Guatemalan Speaking Tour in the Bay Area- Please Schedule Stops!

Folks,

We, the Guatemala News and Information Bureau are hosting the NISGUA
Fall
Tour Speaker, Paulina Culum, a Mayan Tz'utjil woman who has been
working
as a part of the Platforma Agraria (Agrarian Platform). Please read the
description below written by NISGUA.Our support and solidarity for the
Guatemalan people is crucial during this time of increased human rights
violations and a rising sense of insecurity about the upcoming
elections.

Let us know if you are interested in hosting an event, or meeting with
Paulina Culum. Thank you.

Suzanne Collins & Julia Weidmann
Fall Tour Coordinators

Contact info:
Julia -- jeweidmann [at] yahoo.com
home (415) 563-1494
work (415)206-2140 ex.130
Suzanne -- suzannecollins78 [at] hotmail.com
home (415)346-6255
work (415)206-2140 ex.132


“Women Speak Out”

NISGUA 2003 Fall Tour

San Francisco Bay Area

October 26-31


Paulina Culum, a Maya Tz’utujil, is a member of the United Solotatecos
Association for Integral Development (ASUDI), a community organization
that works on local development initiatives with 63 organizations in 17
departments in Guatemala. ASUDI is part of the umbrella organization
Plataforma Agraria.

Aside from her work with ASUDI and the Plataforma Agraria, Paulina is
currently completing her practical rotations as a nurse so that she can
work as a community nurse in the Lake Atitlan area where malnutrition
and
extreme poverty are present. Paulina hopes that with her medical
training
she will be able to give back to her community and improve the lives of
children and adults.

Plataforma Agraria
Founded in 1998, Plataforma Agraria (Agrarian Platform) is a coalition
of
15 campesino, human rights, academic, and religious organizations that
seeks to construct a broad-based movement in favor of structural change
in
the countryside that favors rural development for the marginalized,
rural
poor. The Plataforma’s strategy for bringing about such change
involves
organization and advocacy at both the local and national levels,
combines
specific demands and national agendas, and seeks immediate as well as
long-term gains for the rural population. The aim is to dismantle the
structures of oppression, concentration of wealth, authoritarianism and
the predatory approach to the natural world that characterizes the
current
economic regime. The proposals the Plataforma is currently advocating
include the Coffee Reform, which seeks to address the crisis created by
plummeting international coffee prices, and a rural development
proposal,
Abriendo Brecha. Both proposals recognize in the campesino and
indigenous
majority the key to achieving sustainable growth and equitable
development.