Accompaniment and Cooperant Program
Since 1990, Breaking the Silence has engaged Maritimers and people across Canada in solidarity work through on-the-ground accompaniment of our partners in Guatemala. Ranging from short and long-term internships, cooperant placements, delegations, and in-country presence of BTS staff, our solidarity efforts support the work of partners in Guatemala while increasing the capacity of Maritimers to become more conscientious and active organizers for social justice at home and abroad.
For several years after the end of our internship programs in 2013, our in-person support to partners in Guatemala took the form of in-country staffing and short-term delegations. In 2019, at the request of our partners, BTS recognized that a fundamental aspect of our solidarity needed to include a significant presence of Canadians in Guatemala. As a response, we launched a two-year pilot cooperant program to bring 6-8 highly qualified individuals from across the Maritimes region to Guatemala for short and long-term human rights and community development placements. Under the coordination of a full-time Lead Cooperant, the program brought three cooperants to Guatemala to support our partners’ work on truth, justice, and impunity, defense of territory, and human security, including mining justice.
In 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, BTS was forced to end its cooperant placements in Guatemala and shifted gears to strengthening virtual solidarity and accompaniment efforts. As we navigate the uncertainties presented by this context, we continue to centre the needs of partners as a guiding compass in our work and look forward to resuming our Cooperant Program in Guatemala in 2022-2023 with applications for training opening in February 2022.
Report-backs from previous accompaniers and cooperants
International Women’s Day 2022
(In the Plaza de Niñas, families of the victims and survivors of the Hogar Virgen de la Asunción fire place flowers in the cardinal directions in preparation for a ceremony on the morning of International Women’s Day. Credits: Laura Robinson) Around the world, March 8th, 2022, International Women’s Day, [...]
Commemoration of the Xococ Massacre
By: Laura Robinson (BTS Cooperant) On February 13th, I accompanied the Rabinal Legal Clinic and The New Hope Foundation School to what had been used as a clandestine cemetery in Xococ, a town outside of Rabinal. It was the 38th anniversary of the Xococ massacre during which the Guatemalan army [...]
Cooperant Updates & Reflections from Laura Robinson
Laura Robinson is a BTS Cooperant based in Rabinal. She's doing work with the Rabinal Legal Clinic and the New Hope Foundation. I arrived in Rabinal seemingly at one of the busiest times of year as the annual fair was beginning. Everyday the streets filled with more and more [...]
Exciting cooperant program updates!
January 2020 is off to a great start with the beginning of Laura Robinson’s Community Development Cooperant placement at both the Rabinal Legal Clinic and the New Hope Foundation in Rabinal. Over the next six months, Laura will support the Legal Clinic in the areas of research, communications and fundraising [...]
BTS Welcomes its first Cooperant of 2020 to Guatemala
Laura Robinson arrived in Guatemala in late October and has made excellent strides in learning spanish as well as navigating some of the social, political and cultural complexities of the region. She spent two weeks in Xela learning spanish and then spent nearly two weeks with the BTS delegation which [...]
June 6th Update from Case of 36 Achi Survivors of Sexual Violence
On Thursday, June 6th, a Guatemala City Court held the latest preliminary hearing against 6 former Civil Patrollers accused of committing sexual violence in Rabinal during the Internal Armed Conflict. The case has been brought forward by 36 Achi survivors of sexual violence committed from 1981 to 1985. Thursday’s hearing [...]