Do-It-Yourself Development

By Tanis Doe

ACOGIPRI is an acronym for the Associacion Cooperativa el Grupo Independiente Pro Rehabilitacion Integral. Located in Sal Salvador, the organization runs a pottery-making workshop and sells its products. The products are made under the name Shicali, and are made to high standards -- for example, they are lead-free.

The cooperative members at the ACOGIPRI workshop have various types of disabilities. The cross-disability group has been particularly successful at including Deaf people among its membership. Almost three-quarters of the people who work in the workshop are Deaf.
The rest have various physical and intellectual disabilities. Although the cooperative also operates other services, much like an Independent Living centre, the workshop is the income-producing portion of the organization.

The workshop serves five important roles for people with disabilities:
1. training in a marketable trade through courses and professional development;
2. employment for some, on a temporary or ongoing basis;
3. a creative outlet for both artists and potters;
4. socialization and cultural activities with other Deaf people or people with disabilities;
and
5. peer support, information and referral through the cooperative members.

For some of the Deaf members, the workshop is the place where they can go and talk with other Deaf adults, learn a skill, earn an income and participate in social activities. However, the workshop is not only for making pottery and art products to sell. The organization also provides information and referral on technical aids, programs and services, and advocacy to the general public and families of people with disabilities.

Although the organization is nearly 15 years old, it still struggles financially to ensure that its members are given services and its employees are paid regularly. As a micro-enterprise, ACOGIPRI competes with larger workshops and industrial pottery makers for a share of the market. Some tax benefits are given to the cooperative as a non-profit organization, but a lot of work goes into selling the products that are made. All the products must meet rigorous standards of quality, be lead-free and be safe for use in ovens, and sometimes microwaves or dishwashers if they are to be exported.

To celebrate its 15th anniversary, in May, ACOGIPRI is planning a workshop on how to use cooperatives as a self-help strategy.

ACOGIPRI recently completed a major order with OXFAM in England, but it is still unclear if a profit was made, considering all the costs of export and production. ACOGIPRI also markets to Central American countries.

If an organization or individual is interested in purchasing the products, they can place an order directly with ACOGIPRI. Alternatively, interested people can provide information about these products to local restaurants, hotels or organizations to encourage them to make purchases and support the cooperative.

Because it is a small-scale production and wages are fair, the costs are not comparable to what wholesalers can get from large companies that may exploit their workers. The prices, however, are reasonable, and 100 per cent of the purchase price goes directly to the cooperative and its members.

Main products include candlesticks, small vases, small plates and mugs, soup bowls and serving dishes. There are several styles, sizes and colours to choose from, but many items are already out of stock, so a new order would be made from scratch.

As an important part of the cooperative work, leadership and skill development workshops are often held. Through a project sponsored by the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, an organizational development process recently took place, and several individuals were trained through exchanges and workshops with other experts.

The organization is also developing many new services, such as a program for women, a creative writing project and health information. It also works to inform the public about disability issues, and work with other non-governmental organizations to increase accessibility for people with disabilities.

During a personal vacation to El Salvador, I stopped by the ACOGIPRI building and met with many members and workers. One need that was identified, and which already had been raised in previous meetings, was literacy.

The Deaf members of the cooperative primarily worked in the workshop, although some belonged to the cooperative but did not work there. Many of them had not taken advantage of leadership opportunities, especially training courses, because they could not read or write Spanish. Their sign language is a mixture of borrowed American Sign Language and local Salvadoran Sign. Several individual Deaf people had travelled to the United States and brought back ASL, which blended into the national sign language. This also created a distance between the Deaf people who had education and could use ASL and English, and those who only knew Sal Sign and had limited Spanish reading and writing abilities.

The Deaf in El Salvador can always find a way to communicate with each other using signs, ASL, Sal Sign or homemade gestures, because it is their natural mode of communication. However, despite their ability to communicate in sign language among themselves, writing and reading remains a barrier to communication with hearing people and the general public. This affects their ability to get services from medical professionals, banks, the government and even the police.

There are only six TTYs in the whole country, and there is no relay service, so only the very fortunate Deaf people can communicate by telephone with each other. More TTYs would increase literacy by providing regular opportunities to communicate in Spanish. It would also increase independence significantly.

The Deaf members of the cooperative identified literacy as a priority issue, and ACOGIPRI agreed to give them the support needed to develop a plan. As a group, they came up with goals and activities and then sought out help to implement the plan.

This newly formed project is sort of a "do-it-yourself" development project because it started with the people who needed the help and, up until now, has still received no major funding. Several efforts were made to get financial assistance and in-kind help to make this project possible, but many of the resources have been provided on a volunteer basis.

Funter, a local service organization funded by US-AID, provided airfare for an attendant/interpreter and me to travel to El Salvador in September, 1995. We held a two- day leadership training workshop that included four Deaf adults and 15 people with other disabilities. The remainder of the trip was spent assessing the needs and resources of the Deaf adults. A video was made of the workshop and the individual Deaf leaders, to use for fundraising and education.

A local special education organization, Funpres, was cooperative and willing to apply for funds if necessary for the literacy project, because Deaf children need a great deal of support in learning as well as Deaf adults. The Deaf adults are an important resource for Deaf children in El Salvador, particularly because there is no publicly funded education leading to post-secondary opportunities. In fact, this is the reason so many Deaf adults are illiterate -- in some areas, there is no education for Deaf children at all.

Despite the active support of organizations in El Salvador and the motivation of the participants, no funding could be found for the more formal phase of the project: learning more about Spanish and how to teach it. Instead of giving up, the plan to have a formal, two-week-long session to instruct trainers in adult education methods was reduced to informal hands-on and classroom training for five leaders.

With personal and family funding, three people travelled to El Salvador for this training. The local school for the Deaf, run by a church, donated the space an a VCR for the training. Three portable TTYs were purchased secondhand and donated to the group, and
instructions were given on how to use them. This alone was enough to empower the Deaf adults to start working on the project, now that they had telephone communication. A small video camera was purchased and used to record the training sessions for future use.
The camera was also to be used for teaching the Deaf using ASL, role play and storytelling.

After 10 days of intensive skills development and creative activities around practical language needs, the Deaf adults were ready for the next stage. Two of the most popular methods were role play and games. Using popular games like Boggle and Scrabble, the teachers could develop vocabulary skills and learn how to use the dictionary. Role play was videotaped and translated to make a script, then re-enacted by other members of the group to learn about both Spanish and Sign Language.

Over the next four months, each of the peer trainers practised their newly developed skills by giving weekly lessons to the other Deaf adults.

At first, the goal was to have one teacher instruct while a team teacher videotaped and critiqued the lesson, but it turned out that three natural groups formed, based on learning needs. A very basic course was taught by one of the most fluent Sal Signers who did not have very good Spanish but was able to teach the fundamentals. A second group of Deaf people who knew a little bit of Spanish was taught by two trainers who were more fluent in both Spanish and Sal Sign. A third group, the advanced class, was taught by the trainers who knew a great deal of English, ASL, Sal Sign and Spanish. This accommodated the language skills of learners and the language ability of trainers.

After practising and videotaping their work, they sent the video and a brief report to me. I reviewed their progress and sent back comments and suggestions. They are also improving their skill through planning meetings and feedback from the learners.

The last stage of this first year’s training is for the Deaf teachers to come to California to receive an additional two weeks’ training in sign language and second language development. Again, funding is sought for the airline tickets and expenses, but no major sponsor has been found. The individual members are contributing a great deal to this effort. Sales of the workshop products can benefit the training project, and donations from Californian organizations and businesses are supplementing personal resources.

With a small budget but a lot of motivation and effort, this group of Deaf individuals and people with disabilities has made its own future a little brighter. This is truly an example of how development can empower people.

(Tanis Doe is a Canadian educator and researcher living in the States and working with Deaf adults at the ACOGIPRI organization in El Salvador. For more information about the literacy project or pottery products, contact her at TTY: (510) 549-3389 or e-mail: tanisd@delphi.com.)