Dear friends of Building Dignity,

As 2012 comes to an end, it’s a good time to reflect on a productive year at Building Dignity. First, some numbers: 496 children, youth and adults benefited from our Community Education programs; 127 adolescents and 24 adults participated in our leadership training programs; our generous supporters expanded our collection of laptops from 2 to 7 computers, which are used to do homework and research by over 50 children and adults per week; and leadership grants that support adult and youth-led development projects grew from $500 to $2,500.

While the above list gives a taste of the extraordinary growth we’ve experienced over the past year, let’s take a closer look at some program highlights and the people who made this growth possible.

Youth Leadership
When I arrived in Villa El Salvador in September 2011, one of my goals was to expand the youth leadership program, Voices of Youth, which had previously been implemented as a pilot program. This program seeks to provide leadership education to highly motivated youth in our community in a dynamic workshop setting. At the culmination of the program, participants design and implement their own community service project to benefit their neighbors and peers. This year, we solidified the framework for the program and developed a strong cohort of young leaders who organized a youth rock concert in La Encantada, conducted screen-printing classes for their peers, and helped out with a puppetry workshop for children. One of our most dedicated graduates of this program, Claudia Pezo, now works as the assistant facilitator for Voices of Youth. With Claudia’s added leadership, our group of young leaders has taken even more initiative to engage in service projects and organize events for other youth and the community. Before I left, Claudia and her friend Brenda suggested to Julia Smith, the Center’s current Program Director, that they organize a theatre performance at a local orphanage. This kind of initiative is the goal of Voices of Youth, and I was happy to see Claudia’s energy contribute to more youth engagement in their community.

Every May 11th, Villa el Salvador celebrates its founding as a squatter community and eventually an official district of Lima. Villa el Salvador originated as a group of displaced families from the rural provinces of Peru attempted to invade a plot of private land in southern Lima in April of 1971 and then were relocated to the current site on May 11th, 1971 by the populist dictator Juan Velasco Alverado. 

The below attached article is printed with permission of the Jack Kent Cooke Scholar Association.

2012 is off to a good start for Building Dignity! With programming moving full speed ahead in Lima, we have begun to reach out to like-minded non-profit organizations, build new partnerships, and expand our impact. Upon completing her graduate degree in August 2011, Building Dignity Director Emily Hedin moved to San José, Costa Rica for a year with the goal of expanding her skill set and leadership abilities before returning to Lima, Peru to resume her full-time work at the Center. In San José, she is networking with successful nonprofits, learning from their experiences, and improving Building Dignity programming by implementing our curriculum in new communities. Since February 2012, Emily has partnered with the local "Boy with a Ball" Foundation (www.boywithaball.com) to organize youth leadership workshops for young women in the community of Triangulo de la Solidaridad.

Like La Encantada (Lima), the community of Triangulo de la Solidaridad faces daunting challenges. In this neighborhood, about 1,500 squatters—the vast majority of them undocumented immigrants from Nicaragua—live on 3 acres of land. Families in communities such as Triangulo de la Solidaridad occupy unstable homes with dirt floors, and 50% of households lack access to treated water. Most families make less than $200 a month, and the average individual drops out of school between the 3rd and 6th grade.

With the help of the Boy with a Ball Foundation, which has worked in Triangulo de la Solidaridad since 2004, Building Dignity is implementing its Youth Leadership curriculum with a dynamic group of 15 young women. Each week, the girls gather in the Foundation’s community center for an afternoon of activities that cultivate teamwork, self-esteem, self-expression, and leadership.

We began in February with an engaging reflection on human rights in the area. The girls "measured the human rights temperature" of their community and identified where and how the protection of human rights could be improved. During the month of March, we celebrated women’s rights and the rich history of women leaders in Latin America and around the world. We also examined how women are portrayed in the media and discussed how we’d like to see that image changed. We are now focusing on service and leadership, as the girls work to design a community service project in Triangulo de la Solidaridad.


According to workshop participants, the project provides a space where they can "integrate, share, and learn new things." The workshops are "good, because it is something we can identify with as girls."

Back in Lima, leadership workshops continue to help young women find their voice and contribute to positive social change. Claudia, a member of the Lima-based “Voices of Youth” program writes:

I participate in leadership workshops at the Center for Development with Dignity, and there I feel strong and capable because [the Center] is connected to my community. Before, the neighbors were not so organized or concerned. Now, through meetings with young people and neighbors, the Center has made it possible for us to develop the will and desire to move forward as a community and as individuals. I believe that I have found a very special place for me and my community.

The young women of Triangulo de la Solidaridad and La Encantada have exchanged letters and souvenirs from their communities, offering one another encouragement and support on their journey. For us at Building Dignity, it is a privilege to watch their natural leadership grow.

Building Dignity would like to thank and acknowledge the University of Minnesota’s Center for Human Rights. The human rights curriculum “This is my Home” inspired several activities that we incorporate into our own work.

Happy New Year from the Center for Devleopment with Dignity! 2011 was a full year for the Center and we're about to hit the ground running in 2012. Here are a few highlights from my time here in the last few months of 2011: