Week 2000” focus attention on the theme of Housing or Accommodation. Accommodation is in a critical state in Ireland and Latin America and the week’s event seek to explore its root causes and the grassroots responses to it.
In addition to the traditional Latin America solidarity and non-governmental constituency, a number of other specific Irish organisations and groups that deal directly with the issue of housing or accommodation will participate in the week. These include Pavee Point, Focus Ireland, the Irish Council for Social Housing and the Housing Association for Integrated Living (HAIL) amongst others.

Visiting Speakers from Latin America

Brazil

Maria Alvez “Bezinha” da Silva, Anselmo Schwertner and Marcelo Forlanski are activists from the Movimento Nacional de Luta pela Moradia (MNLM) or National Movement of Struggle for Housing. The Moradia (Portuguese for Housing) movement has won real reforms all over Brazil due to its strategy of co-ordinating grassroots housing organisations which are constantly and actively negotiating with urban councils and state governments all over the vast country, thereby taking on a political role. The Moradia movement is also well known and respected for its support of homeless and landless people in their mass occupations of unused land, using popular education and alternative technologies to help them to cling to their hard-won territory.

Nicaragua
Juan Ramón Osorio lived in an agricultural co-operative, wich was attacked during the 80s by the U.S. funded and trained right-wing Contras. All the houses and the school were destroyed and a number of young people killed. Juan Ramón was involved in the reconstruction with help from work brigades from Europe. His house was again destroyed more recently by Hurricane Mitch. He has been a member of the FSLN for 20 years. Juan Ramón will explain how to use drama as a tool for community development/awareness and conflict resolution.

El Salvador
Cruz María Hernández Méndez is a young woman from San Antonio Abad, in El Salvador. This is an area on the side of a volcan that has suffered particularly badly during the civil war. Altogether over 30 of the parish have been murdered in her lifetime. Her experience is mostly in the area of education (workshops for teenagers, preparing them for employment) and she also worked in Guatemala where she became familiar with social housing projects initiated for the victims of hurricane Mitch and, on her return to her homeland, with similar projects set up after recent earthquakes.

In Dublin, on Thursday night, there will be a social night in the Mother Red Caps Tavern, Christchurch, Back Lane, Dublin 8, starting at 8.30pm.
The Closing Conference is taking place on Saturday (10h00-17h00) in the Irish Writers Centre, 19 Parnell Sq., Dublin 1.

The speakers are travelling around the island. On Thursday there will be different activities taking place in Cork, Derry, Galway, Limerick and Wexford. For more info, check LASC website: www.iol.ie/~lasc or phone (01) 676 04 35