Follow-up Meeting: Day 1

Visiting NGOs' Headquarters!

Today, we had an appointment with 4 NGOs to visit and have further discussion at their facilities. In the morning, we went to Radisson Hotel in San Jose to attend the meeting as invited by an NGO. It was also an anniversary celebration of this NGO, where the presentation was mainly about the work of this NGO in the past years. Unfortunately, we could not stay until the meeting was over because we also had an appointment to meet with another NGO in the morning. Therefore, in order to save time we decided to have a quick breakfast at the hotel and took a van to meet with another NGO at their headquarter.

We soon arrived at the National Children's Hospital, which was also the headquarter of Central del Movimiento de Trabajadores Costarricenses (CMTC). They focused their work on improving children's education, health, and well-beings by providing children's hospital and fundamental education. Even though CMTC based in Costa Rica, it also provided help in other Central American Countries. CMTC found the affiliation with the NGO/DPI interesting so they let us help them filled-in the application form. After we finished our discussion with CMTC, their staff offered us a ride to another NGO's facility near by and we accepted that offer.

In the afternoon, we arrived at Credimujer's headquarter safely. This NGO offered opportunities of easy access to the credit and the training to the women and men micro-entrepreneurs in order to strengthen their commercial and productive activities, improve their quality of life, and be able to join the economic and social development of the country. Credimujer found the association with the United Nations useful for them in terms of reliability so they decided to affiliate with the NGO/DPI.

After that, we visited ACICAFOC, the last NGO of the day at their headquarter in San Jose, which was a little bit far from the location of the previous NGO. ACICAFOC stands for "Asociación Coordinadora Indígena y Campesina de Agroforestería Comunitaria Centroamericana" meant that Central American Indigenous and Peasant Coordination Association for Community Agroforestry. It was a community-based, non political and dynamic organization characterized by flexibility to the fast changes experienced by Central American rural communities. Their mission was to work with the communities in order to increase their competition, and the correct use and management of natural and cultural resources.

During the meeting, they seemed interested in affiliation with the NGO/DPI as they had already affiliated with ECOSOC. However, they alone could not decide whether to affiliate with the NGO/DPI or not because ACICAFOC was well-structured and decision-making could only do during their annual General Assembly where 7 Broad of Directors who represented 7 member countries gathered together. Therefore, they would deliver their decision to us after they had discussed during their General Assembly on June 22nd and 23rd, 2007.

However, we realized that we had not eaten anything since morning and now our stomachs were craving for food. Finally, we stopped by a seafood restaurant for dinner and went to a huge souvenir store to buy some local handicrafts for the people back home.

By Sudarat Adirek