Meeting with Mara Lucila Cuadra and Cristina Pasos of the Fundacin

Amigos de Holanda in El Viejo, 3rd October 2016.

June and Martin met with Mara Lucila Cuadra and Cristina Pasos of the Fundacin Amigos
de Holanda in El Viejo today. It was an excellent meeting that began with our concerns about
continuity of the SRFs support for the projects previously administered by the Berriz Sisters.
It was obvious that the Sisters had passed on much information about the SRF and the
projects that the SRF money supports. In fact, the Fundacin Amigos de Holanda (FAH) has
worked very closely with the Sisters since the Sisters first arrived in the region, an arrival
which was promoted by Padre Teodoro Kint, a Dutch priest who directed the FAH. We
emphasised our requirement that the SRF money should be spent first and most importantly
on educational causes, a requirement that Martin had already emphasised when he met the
same two people with the Sisters in May this year. Secondly, we emphasised that we wished
to continue our support for the Centro Recreativo, Casa Esperanza and the education of the
children of the community of Los Pocitos. These points were already known and fully
understood by Lucila and Cristina.
The next point was rather unexpected on account of Sister Abdontxu earlier telling us that the
plan was to close the FAHs building and move their operations into the Centro Recreativo
(which is very close by). It seems that this plan may now not go ahead and that the FAH
building may remain open rather than being sold off. Lucila and Cristina hope that this will
be confirmed by FAH following a two month visit by two members of the board of the FAH,
beginning on 18th October. (We suggested that Lucila and Cristina should pass on our email
details to the FAH visitors from Holland so that, if they so wish, they might communicate
with the SRF whilst they make their assessment regarding the future of the FAH building.
The board of the FAH is already very well aware of the funding that comes from the SRF.)
They (Lucila and Cristina) believe that it is not practical to move their operations into the
Centro Recreativo and that the FAH building is too good to get rid of. In any case it probably
wont sell. Because of this they have also kept the El Viejo library going, and despite the
earlier justification given for closing it, they believe that it is as necessary a facility as it ever
was. Despite the availability of both mobile phones and cyber cafes, there are still many
people in this area who do not have access to either of these. Moreover, Lucila who lives in
the FAH building, sees the queues of people (especially children) in the morning and at 2 pm
in the afternoon, waiting to get into the library. (Indeed this afternoon, we witnessed some of
the children arriving to make use of the library.) Related to maintaining the library, they
would like to provide more computing possibilities within the library. At this point we
double-checked that, although they may use some of the SRF funds to cover some of the
costs of the library, they will not do so at the expense of our support for the other projects
which the SRF supports. We made them aware that if they wished to put in a specific request
for the funding of the purchase of items like computers or further support for the library, they
would be welcome to do so; but such funding would be considered to be extra and additional
to the SRF core commitment funding and might be granted only if extra funds were available
to us.
Regarding the actual transfer of funds, June mentioned that the transfer might be made in two
parts or tranches during 2017. Currently, the FAHs money is transferred to an account which
is in the name of both Lucila and Cristina, and this may still be the case in January when we
are about to make the transfer. However, the FAH is in the process of setting up an account in
its own name and this may be done by the time we are ready to transfer funds to them. They
will advise about this before the new year and will provide all the bank details necessary.

Regarding our funding of the education of the children of the community of Los Pocitos,
Lucila knows Eloi (leader of Los Pocitos) and has actually wanted to go and visit the
community, but has not been able to do so because the rainy season has made the road
impassable, at least for the moment. But she is aware of the normal procedure of Elois early
year visit to inform about the number of children involved. She intends to pass this
information on to us. She is aware also that $1,000 of the SRFs usual annual amount of
$8,000 is earmarked for the children of Los Pocitos; but we also made her aware of the fact
that Sister Abdontxu often robbed Peter to pay Paul with this amount without the Los
Pocitos needs ever being deprived.
It was pleasing that we did not have to mention the possibility of the SRF receiving a report
on the changeover and the years activities in time for our finance meeting in November. As a
result of Martins meeting with them earlier in the year, Lucila mentioned this before we had
the chance to do so, and she said that they intend to get the report to us before the end of
October so that we have time to translate it in time for our meeting.
June identified a number of caveats or uncertainties which we need to keep at the back of our
minds. These include the following.
There is still a small degree of uncertainty concerning the result of the review that will
be undertaken by the two Dutch persons visiting from 18th October onwards.
There is still a small degree of uncertainty over the future of the library, not just
because of the review, but also because Lucila and Cristina would like to move the
facility from the upstairs hall to the downstairs hall but this would require
construction work to enlarge the windows downstairs.
There is considerable extra space available for use in the FAHs centre; and it is
possible that the Dutch review will suggest combination with and collaboration with
other organisations to ensure continued purposeful use of this space.
June and Martin were greatly impressed by their meeting with Lucila and Cristina and
strongly recommend that the relationship which the SRF had with the Berriz Sisters be
continued and maintained through 2017 with the Fundacin Amigos de Holanda. It can be
reviewed towards the end of 2017.
June and Martin
4th October 2016