Help! Guatemala needs to sell more Peanut Butter!

So I have had this idea floating around in my head for a few years now. When I was in Guatemala, the groups I was working for quite often required some expertise or service in a particular area, but either:

• Didn't know where to find this service
• Were dubious about the quality of the service
• Could not afford the price of the service

An example would have been the labels we had to design for the products the groups were selling. The "to-market" time of many of these products was extremely fast, meaning that someone had to design a package and presentation for the product in often a very short period. The design could be one by anyone from the groups themselves to someone working in the "economic ministry", many of which had dubious credentials inproduct design. Mostly the groups themselves or more importantly the customers had no input into the product design.

My thought, as I myself (not a product designer!) was trying to improve the design of a peanut butter jar and label (see right), was that there must exist literally thousands of people in the world (either locals or in other countries) that would love to try and design a peanut butter label for a group of indigenous women in Guatemala. 

Who did I have in mind? 

1. Art design students, thousands of which I am guessing create designs for mythical products that don't exist (and I am definitely including students from Guatemalan Universities in this).
2. Art design professionals, who work in an ad agency doing work where they themselves have little creative input. 

There are perhaps other obvious candidates, but none that come to mind at present. 

But how could such a connection be established? Obviously, through the internet. On a basic level, a problem would be posted, with a fee to be paid by the group (calculated by themselves, and perhaps in the future by a third party). This problem could be taken up by a number of parties (or one party that the group chose themselves), and the "winner" awarded the fee. A professor, for example, could present the problem to his students. A maximum of four competing people could design peanut butter labels within the parameters defined. 

For design professionals and professors/students, access to the internet is not usually a problem. For businesses in the non-profit world, that access is not so assured. It would require local groups to promote such an offer. But these local groups are now involved in third-world countries in several areas: Micro-loans, Internet courses, etc. It would be partnerships with these groups that could promote the service. 

How much would such a service cost? The idea of charging a fee for the service has, in my view, three advantages. One, that the business realises they are getting a service, and not something for free, which gives it more worth to them and also helps them in running the business, rather than a charity. Two, that the person providing the service is renumerated for their services. Three, that the service website has some small amount of income to allow for maintenance, etc.

It is also possible to forsee that the website itself could provide some consulting in terms of which groups receive priority for services, that not too many service requests for $0.01 are posted on the website, and perhaps in the future that certain services cost a base fee, or a standard fee. The website could also translate problems into other languages. It is envisaged that the website would fulfill a role similar to the Kiva website, helping users distinguish which services were for them. 

What services could be requested? Ideas for improving the project management of a stagnated small business, label design, product funtionality design (for example with solar systems for remote communities), website design. 

What does it need? For me, a good place to start would be with an international organisation that would be able to promote such a service. We are talking in one specific country at first, say India, with a Microcredit organisation. The website would be built and managed whereever (it would make sense to base it in a country where the team could actively promote it to universities), with a team collaborating over the web. Hopefully, after the proof-of-concept was, well, proven, other organisations involved in non-profit development could help promote the website through their own website, and on the ground with their own contacts. 

Thoughts?

A little about cooperatives in Guatemala

I have often been asked about my work in Guatemala, particularly with regard to which organisation(s) I was working with. Most people I guess expect to hear that I was working with World Vision, UNICEF, Save the Children, etc. Indeed it was a question I was not only asked by foreigners, but also by Guatemalans, especially from other grass-roots organisations that I came into contact with. But that had more to do with the history of Guatemala and their experiences. Hopefully more about that in a future blog.

The simple answer is that I didn't find the work through any multi-national help organisation, and in fact I rarely came into contact with any of them. The groups I worked with were almost exclusively "grass-roots" ones. I will try and clarify what I mean by that, and why I felt so drawn to them.

In many Guatemalan communities there exists what is known as a cooperativa  ("co-operative" in English). This cooperative generally "represents" the community in a variety of roles. It is usually a registered commercial entity, and must keep tabs on incoming and outgoing funds. The purchasing of land titles, communal vehicles, supplies for communal buildings are usually performed through this entity. It is also an organisational body, meaning that decisions affecting the community are conducted and voted upon using the structure of the cooperative. It's kind of a community "council". Members (of which there are usually 5 or more) are elected each year and hold positions such as President, Treasurer, Secretary, etc.

It is with this organisational and financial aspect in mind that most cooperatives were initially conceived. Traditionally, Guatemalan communities have dedicated themselves to one (or two closely related) activities that require an external market, or external representation. These would be mainly agricultural activities, such as cultivation of coffee, cacao, fruits and vegetables, etc. And the main function of the cooperative is to coordinate, transport and sell these raw materials. That function has extended in recent years to include also the processing, and quality control at a minimal level.

As an aside, funds donated to or given to the community for public works are generally managed by the cooperative, and any joint ventures (known as projectos) generally mean plenty of meetings involving the whole community. Projects can also involve only a small sub-section of the community, or I guess what would be termed a "sub-commitee" and these projects can be chaired by someone outside the cooperative commitee. The money though, as I understand it, is managed by the cooperative.

An example would be a project, funded by an NGO, to buy calves to fatten into cows. The NGO would give certain funds or the raw materials (perhaps including things like fences and fencing materials) and the community, in the guise of the cooperative, would decide for example:

• Who from the community would participate in the project
• How the labour for building the pens would be organised
• How the animals would be distributed
• How the funds from the sales of the cows would be distributed or re-invested

The money for these operations would then either be controlled directly by the Treasurer for the cooperative, or given to the person designated to run the cattle sub-project.

Some coopertives have more reach than others, by which I mean that some contribute to the running of the community more than others. In general, younger established communities still have a cooperative that functions relatively universally in the community, and in many other communities the people have opted to control their own finances and operations, which means that the cooperative has less influence, or at least that people take it less seriously. The decision to reduce the "communality" of the cooperative is generally taken by the cooperative members themselves, although cooperatives can cease to represent the community simply because the majority of the community don't agree with or feel that the decisions affect them any more.

The reason I have introduced the Guatemalan community "cooperative" is because every community has one. This universality has meant that the name and structure is employed by many groups within a community, groups that effectively perform the function of a sub-commitee. That is, they are community members who dedicate themselves to a specific task (or project), but this commitee is not governed by the rules of the cooperative, and does not receive funds from it. Nevertheless, the principals of the group are similar:

• They dedicate themselves to a specific task
• They elect a board of directors to handle the operations of the group
• All members are involved in the decisions of the project
• The members decide on the allocation of funds within the project

The simplest explanation of why this structure is so common in Guatemala is perhaps pratically all Guatemalans understand how such a structure functions or have experienced one in their lifetime.

All the groups I was involved with when I worked in Guatemala had this structure. Some were more closely connected with the "community cooperative" than others. The histories of how these groups had formed and arrived at their present states is perhaps too long and complicated to detail here. The important points can be summarised so:

1. They were all autonomous groups that had been formed in their own communities, by community members with a common goal
2. They were directed by a sub-commitee of women from within the community, with no assitance (at a board level) from outside

The actual groups themselves I hope to detail in the coming week.

Ein neuer Anfang
 

Ich beschloss mit dem Schreiben dieses Blog anzufangen, in der Hauptsache wegen meiner "Lebenssituation" im Moment, so dass ich glaube, die beste Ausgangspunkt ist durch die Beschreibung, wer ich bin und was sie ist.

Ich bin eine 36-jährige Elektronik-Ingenieur (oder Elektrotechnik auf Deutsch) von Beruf, beendete ich die Universität im Alter von 23 Jahren und arbeitete dann in der Industrie Digital Design (Networking Hardware, Scanner, Telekommunikation) neun Jahre bis 2005. Inspiriert von mehreren Auslandsreisen, vor allem in Länder mit einem hohen Anteil an armen Bevölkerung, beschloss ich, nach Mexiko und Guatemala ausreisen. Da versuchte ich mich mit organisierten Gemeinschaftsgruppen zu arbeiten in Bereichen wie traditionelle Textilproduktion oder traditionellen Nahrungsmittelerzeugung (Ich hoffe in der Zukunft ein Blog über diese Suche auch zu schreiben).

Zum Schluss fing ich einer Zusammenarbeit als "Berater" mit einer Frauengruppe aus einer Gemeinschaft von guatemaltekischen Flüchtlinge an, die neue Flächen im Rahmen des „Peace Accords“ nach dem Ende des guatemaltekischen Bürgerkriegs im Jahr 1996 gewährt wurden. Diese Frauen produzieren mit lokal angebauten Erdnüsse Erdnussbutter (die vorherigen Blog, das ich völlig vergessen hatte, wurde über eine Erdnuss „Shell-Entferner“ ich für sie organisiert hatte), ein Prozess, den sie von einem Mormon Ehepaar, die in der Gemeinschaft fast zehn lebten. Dies war offenbar als eine „Safe-Guard“, damit die Gemeinschaft nicht durch die Regierung, private Interessen oder den umliegenden Gemeinden nach ihrer Rückkehr belästigt war.

Diese Zusammenarbeit, um weitere Kontakte mit Gruppen in ähnlichen Situationen geführt, und ich verbrachte mehr als drei Jahren im Land leben, erfüllt eine Rolle als Berater und berät mehr aktive Rolle als "Handelsvertreter" für die Bevölkerung und ihre Produkte in den lokalen guatemaltekischen Märkten. Ich war auch in anderen sozialen Bewegungen und Programme innerhalb des Landes beteiligt, vor allem solche im Zusammenhang mit der Förderung lokaler und gemeinde-organisierter Produzentengruppen.

Ich fand diese Arbeit unglaublich motivierend, persönlich befriedigend, belebend, und ich konnte es nicht genug davon bekommen. Ich begann eigene Projekte mit diesen Gruppen und versuchen, sowohl ihre Fähigkeit, eine Zukunft für sich und ihre Initiativen weiter zu sichern, und ihre Aussichten auf eine Zusammenarbeit als einen Weg, diese Ziele zu erreichen (damit meine ich die Zusammenarbeit mit anderen gleichgesinnten Gruppen). Was als ein "Experiment" begonnen hat, um zu sehen, ob ich mich wirklich in einer solchen unbekannten Umgebung engagiere konnte, wurde eine Überzeugung, dass diese Art von Arbeit war, was ich weiterhin mit meinem Leben tun wollte.

Ein Punkt kam, wo ich in meine Meinung so viel wie Möglich mit meiner aktuellen Projekte getan hatte, und daß meine Anwesenheit die Fähigkeit der Gruppen zu entwickeln behindern wurde, anstatt zu helfen (durch die Entwicklung meine ich im Zusammenhang mit der Entwicklung von Selbst-Management- dass ich einfach Aufgaben wegnehmen, die sie tun haben oder Lernen selbst könnten). Ich kehrte nach Australien zu finden, die Finanzierung für ein Projekt, das auf die Gruppe der Leistungen in den vergangenen drei Jahren profitieren würde. Das Ziel des Projekt würde es ermöglichen, ihr Geschäft weiter zu wachsen, indem sie Produkte in mehr Märkten, einschließlich potentiell internationale. Leider, die Suche für die Finanzierung fruchtlos erwiesen. Vielleicht es war einfach zu viel für eine Person zu erstellen und zu verwalten, indem sich.

Persönliche Umstände (d.h. meine Freundin ;-) dann führte mich nach Deutschland, in die ich fast genau vor einem Jahr kam, und wo ich jetzt wohne. Ich glaubte damals, dass es auch ein positiver Schritt für mich in Bezug auf die Fortsetzung meiner Entwicklung als Profi in die Bereit des Community Development könnte, als es vielen Regierungs- und Nicht-Regierungsorganisationen (vor allem kirchliche Organisationen) gibt, die Entwicklungsprojekte in vielen Ländern untersuchen und überwachen, einschließlich in Lateinamerika. Leider gab es einige Hindernisse, die ein wenig schwieriger zu überwinden sind, als ich dachte, die Sprachbarriere zu den größten. Ja, die meisten jüngeren Deutschen sprechen sehr gut Englisch, aber die meisten Organisationen, die auf die deutsche Regierung oder deutsche Sponsoren antwortlich sind, erfordern, dass du professionellen Deutschsprache reden und schreiben könntest.

Ich weiterhin für einen Job im Bereich der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit suchen, aber jetzt muss ich auch die Möglichkeit schauen, ob eine weitere Studie in einer deutschen Universität notwendig ist. Es könnte sein, dass keine Position in Lateinamerika oder anderen Entwicklungsland ereignen wird, und ich muss dann meine Beschäftigungs-Möglichkeiten erweitern.

Und das ist so ziemlich eine verdichtete Version meiner Geschichte. Ich beschloss, dieses Blog zu schreiben dann, um mich daran zu erinnern, was mich so viel über dieses Feld inspirierte und noch inspiriert, warum bin ich so an ihm interessiert, und warum ich überzeugt bin, dass ich weiterhin daran arbeiten möchte. Ich hoffe, dass es so etwas wie eine Art Rückblick auf das wird, was ich in Guatemala tat, und dass es etwas, damit ich auf Themen, die sowohl in Guatemala und in der "ersten Welt" Länder wie Deutschland und Australien relevant sind, ausbauen könnte. Ich hoffe, dass es manchmal ein persönliches und manchmal ein gutes sachliches Leseerlebnis ist.

Oh, und ich sollte meine deutsche Übersetzungen üben, so dass einige Teile auch in deutscher Sprache erscheinen sollten. Ich sollte mein Spanisch mehr als gut mit, aber die Übersetzung in zwei Sprachen für jeden Beitrag nur zu viel Zeit nimmt. Hoffentlich könnte ich über meine Zeit in Guatemala ein wenig in Erinnerungen schwelgen ... obwohl auf Spanisch 

A new beginning

I decided to start writing this blog in the main because of my "life situation" at the moment, so I suppose the best place to start is by describing who I am and what that is.
I am a 36 year old Electronic Engineer by trade, I finished University at the age of 23, and then worked in the Digital Design industry (Networking Hardware, Scanners, Telecommunications) for nine years until 2005. Inspired by several overseas trips, mainly to countries with a high percentage of poor population, I decided to head to Mexico and Guatemala to try and work with organised community groups working in fields such as traditional textile or food production (I hope to write a future blog about this).
I ended up beginning a collaboration as a "consultant" with a group of women from a community of Guatemalan refugees, who were granted land as part of the Peace Accords following the end of the Guatemalan Civil War in 1996. These women were using locally grown peanuts to produce peanut butter (the previous blog, which I had completely forgotten about, was about a peanut sheller I organised for them), a process they learned from a Mormon couple who lived in the community for almost ten years, apparently as a safe-guard that the community was not harassed by government, private interests or neighbouring communities following their repatriation.
This collaboration led to further contacts with groups in similar situations, and I spent over three years living in the country fulfilling a role as an advising consultant and more active "sales representative" for community groups and their products in local Guatemala markets. I was also involved in other social movements and programs within the country, mainly those related to the promotion of local, community-organised and structured groups of producers.
I found this work incredibly motivating, personally satisfying, invigorating, and I couldn't get enough of it. I started projects of my own with these groups, trying to further both their ability to secure a future for themselves and their initiatives, and their outlook on collaboration as a way to achieve these goals (by that I mean collaboration with other like-minded groups). What began as an "experiment" to see if I could really engage myself in such an unknown environment became a conviction that this type of work was what I wanted to continue to do with my life.
A point came when I believed I had done as much as I could with my current projects, and that my presence was hindering the ability of the groups to develop rather than helping it (by development I mean in the context of developing self-management- that I was simply taking away tasks that they could have been learning or doing themselves). I returned to Australia to try and find funding for a project that would capitalise on the improvement that the groups had made over the years, and that would enable the groups to continue to grow by offering products to more markets, including potentially international ones. Unfortunately that quest for funding proved fruitless, perhaps simply too much for one person to draw up and manage by themselves.
Personal circumstances (i.e. my girlfriend ;-) then led me to Germany, in which I arrived almost exactly a year ago, and where I now live. I believed at the time that it could also be a positive move for me in terms of continuing my development as a professional in Community Development work, being as there are many government and non-government (principally church-based organisations) that sponsor and oversee development projects in many countries around the world, including Latin America. Alas, there have been some obstacles that have been a little more difficult to overcome than I imagined, the language barrier being among the greatest. Yes, most younger Germans speak good English, but most organisations that answer to the German government or German sponsors require YOU to speak and write professional German.
I continue to look for a job in the area of sustainable or community development, but now I must also look at the possibility that further study in a German University might be necessary to broaden my employment possibilities if a position in Latin America or other developing country doesn't eventuate.


And that is pretty much a condensed version of my story. I decided to write this blog, then, to remind myself of what inspired and inspires me so much about this field, why I am so interested in it, and why I am convinced I want to continue to work in it. I hope it will become something of a way to look back at what I did in Guatemala, and something to enable me to expand on the topics that are relevant both there and in "first world" countries such as Germany and Australia. I hope it to be sometimes personal, and sometimes a good factual read.
Oh, and I need to practice my German translations, so some parts should also appear in German. I really should be using my Spanish more as well, but translating to two languages for every post might just take up too much time. Hopefully I'll get to reminisce about my time in Guatemala a little in Spanish though...

This was an email I sent to Jock Brandis, creater of the peanut sheller we recently installed in the community of Valle de Esmeralda, Petén, Guatemala. They have their own blog as well!
Full Belly Blog

I think you know the basics. The group from North Carolina brought the machine through customs here without hassles, and I met them at the airport with the Spanish school that we organised the contact through.
Despite a few communication problems (I wanted the machine parts transported to Antigua, as without a vehicle it was a difficult task for me) we eventually got the parts there. The US$50 excess baggage fee was compensated through me by the women by paying for a meal for the travellers in a restaurant here in Antigua.

Fast forward a couple of months, during which I was working here in Antigua, but I managed to mail the two boxes to the community in Petén, and they were collected and stored in the “factory” there. On about the 18th of May, I made my two or three-monthly visit to the community, had our normal meeting, unveiled the parts, and we started construction the next day (21st, I believe).

Day 1:

• We used a basic 50-50% mix of sand and cement
• Bought a little extra plastic for the small mould (not included)
• Used cooking margarine used by one of the women who also makes bread in the community to grease the moulds
• Let stand for 24 hours

Day 2:

• Removed the rotor with little difficulty from the mould
• Scoured the inner surface of the stator with the back cog of a bicycle gear
• Constructed the lathe mould from spare wood
• Scoured and “evened” the rotor with the same bicycle cog until concentric
• Let stand for another 24 hours

Day 3:

• Removed the stator from the mould with little difficulty
• Mounted the top metal bracket concentric on the stator
• “Dropped” the stator in far too forcefully and then removed it after 15 minutes
• Attempted to centre the bottom metal bracket with a little difficulty
• The rotor ended up a little off centre, or at least not even with all the stator surfaces, don’t know if this is normal or not
•  The attempt to mount the bottom of the stator on two pieces of wood proved a little difficult, as the four bent screws were exposed with far too little length to mount on thick wood, and we had no tools to indent a hole to allow the nuts to pass in the wood, as shown in the assembly photos.
  I would recommend with the internet instruction that you at least specify the end function of the screws embedded in the cement, to allow an estimate of how much to leave exposed out from the cement.
• We eventually mounted the machine on a wooden “horse”, which will allow the inner nuts and shells to drop into a tub which we can remove and change over with ease

Our hiccups

• Not knowing the function of screws we were putting in to the cement moulds
• Not having a full list of things we would need before starting: (For example, the lathe to plane the rotor, pieces of wood to attached to the bottom of the stator, glue, tools, etc.)
• Putting the rotor into the stator with nothing to support the stator, or a “stopper” to prevent the rotor from wedging between the two
• Problems with centring the bottom thread of the rotor, and the rotor dropping through the top thread when we righted the machine
• Threads too short to support decent thickness of wood to mount the machine on the drum

Otherwise, the process was quite smooth. I amazed myself with my problem-solving skills, to be quite honest, the problems were quite easily overcome, with nothing but internet instructions printed out to go on.
 
I had at least two women watching the assembly process at all times, so I hope they would be able to do it by themselves (pending the above changes to the instructions, and translations into Spanish).
They were also very impressed, I think, by the ease of function of the machine, we did hardly any adjustment, having the handle on the lowest possible setting of the rotor (thinnest possible passage, right?). The only problem with this is that the small stature of Mayan women means that they will probably have to be standing on a block or something to turn the crank, as it is at about head-height for them, and perhaps their arms will have problems clearing the central threaded-rotor.

I have a friend that took a good grab of the interesting parts of the construction, and of course the finished product. I also took a couple, but with the old-fashioned film that you’re going to have to wait for processing.

As I stated in my previous emails, the next step is to find the best way of making the technology available to other communities.
Basically this means we are left with a few steps to be completed, which I sincerely believe do not require any more funds.

1. Finding a cheap and reliable way of replicating the metal parts (these will be supplied at cost)
2. Finding a reliable way of getting the moulds and instructions to communities from my base here in Antigua (more or less a central point of contact to communities – the capital is only 1 hour by public bus away)
   This is a tougher one, I think a deposit system is the way to go here, when the moulds are returned, so will be the money.

There is also the potential to get a quote for another set of moulds at a fibre-glass workshop here, now that we have the originals available. I honestly think this will be a manageable task.

That’s all for now. If any of the people from your part of the world make it down here, I would be only too happy to take them to the community to see your project in action. I would also like to send you a couple of jars of peanut butter.

Yours in solidarity,
Tomas Triglone