Supporting artisanal fishermen in Buenaventura

A very interesting Humanitarian Action project that Alianza por la Solidaridad (ApS) develops in one of the rural settlements of Buenaventura, Department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia, is the support for an artisanal fishermen group. The Livelihoods area, of which I am part during these five months, visits the community about every three weeks, so that we can develop a continuous monitoring and accompanying the on-going process. The goal is to support to beneficiaries and their families not just providing inputs, which are basic tools they need to earn their daily bread, but could not provide both medium and long term relevant and positive results. To do this, it is important to carry out a continuous process that focuses on «building community» and to encourage its cohesion, so that they work together and strengthen their livelihoods.

This project, where are involved 27 people,  men and women along with their families, started with the provision of fishing equipment such as fishing nets and waterproof equipment, and continued with teamwork through meetings or joint activities in order to strengthen their capacities and associativity, and make them feel the process as their own. Several women members of the group are piangüeras. The piangua is a common mollusk in the area of the Colombian Pacific, and to catch them, many of these women are injured by introducing her hands in the mangrove roots so they stick the thorns toadfish o “pejesapo”, common in these muddy areas, into their hands.

At this point we can easily see, through the monitoring ApS has carried out during the recent months, that the situation of the families improved because they possessed the knowledge but not the necessary inputs for their activities. The family incomes have increased and this has resulted in an improvement of their welfare, greater quantity and variety of foods that provide them with different nutrients.

In addition to the activities described above, it was decided to support the repair of a large boat than belong to one of the residents of the community involved in the process, so that it could be used by 7 members of the group who did not have boat to fish. In some cases the beneficiaries cannot go fishing, either because they have no boat or because they have other obligations, so they contribute with their fishing nets to the group, which operates for days, and the profits are divided according the fishing nets provided by each and who went fishing.

Furthermore ApS aims to strengthen the supply chain and cold chain community through a pilot project for the provision of solar powered freezers, so that the group is able to increase the value of their catches by reducing fishing costs. This can be achieved in three ways, by using it to make ice, to preserve the fish, or a combination of both. In the first way the fishing group avoids a trip to Buenaventura to get the ice they need, while the second can exploit the freezer to preserve fish so that they can sell it in the local market and keep it longer. In this way, the food security of the community would be enhanced by having a stable marketplace for good quality fish. With all this, ApS supports the process of strengthening and unity of the group with the hope that is constituted as a company, which is what they want.

Carlos Espejo