The moment we arrived in Condega, Nicaragua, the women from the
Network of Women (RED de Mujeres) and the Women's Construction
Collective (Colectivo de Mujeres Constructoras) welcomed
us into their community with open arms. During our two-month stay,
we worked long days building and spent many evenings engrossed
in conversation with Condegan women.
The first night, the two organizations threw a party for us. The next morning we sat down with women from the Collective Amanda Centeno, the director, and Helen Shears, a development worker and trainer to talk about the organization of the project. After a tour of the hurricane-damaged areas in Condega, we took a trip to Santa Teresa, where we would be building the first house. We actually began digging the foundation that afternoon.
Santa Teresa is a small community about 30 minutes from central Condega. In all of the municipality of Condega, Santa Teresa was most affected by Hurricane Mitch. Fully half of the houses were destroyed, and nearly all the roads were washed away. The few houses that remained standing had as many as five families living in each one.
To get to Santa Teresa each day, we would ride in a pickup
truck through the mountains
on the newly built road, which was still lined with piles of debris
from the hurricane. Where there once had been houses, there remained
only gravel and uprooted trees.
We began to look forward to the sight of the beneficiary Beatriz smiling as we arrived at work. Feeling the enthusiasm of Beatriz and her son taking part in the building of their new house was more than enough to dispel the distress of our daily ride.
Beatriz works with the Network of Women as a peer advocate, or "defensora." Defensoras undergo a yearlong training program, participating in workshops about self-esteem, self-defense, and health. Beatriz now serves as a contact for the Network of Women in Santa Teresa. Many of the other beneficiaries have also worked in some capacity for the Network of Women or the Women's Construction Collective. The beneficiaries pay for their houses according to their ability; the balance is repaid in "sweat equity," with the beneficiaries and their family members working on the construction of their houses.
Up on site in Santa Teresa, the building process was slow. As there was no electricity or running water, virtually everything had to be done manually. The majority of us did not have experience in the Nicaraguan methods of construction. We had no power tools, just hammers, hand saws, picks, and shovels. Without a cement mixer, all the concrete had to be mixed by hand. We had to make two to three trips per day to the river to retrieve water and gravel.
An occasional distraction was the presence of an audience at the construction site. It is not an ordinary sight anywhere in the world to see a group of women constructing a house. People from the community often came over to watch us working. Sometimes the men asked us, "Where are the men?" and offered unsolicited suggestions. Most of them were surprised that women could do this work. We heard reports of some men in Condega telling beneficiaries that their houses would never be built.
Nearer Condega, the women began work on 23 more houses on a large piece of land donated by the local council. Four more Nicaraguan women received training in construction under the supervision of Centeno and Shears. Meanwhile five other women worked in the carpentry workshop making windows and doors for all the houses. Additionally, another group of five women produced all the ironwork.
While the local government provides jobs to men in construction, the Women's Construction Collective works to train and employ women in non-traditional trades. In a country that had seventy percent unemployment before the hurricane, the project has provided many local women with employment and valuable skills useful even after the post-Mitch reconstruction process has ended. There are no other opportunities in the area for women interested in carpentry or construction. Breaking gender roles, these women have realized their potential for doing this type of work. Each beneficiary gains also in participating in the construction of her house and in receiving the title to her new home.
All the women involved in the project beneficiaries, trainees, and volunteers take great pride in their participation. When her house was completed, Beatriz told me how proud she was to have the most beautiful house in her community. And she can take credit for having been integrally involved in the building of the house she now owns. By employing and empowering local women and creating bonds of international solidarity between women's groups, the cooperation between the Network of Women, the Women's Construction Collective, and the Condega Homemakers Project is proving the success of a women-centered development project.
-- Lucinda Grinnell
CHP First Year Report, January 2000