Other projects submitted to the Ninth Conference were also valuable and recommended. On of these was PROMUJER, legal advice centre for women in San Marcos Nicaragua. It received support from the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (Ithaca, New York) and the National Campaign for Peace Tax Fund.
Brunhilde Stötzner reports:
Promujer is a legal advice centre for women and other disadvantaged groups in situations of violence. The project was initiated by the association APRODIM in San Marcos (NGO) and is a partner organisation of Eine Welt Haus in Jena, Germany. It has its particular focus on socially weak strata and rural regions of the city. There people get the opportunity to get to know their rights and get them recognized. Because of financial hardship, most of them are not in a position to receive legal assistance by themselves. This is particularly true for violence within families.
During my sabbatical year (April 2003 to March 2004) I was working as volunteer in this project. This gave me an insight into their work, structures, contexts, successes and difficulties. The project takes care of cases of economic, physical and psychological violence, for instance maintenance proceedings, bodily harm, rape, sexual abuse, domestic violence, threats etc.
The staff of the project are two female promoters (seminars and home visits), a psychologist, a secretary and a lawyer. A network of volunteers that is being developed helps the victims of violence to have quick access to professional support.
The project started in 2000, financed by the foundation Nord-Südbrücken-Deutschland. After one year without any financial support Missionszentrale der Franziskaner in Bonn took care of financing. Since November 2003 Promujer receives financial support through World Day of Prayer of Women.
After my personal experience in the project I would like to express my gratitude to the US section for wishing to give support to the project in Nicaragua. The bank details are known in both organisations, but here they are once again:
Banco de America Central
Nr. 0300855322
Managua BAC FLORIDA BANK 848.
More information from Brunhilde Stötzner, Kirchgasse 50, 99439 Ramsla (bei Weimar), Germany. Ph./fax +49 36452 72261; e-mail: bruni.stoetzner@t-online.de