www.sombrilla.ca

Sombrilla is an Alberta-based, independent non-governmental organization (NGO) with the goal of supporting development projects in Guatemala and other Central American countries. Our focus is human rights advocacy, emergency housing, sustainable agriculture, cottage industries, women's coopertives, education and cultural research, administrative training programs and refugee resettlment sponsorship.

We were founded in 1986 by a group of Canadian journalists and teachers disturbed by the gross human violations in Central America. Over the years we have been joined by many others from different backgrounds and professions. What binds us all is our conviction that the cries for help from the victims of oppression cannot go unheeded, that these cries must be answered with action.

We actively seek partnerships with southern NGO's who have made self-help development and human rights programs for communities at risk their main focus. We also seek to reach out and educate members of the Canadian public in the hope they will support and participate with us in the purusit of our goals.

Sombrilla Refugee Support Society recognizes that:

1) The world works as a system and its complex interdependency between North and South and;

2) in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights., the respect of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all is the foundation of freedom, justice, peace and sustainable development in the world

Therefore, the mission of the Sombrilla Refugee Support Society is to empower the marginalized communities and people in the South so that they may assert their economic, political, environmental, cultural and social rights; and enable themselves to improve the conditions and quality of their life in a just and sustainable manner.

Sombrilla Refugee Support Society strives to observe and fulfill the following developmental principles which serves as operational guides for its program involvement abroad:

1. "Underdevelopment" is an economic problem -a problem of poverty and affluence. The systemic political and economic reasons that prevent the poor from meeting their basic needs and rights must be dealt with. The economic problem must not be reduced into reactive charitable responses that address only the symptoms and not the causes.

2. Respect and observance of the Universal declaration of Human Rights including the present international covenants on economic, social, cultural rights, and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a prerequisite and foundation of sustainable development, freedom, justice, and peace in the world.

3. Development is not an end product but an ongoing process where people gaining greater control over decisions which affect their lives. Sombrilla's external assistance is based on respect for self-determination and social justice and not mere sympathy or "western" concept of order and charity.

4. The poor can and must be agents of their own development. Popular participation methods that embrace women and the disadvantaged, offer the greatest possibilities for development. As such, Sombrilla requires that the development needs and solutions of the project holders must be identified by the people themselves so that it will be conducive to self-sufficiency rather than dependency.

5. Rural development should have priority over urban development and embrace the following principles:
-emphasize agrarian reform in its fullest context of land reform, access to reasonable credit, training and access to markets;
-minimize risk so that farmers and rural artisans can experiment with alternate production methods knowing that their day to day survival will not be jeopardized;
-recognize the role of women as agricultural producers and rural entrepreneurs by increasing their role in overall economic activity;
-increase the available time of women for training in food production, income generation, health care, family nutrition/planning, marketing, prevention of soil/water degradation and post harvest losses by introducing appropriate labor saving technologies within the local cultural framework;
-safeguard against producer disincentives such as the disincentive caused when foreign and mass-produced products, often in the name of aid, are dumped on local markets;
-support both rural community development and non-farm rural employment opportunities.

6. External assistance must be based on institutional reform and equity strategies to free the human and productive potential of the poor and create employment and new opportunities for the marginalized.

7. Educating the leadership and people of Canada to their realities in today's interdependent.

Read two reports from Sombrilla's latest visit to their projects in Guatemala here.

Sombrilla Refugee Support Society
Room G25, 8861-75 Street NW
Edmonton AB
T6C 4G8
Tel. (780) 414-1536
Email: home@sombrilla.ca
www.sombrilla.ca