Sponsored by Rhondda Community Development Association
Funded by the National Lottery Community Fund (International Grants)
About our partners in Bolivia
Cepromin
Set up on 11th February 1979 to give at least minimal education and training to miners, Cepromin developed into an educational centre with national influence, mainly because it was the only organisation working on wider issues for the 70,000 miners in Bolivia.
Cepromin was initially based in the Bolivian capital of La Paz, but expanded to provide five regional centres as well as the national centre. Activities and priorities were planned with local and regional participants. This led to the setting up of the vocational training centre, Sentec, in Oruro.
Sentec
Sentec was an initiative of miners and their wives who were worried about the future of their children. From 1984 – 1987 they prepared school programmes, found funding, and negotiated with the Bolivian education department. UNICEF Bolivia was especially interested, and helped to establish an equal opportunities strategy for Sentec to encourage girls as well as boys to become technical students, thereby questioning traditional roles. In pursuing this policy, Sentec is still unique in Bolivia.
(Women at work in the Sentec College)
The city of Oruro provided a building plot at a nominal price. It was in an area that was uninhabited because it was regularly flooded. The activists had to raise the entire area by 70 cms., which was very expensive, but the work paid off because after eight years it opened the vicinity to public transport. The activists also had to lay their own electricity and water, which led on to the provision of sewage services. Then they built the original school building and boarding block. It had ten dormitories, a dining room, kitchen, laundry and shower room, industrial space for machines, classrooms, a rudimentary library and a sports area. The first students helped to make tables, chairs and other furniture. The last block was finished in 1994: fifty students, mainly residential, could be catered for.
(Building work taking place showing the addition of a second floor to the college)
Els Van Hoecke
From the earliest days of Cepromin, Els was a key figure. She was employed as an international development worker by the Belgian government. Els trained as a psychology student in Antwerp, and initially worked in education assessing children’s and young people’s learning abilities. In the mid-Sixties she became a full-time organiser for the Young Catholic Workers – a youth movement aiming to provide further education for young workers, helping them to become aware of health and safety issues, employment law, etc.
(Els addressing the Second International Conference of Women in Mining)
In the early Seventies, Els moved to work in an international foyer in Paris. Foyers provide accommodation, employment and training for disadvantaged young people. Residents included exiles and refugees from Portugal (at that time a military state) and Angola. In the mid Seventies, Els returned to Belgium and became co-ordinator for the South American Information Centre (SAGO). This centre had grown from a local initiative – a local secondary school had developed links with a school in Bolivia through fund raising activities. In 1971 Bolivia had suffered a military coup, leading to the imposition of a harsh regime, which imprisoned, killed or exiled tens of thousands of Bolivian citizens, banned all Unions and all but two of the political parties. Shocked by the repression, members of the school group started solidarity actions and set up the centre in Antwerp. Over a period of years the centre grew by organising courses, publishing newsletters and providing help to the exiles. It was run largely through voluntary effort.
The Bolivian military regime ended in 1978. By then, contacts and ideas had developed and grown. When the exiles were allowed to return, new projects and services were set up and others re-surfaced. Cepromin was set up in 1979 after a year of planning with the miners’ organisations. Els played a big part in the formation of Cepromin and in securing overseas funding for it. She was appointed as Director and left for Bolivia in 1979. Her tasks grew to:
• provide support for miners’ co-operatives
• provide support to the regional offices
• produce training brochures for women in mining
• research and study the situation of women in the workplace
• give help in producing brochures about natural resources
• instigate activities around protection of the environment
• sustain international contacts.
Els recently retired and is now concentrating on education and training projects for women miners. She is currently performing a key role in the development of the ‘Women and Mining’ International Network. She has adopted two Bolivian daughters and expects to spend the rest of her life in Bolivia.
The Involvement of Rhondda Community Development Association (RCDA)
Working at the South American Information Centre in Antwerp at the same time as Els Van Hoecke was Gerda Beckers, who later married a Welshman, moved to Wales and helped to found the Rhondda Community Development Association in 1982. Gerda maintained contact with Els, so when Els re-visited Belgium in 1996, Gerda took the opportunity to invite her to speak at a conference organised jointly by RCDA and Rhondda Community Business Initiatives (RCBI) at the Phoenix Centre, Ton Pentre. Also amongst the keynote speakers was Tyrone O’Sullivan of Tower Colliery. The conference was entitled ‘Mining Communities – Transformation from Within’. Moved by Els’s contribution describing the plight of Bolivian mining families and their efforts to overcome their situation, members of RCDA determined to work with Cepromin to help them to improve their living and working conditions. After discussions and analysis, an application to the new International Grants division of the National Lottery Community Fund was prepared. It focused on the further development of the Sentec technical college over a five-year period, and proved to be successful.
(Pupils present investigative materials)
The Project
By 1996, Sentec was firmly established as a progressive technical college, providing up to 50 boarding places for young students from disadvantaged mining families and communities. However, there were limitations to the services Sentec could provide, particularly because of the poverty of students and their families.
(In Sentec the practice of painting is important for the students)
RCDA entered discussion with representatives of Cepromin and Sentec about possible interventions. Our starting point was that Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and that mining had provided one of its largest industries. Recently, the situation had become more and more critical following privatisation and massive redundancies. Unemployed mineworkers, including many females, had formed marginal co-operatives in extremely precarious conditions. It was clear that the technical and vocational education sector was largely undeveloped, though the nature of industry in the mining areas cried out for better training
(The Sentec buildings visited for the Second International Conference of Women and Mining)
By improving and widening training possibilities at Sentec, we hoped to contribute to (a) better living conditions and greater security for mining families, (b) improvements in production methods in the many small mining co-operatives, (c) a more informed contribution by young workers to miners’ organisations attempting to improve working conditions and (d) greater equality for women in mining areas.
(Students working with the new tools, and a selection of new tools on display)
To meet the potential demand for low cost formal training, Sentec required physical extension and more equipment. It also needed to develop programmes of part-time outreach training for adult students in outlying districts. Our aim was to increase the capacity of Sentec to provide boarding and training facilities for up to 75 students on the premises, and to reach a further 125 part-time adult students per annum in the areas where they lived.
(During the 5 years of the project, Sentec provided training for 1,613 students including outreach students)
With the help of a generous National Lottery International Grant and further help from the British Ambassador in Bolivia, we were able to achieve our aims. We were able to exceed our original target of 975 students directly benefiting from the project. The actual number of beneficiaries over the five-year period of the project was 1,613.
(New office equipment for training)
(Work in the sections of soldering, foundry and production)
Conclusion
In mining areas throughout the world, many struggles for better living and working conditions remain to be won. Equality for women is an ongoing issue. However, thanks to the help of our benefactors and the hard work of leaders, staff, students and volunteers in Sentec and Cepromin we have been able to make some worthwhile contribution. We hope to continue our involvement.
(The students liven up the nights with cultural displays for the Second International Conference 'Women in Mining')
In 2000, Sentec played hosts to the second International Conference of Women and Mining. The ‘Women and Mining’ International Network was established. The indirect benefits of the Sentec Development Project continue to multiply.
(The Administration Building, The Foundry)
(A woman miner at work sifting for ore in detrimental conditions)
(Outreach work is an important part of Sentec's remit)
Working to improve the conditions of the small mining co-operatives in Bolivia.
