Development cooperation initiatives are typically project-based. On average, NGO development cooperation projects last four years. They aim to create long-term change with limited input, and a successful exit plan is a key part of a successful project. The goal is that, at the end of the project, the impact will be long lasting and that the achieved changes will become permanent. At the same time, high-quality follow-up enables the organisations and local partners involved in the project to learn and grow because of the project.
SYL is a student organisation. The Development Cooperation Advisory Board (KENKKU) consists of volunteer students who are usually involved in the activities for a few years, after which they graduate and continue their journey. As for me, I’m a first-year KENKKU member and involved in assisting SYL’s current development cooperation project in Ethiopia. Together with our local partner ECDD (Ethiopian Center for Disability and Development) and the Finnish disability organization Threshold Association, SYL has been involved in supporting the participation of students with disabilities in teaching and the development of disability services in Ethiopian higher education institutions.
However, I wanted to look back and find out what kind of long-term impact some of the earlier projects supported by SYL have had. I contacted Marvin Adolfo Quelex Guamuch from Guatemala who works for AMEU (Asociación Maya de Estudiantes Universitarios). SYL cooperated with AMEU on several projects between 1994 and 2017. Marvin kindly agreed to answer my questions and to publishing the answers in the SYL blog. I wanted to know how Marvin and AMEU are doing and how he would assess the long-term impact of the joint projects between AMEU and SYL.
Marvin has worked for AMEU for 15 years. In his view, SYL has been one of AMEU’s most important partners over the years. When AMEU was founded, SYL was involved in supporting the scholarships of indigenous students. According to Marvin, AMEU is still in contact with many of the students from the scholarship programme who have continued their lives, found employment and started businesses. He said that many of them have helped AMEU later on, for example in AMEU’s current project. AMEU is conducting socio-economic studies to identify the need for government-funded housing construction for people with limited means. Last year, AMEU carried out more than 9,000 such studies.
The last joint project between SYL and AMEU was an avocado farming project between 2015 and 2017. The aim of the project was to improve the social status and livelihood of women in the Maya indigenous population by training and supporting avocado farming in villages where women did not usually work outside the home. Marvin said that it was common in the community for women to stay home alone while their husbands went to work in the United States. The project had a significant impact on the community as the women learned about avocado farming and their financial position improved.
Marvin explained that the plan was to continue the project and support the women in setting up a cooperative and organising the sale of avocados. However, this did not come to fruition due to lack of funding, as cooperation with SYL ended, and AMEU could not find a new partner for the project. Despite this, the women found their own ways of selling the avocados, for example by selling them to travelling merchants who resold the fruit. Although the planned cooperative and avocado brand were not realised, the farming allowed the women to earn income independently for the first time. According to Marvin, AMEU is no longer in contact with the women, as they lost touch during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a crisis for AMEU’s operations. During the pandemic, many important members of AMEU died, some of them left the association, and the association ended up in financial trouble. He and other employees were forced to look for work outside the association. Marvin said that Heidi Saarinen-Azuara, who had previously been a member of KENKKU, organised a support concert for the association in Finland with her family and friends. In the end, AMEU was able to pay its debts and continue its operations. According to Marvin, the support from Finland was crucial for the continuation of the association, and he wanted me to stress just how important it was for AMEU.
Marvin said that AMEU remains grateful to SYL, as the cooperation left its mark on many university students, and to Heidi Saarinen-Azuara, whose support helped the association to overcome the pandemic. In addition, he expressly thanked all Finnish students who donated for the association, helping it to survive and continue its work. He also said that the cooperation with SYL was educational and that he was very impressed by the level of Finnish education and the opportunity to travel to Finland during the project.
I’m very grateful to Marvin for taking the time to respond to my enquiry and tell us about AMEU’s activities. It shows that SYL development cooperation projects in Guatemala have indeed had long-term impacts. Through SYL’s support, people have been able to study and move forward in life while strengthening their own communities. The avocado project also succeeded in its key objective of improving the livelihood of Maya women, although the second part of the project did not come to fruition. Support from SYL has been important for AMEU, which will continue to work for the Guatemalan Maya community. Support from individuals in difficult times has also had a decisive impact. I was pleased to find out that SYL’s development cooperation really is effective and its impact is long-lasting.
Sources and further reading:
https://syl.fi/en/guatemalans-in-finland-meet-the-people-behind-our-project/
https://syl.fi/en/development-cooperation/
https://fingo.fi/en/project-cycle-management-in-development-cooperation/
