Month: December 2022

Do you know the organization Voy con vos? Its mission is to promote education in rural areas through its visibility and the design and implementation of programs that approach the challenges in a comprehensive manner and together with the educational community. The objective is to make access to quality education at all levels a reality in rural areas of Argentina, the latter is part of their vision.

Since 2007, they have been working so that children and adolescents from rural areas of Chaco can have access to quality education. In this direction, they develop their programs in the area of Tres Isletas and, as of 2018, their impact area was extended to El Impenetrable. They believe that education is the tool for social mobility par excellence and that those who have access to this fundamental right have the opportunity to project themselves, make decisions with greater freedom and decide their future. No matter where you were born, you should be able to exercise your right to a quality education. 

Dispersed populations suffer from the absence of basic services, among which is an inclusive, quality, close and affordable education for low-income families living there. In this sense, the commitment of Voy con vos, with the rural communities of Chaco, arises from observing the existing difficulties regarding access to education and the quality of their learning. The great distances and the lack of resources make that, in comparison with urban centers, the rates of non-attendance are higher and those of effective graduation lower.

They were pleased to invite us, on Tuesday November 15, to celebrate their fifteen years of work with schools and rural communities in Chaco. RACI was present and it was a pleasure for us to participate in this special day for the association.

Its commitment to the rural communities of Chaco arises from observing the difficulties that exist in terms of access to education and the quality of their learning. The great distances and lack of resources mean that, compared to urban centers, the rates of non-attendance are higher and those of effective graduation lower.

Voy con Vos invites the entire educational community to work together through programs that focus on the education students receive at school, and on the accompaniment of families as key actors. They believe that education is a right and that the future of children in rural areas cannot wait, which is why they carry out two programs:

• Making school, which aims to improve learning, promotion and permanence of children in school.
• Scholarship program, which aims to guarantee access to secondary school for adolescents from rural areas.

The program seeks to contribute to the educational quality of schools, with the objective of improving learning, promotion and permanence of boys and girls in school. To achieve this, Voy con Vos provides schools with human, didactic and infrastructure resources; it works for the transformation of the school together with the entire educational community.

In 2022, the organization celebrated its fifteenth anniversary and invited us to celebrate it. It was a very nice moment that was shared during these years of work, that is why they wanted to celebrate it.

We invite you to get to know the organization and encourage this type of fundamental project for civil society. For more information you can go to their social media sites or their website.

During the month of November, we had the opportunity to receive in FNV social cowork Luis Sotomayor, a specialist in digital media. In this opportunity, he gave an in-person workshop on Digital Marketing, campaign checklist, which was free and was designed especially for social organizations, with the aim of providing knowledge of social media management.

The workshop was held in Sánchez de Bustamante 191, CABA, where FNV social coworking is located and, at the end, those organizations that participated in the workshop were invited to stay that same afternoon and make use of the coworking. This was free of charge, in order to get to know the facilities in the best possible way, in order to be able to work for their causes.

Among the contents were different recommendations to improve the performance of the budget in adwords, facebook and email marketing. In addition, it had the following points to be discussed:

• Schedule: components and metrics.
• Adwords checklist.
• Facebook checklist.
• Email marketing checklist.

Nowadays, social networks and email marketing are a trend and, in addition, people are aware of the importance of being present through external communication. In this aspect, we think about social networks, mailing, campaigns, flyers, etc. For this reason, the workshop about digital marketing was interesting for those who are interested in learning how to make the most of these resources.

Being a universal and very recurrent topic, it can serve to attract listeners within the sector and establish networks, the main reason that brings us together. These networks can be both internal, among members of the organizations, and external, for those who are interested in working or contributing to improve civil society.

We find all the contents addressed in the workshop very useful, as they are of great support and advice for those who participated. In addition, they can optimize resources within the organizations or to generate them, in case they do not have them yet.

One of the benefits of coworking is to be able to work as a team and establish networks with other people that came to the cowork, which is essential when we talk about CSOs. For this reason, this type of workshop is a good initiative so that the people who attend can integrate with each other and network.

We thank all the social organizations that joined us and hope to meet again soon. In order not to miss any future events, we invite you to follow the coworking social networks.

Yesterday, we had the final meeting of the tenth edition of the New Zealand Embassy Fund in Argentina. We are happy to be able to share ten years of projects, of working together with organizations, and of reading proposals and being able to fund them.

In all these years we have received 1836 proposals and funded, by the embassy, 45 civil society organizations, which makes us feel very proud and happy to be able to share this. On this occasion, we received 251 proposals and funded four civil society organizations from two different countries, Argentina and Paraguay.

We would like to congratulate all the organizations for their achievements and commitment, both the winners as well as the organizations that applied.

The following are the winning organizations and their projects:

• Pueblos del Arroyo Tabá ÎSÎRÎRÎRÎ: collection and potabilization of rainwater and use of alternative energies in Almafuerte, Misiones. The objective of the project is to promote access to safe water through the implementation of a rainwater collection and purification system in family homes and educational institutions and to socialize access to alternative energies, with the installation in public spaces of light columns and charging of mobile devices with photovoltaic solar energy. 
• Organización de Mujeres Indígena Guaraní de Macharety: sustainable production of bee honey and conservation practices of the Chaco environment. To develop a model of sustainable honey production and commercialization in the forests of the Macharety community, based on the women’s traditional knowledge.
• Foundation for the protection of children, educational development and scout-fundemos movement: building mental health. Strengthening the economic independence of menstruating people, understanding menstruation as a matter of equity, social and environmental justice; and generating, in the community management centers, a space of accompaniment and containment for LGBTI+ women.
• Tierra Libre Foundation: advancing in the water security of the families of the Nivacle ethnic group of the lower Pilcomayo, Paraguayan Chaco. Guarantee improvements in the accessibility conditions of the Villa Avalos commune in terms of trafficability, circulation and environment, contributing to the social production of an adequate habitat, reducing inequality gaps and strengthening the organizational practices of the work table.

To all of them, we wish them all the best in this work process ahead and thank them for trusting our organization to submit these projects of enormous importance to civil society. 

On Thursday, November 24 at 4 pm, at the Catholic University of Cordoba, the workshop on Budget and Rights was held, a face-to-face meeting in which RACI was invited to analyze the budget allocated by the province of Cordoba to guarantee rights.

We were invited to know and analyze the budget information available to guarantee our rights and learn how to do it together. This is based on the understanding that the public budget is a State management tool that affects our daily lives.

The meeting was face-to-face and, in addition to the above, the budget allocation of key policies for the guarantee of rights in the province was analyzed. The meeting was moderated by Julieta Izcurdia, Coordinator – Fiscal Justice Program of ACIJ, and Nina Sibilla, Coordinator of Democracy – FUNDEPS.

The workshop is part of one of the activities of the Empowering Women project that demands public budgets for policies that contribute to combat the gender gap in the provinces of Mendoza, Salta and Córdoba and is supported by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives 2022-2023.

The meeting consisted of a first part, where some theoretical concepts provided in the virtual meetings were taken up again. Afterwards, the different budget information tools of the Government of the Province of Córdoba were presented.

Participants were divided into groups by topic of interest and analyzed, specifically, the budgets allocated to social programs in these areas. In addition, they discussed the different findings of the analysis based on the regulatory framework and a rights-based approach. Finally, they outlined a plan of action to continue working together, with the aim of presenting claims at the public hearing on the provincial budget.

Participants included social organizations, university professors, students, municipal officials and researchers. The diversity of people who came to participate made the meeting very enriching and we were able to work together.

Fundación Avina interviewed us and wrote an article about Perspectiva Cívica on its website. It was written by Florencia Tuchin and we share it below.

Civic Perspective is a project initiated by RACI, in 2018, together with Innovation for Change (I4C) Latin America and the Caribbean, which seeks to know how organizations are doing in terms of enabling space. In this framework, a survey was developed that seeks to take the pulse of social organizations, that is, to identify the conditions in which civil society works and develops.

In order to carry out this project, a qualitative-quantitative methodology was used, based on a survey of leaders and work teams of social organizations, who report on the main strengths, weaknesses and needs.

Regarding hired and volunteer personnel, one of the results of this research is that only one out of every eight people working in the social sector receives any remuneration for the work they do; 36% of the people who participated in the survey work on a volunteer basis. As for staff training, 88% of the people working in social organizations do not have tertiary or university education. In other words, the less privileged people sustain and drive the social sector in the region.

“If we take into account the data provided by ECLAC, Latin America and the Caribbean was positioned in 2020 as one of the most unequal and inequitable regions and the health crisis initiated by the Covid-19 pandemic deepened these inequalities, especially affecting highly vulnerable populations. In this context, transversal at the regional level, it was largely the Civil Society organizations who had to respond to many of the demands of the communities. However, the support work carried out by these key actors remains largely invisible and undervalued”, emphasizes RACI.

Another point highlighted by RACI when asked about the greatest challenges facing CSOs is that “in several countries in the region there is a gradual decrease in the enabling space for organizations, given the growing restrictions imposed by some governments. There are other aspects that also constitute major challenges, such as marginalization, exclusion, the strong informality of practices in the sector, which in turn translates into a low level of institutionalization, and the instability that historically characterizes Latin American countries in the political, social and economic spheres”.

“Another challenge is that funds are often scarce and are not enough to respond to the prevailing needs of the region’s societies and at the same time they tend to support mostly short-term projects, highlighting that the need for survival of organizations often goes to the detriment of the planning of their mission and vision, which must find ways to continue operating in a region in need of medium and long-term planning to help achieve structural changes,” they add.

Among the sector’s strengths, highlighted by RACI based on the study, were “creativity, innovation and the great capacity to build alliances and formal and informal links. Likewise, it is worth highlighting a considerable flexibility and dynamism that translate into the possibility of adapting, improvising and providing a quick response to the needs of the situation, which were key tools in the crisis initiated by the Covid-19 pandemic”.

RACI added: “At the same time, other important points emerged from the brainstorming sessions. Firstly, the relevance of the new forms of activism – and cyberactivism – which are much more dispersed in their conformation than traditional organizations – with which it was hypothesized that they have little linkage – but simultaneously boasting a great capacity for advocacy, a combination that raises some novel elements”.

“In turn, we documented the extensive knowledge accumulated by CSOs about the situation of communities and their capillarity on the ground. The challenge remains for this knowledge to really be heard, and to be put into play for the benefit of the underprivileged people in our system. In an ideal world, the best thing would be for those who govern us to recognize the leading role of CSOs in improving the way of life in Latin America and the Caribbean and thus know that CSOs are an interested – and essential – part of the public sector, integrating the Social Sector in decision-making processes,” RACI explains.

Once again, we were honored to hold our annual event at the British Embassy to celebrate the end of the year. We wanted to specially thank  the British Ambassador, Kirsty Hayes, and the entire embassy team for hosting us for another year.

During this special evening we were able to share, we had the opportunity to welcome our guests and dedicate a few words to them. First, Guillermo Correa (Executive Director of RACI), welcomed and highlighted the presence of officials of the Nation and the City of Buenos Aires, ambassadors, diplomats, representatives of civil society, companies and our allies.

Later, Marisa Giraldez, General Director of the Food Bank Foundation and outgoing Treasurer of RACI, took the floor. On the one hand, she highlighted the great work of the outgoing committee, as well as the alternates. She also welcomed the incoming committee, as well as the alternates.

In addition, some shared milestones reached during the year were highlighted. Among the latter are:

• We comanage funds by mobilizing USD from civil society organizations.
• We strengthened the capacities of more than 300 people with cycles, webinars and workshops.
• We actively participated in global and regional advocacy spaces to advocate for a stronger civic space.
• Inaugurated the Social Coworking of the Navarro Viola Foundation.
• We coordinated the Innovation for Change hub for Latin America and the Caribbean and were once again selected to host the coordination of AGNA, the Affinity Group of National Associations of CIVICUS

We hope you had a nice evening, as we did, and continue to strengthen networking. Also, we 

Invite you to look for yourselves in the photo album we uploaded on RACI’s Facebook page.