WHAT IS SONIA?
SONIA (“SOciety for New Initiatives
and Activities” to build together a better
world), was established in July 2002 in memory of Sonia
Herzog who died in a car accident at the age of 21. The
Association’s objectives are to assist in tackling the
root causes of marginalisation and in promoting cultural
exchanges. In this regard, it promotes activities
related to social and economic development, ethnic and
racial integration, safeguarding the rights of the most
vulnerable groups (women, children, youth, indigenous
peoples and ethnic minorities) and protecting/preserving
the environment.
SONIA has a charter (available on request) and was
registered under Italian law as a non-profit association
on 23 July 2002. SONIA is in the process of registering
as a Charity Organisation under Italian law to allow,
among others, persons who give their contributions to
benefit from fiscal deduction. The relevant information
will be provided to you as soon as available. It has a
membership of about 100 friends and a Board of eight
members: the composition of both is rather
international. Indeed,
SONIA was born out of contributions of different
cultures, and is lucky to have friends from many
countries, who are already or wish to become members of
the association. The majority of the members and of the
Board of SONIA are development practitioners who are
professionally engaged in the fight against poverty and
marginalization. SONIA raises funds through donations
from friends and the organization of fund-raising
cultural events. It welcomes new members who pledge
regular contributions and provides periodic progress
reports. A friend of SONIA is building a new web site
for the association. All the work for the association,
including that of the grassroots partner organizations,
is done on a totally voluntary basis. All funds
mobilized are used exclusively to finance worthy local
initiatives.
WHAT IS ITS VISION?
SONIA is neither a traditional NGO nor a solidarity
group focusing on specific themes such as the
environment or gender. Rather, it is an initiative that
tries to create links amongst people, to promote a new
social tissue.
Though quite young, it is already supporting very small
grassroots initiatives that nevertheless have a very
high human potential because they will allow SONIA’s
members to get to know other people and to build with
them relationships that go far beyond individual
projects. Different threads are being woven that will
later develop into a whole pattern. SONIA expects to
enlarge the sphere of relationships and nurture a
concept of social relationships that go beyond
geographic or cultural boundaries. It is this vision
that makes this association different.
In a period when even the simplest words – “democracy”
and “information” come to mind first - have been emptied
of their real meaning, SONIA is trying to get back to
the value of “real things”, things that benefit others
as well as its members.
WHAT HAS SONIA ACCOMPLISHED SO FAR?
Since 2002, SONIA has supported three small but vibrant
grassroots initiatives. The criteria adopted for their
selection were: consistency with the objectives of the
association, low cost per beneficiary, sustainability of
the investment and level of risk. Some of these criteria
are more important than others; all of them have been
used in a very flexible way.
In Argentina, SONIA has supported the Estefania
Family, a small, family-run organization that combines
emergency activities, such as a popular kitchen for
vulnerable groups, with small productive activities,
such as horticulture and the processing of products for
sale. SONIA has supported this organization to purchase
small agricultural tools, irrigation equipment, seeds,
small processing tools and small structural changes of
the centre. In accordance with SONIA’s vision, this initiative has
allowed for the establishment of links and exchanges
between the Estefania Family and a nearby agricultural
school. The students of this school, youth from families
of very modest means, have used the facilities and the
tools acquired by the Stefania Family with SONIA’s
support, to practice horticulture on the fields of the
centre while transferring the know-how of advanced
horticultural practices to the members of the centre.
This initiative has recently been closed because it has
reached its objectives.
In
Brazil, specifically in Campo Grande (Mato Grosso
do Sul), SONIA has been supporting the Casa de Ensaio, a
non-profit organization, that works with ex-street
children and with young people from very poor families.
The organization rescues these youth through engaging
them in non-traditional educational activities, such as
theatre, dance and painting. Amongst these students,
over the past four years, the Casa de Ensajo identified
some of the most promising ones to participate in a one
year special crash course to allow them to pass their
university entrance exams. SONIA has provided
scholarships to seven young people (six girls and one
boy). Six of them have been admitted to the University.
These results are excellent, especially in view of the
fact that these exams are quite difficult (the average
pass rate for the country is around 35 to 40%) and that
the youth supported by SONIA had a big handicap to begin
with. The students who have been admitted are all
receiving very good scores in their new University
career. Two points need to be highlighted here. First of
all, the Casa de Ensaio has contributed to their
success not only with moral support but also by paying,
out of its own funds, tutorship in subjects in which the
students were weaker. If one accounts for this support
(in kind and money) the Casa de Ensaio has contributed
to the financing of this initiative as much as SONIA.
Secondly, some of these youth have decided, by
themselves, to reimburse in kind the support received
and are currently working as volunteer teachers in the
Casa de Ensaio. At the moment, SONIA expects to start a
new initiative with the Casa de Ensaio. In order to
respond to an increased demand for the type of education
it provides, this institution has recently rented new
premises, and has increased the number of students it
receives each year, expecting to reach 180 students in
2007. In addition, rather than providing courses only
over the week end, its has started a more intensive
programme. Consequently, it has requested SONIA to
finance in 2007 scholarships for four assistants and
four monitors to assist the centre’s current staff.
SONIA has accepted this request willingly since this
implies that its resources will touch a much larger
number of needy youth.
Another initiative supported by SONIA takes place in
India; in partnership with Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), a
non-profit grassroots organization. It seeks to improve the
livelihoods of poor people living in arid and semi-arid
areas in Rajasthan through the revival of ancient, but
currently abandoned, water harvesting methods. The
initiative supported by SONIA is promoting, through
awareness raising campaigns and motivation, the diffusion of
these techniques and related activities, where similar
grassroots organisations exist and/or are emerging. The
first phase of this initiative, which has just ended, has
been very positive. Major achievements can be summarised as
follows: organisation of marches to raise awareness of the
need to build
johads
(water retention structures); construction of two johads
in two large villages and establishment of village tree
plantations; sensitisation of 200 school children on the
importance of water and forests to preserve the environment;
organization of awareness raising meetings, bringing
together about 1,300 people, on the issues of conservation;
training of 20 traditional birth attendants; and
sensitisation and training of 240 rural women to exercise
their rights to vote in order to influence, amongst others,
local decision makers on problems they face as women. At the
moment, the Board of SONIA is waiting for a small assessment
of the first phase which would also make proposals for a
second phase. In this new phase, the partnership with Tarun
Bharat Sangh would also be strengthened.
SONIA has also been supporting an initiative in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, in partnership with a
local grassroots institution
“Promotion de la Famille Abandonnée de LUIZA” (PROFAL).
PROFAL operates in a very remote area of RDC (Western
Kasai), situated close to the area ravaged by the civil war
and which has received many refugees from that area.
HIV/AIDS is prominent in the area and there are many
HIV/AIDS related orphans The arrival of so many refugees has
put a great deal of stress on the local resources,
especially on the availability of drinking water and primary
schools. In the second quarter of 2005 Sonia financed a
first phase of an initiative for building drinking water
points by harnessing natural spring water. This work was
achieved in record time by the local populations who have
provided their own labour while SONIA financed the necessary
purchased material (cement, pipes and taps etc.). After the
end of the civil works, a management committee, comprising
five women and three men and presided by a woman, has been
elected. This committee has raised contributions from the
local population to establish a small maintenance fund.
Since the concerned population is very poor, contributions
have been mostly in kind. This is a very good indication of
the degree of commitment and responsibility of the concerned
population. SONIA has just financed the building of three
additional water points. In addition, PROFAL has also
informally asked SONIA’s support for the purchase of primary
school supplies (chalk, pencils, notebooks, etc.), for the
construction of a roof in corrugated iron and the supply of
mid-day meals for orphans. We are waiting for a formal
request.
Recently, SONIA has been approached by an organization -
Got Matar (Bare
Hill Top) Community Development Group – in Bondo District in
Kenya. Bondo has the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the
country and about one third of the school age children in
Got Matar are orphans. Since 2002, this grassroots
organization has worked very hard in mobilizing funds and
voluntary labour from within the concerned rural communities
to improve the facilities of 10 primary schools
(replacement of roofs, tanks for collecting drinking water,
latrines, school gardens etc.), to build two pre-primary
schools and to support the education of orphans (uniforms
and school supplies). Now the Group’s top priority is to
build a secondary school for 600 pupils. It is a very
ambitious project which responds, however, to the real needs
of the population, especially those of the young boys and
girls who do not understand why they cannot carry on with
their studies without having to leave home – a very costly
option. The Got Matar Community Development Group has drawn
up plans for a secondary school complex, including
classrooms, offices and limited boarding accommodation as
well as teachers’ housing. The project and the proposed site
have been approved by the Ministry of Education that will
provide teachers once progress has been made by the
community in building the school. Construction will be
phased to match the build-up in the number of pupils, a
progressive increase in the number of boarders coming from
outlying villages and the growth in staff members. Total
cost of construction has been estimated at Euro 250,000, and
a further Euro 50,000 would be used to provide bursaries for
orphans to attend both primary and secondary schools.
Construction started in October 2006 of a block of 4
contiguous classrooms with the aim of taking in the first
batch of pupils in January 2007. The next priorities are to
build a laboratory, an open plan dining hall/assembly area,
the nucleus of the school office and a boundary fence. Total
cost of this phase is estimated at about Euro 57,000 (about
Euro 15,000 of which will be allocated for the purchase of
equipment). A further Euro 12,500 would be required for
supporting school attendance of 250 orphans for 2007. For
more details and a brochure, see
www.gotmatar.org
SONIA has already pledged a limited
contribution but it has committed itself to mobilize
additional funds for Got Matar through its friends.
SONIA’s APPEAL
SONIA is making an urgent appeal to you all to contribute
generously to the initiatives that it is supporting or has
pledged to support. You have several options, namely to send
a yearly, quarterly or monthly contribution (some members
have already pledged a monthly contribution of 1% of their
salary) or to make a one-off payment. For ease of reference,
please find attached a simple form which will allow you to
indicate the type and amount of contribution you wish to
make as well as which initiatives you wish to support. If
you do not indicate any preferences, SONIA will split your
contribution between its initiatives. Thank you very much in
advance for your continuous support. |
