Abbreviation CISEP | Affiliations Jesuit, Catholic | |
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Established 1984; 33 years ago (1984) Location Ayacucho No. 559, between October 6 and Soria Galvarro Oruro, Bolivia Chairman Osvaldo Chirveches Pinaya, SJ Director José Luis Paniagua Boyerman | ||
Centre for Research and Popular Service (CISEP) was founded by the Jesuits in 1984 in Oruro, Bolivia, in response to the nationalization of mines, for the preservation of jobs and development of alternatives in the urban labor sector. CISEP works at the national and regional level on issues of research, environment, cultural promotion, and citizenship.
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Mining areas
When the closure of COMIBOL mines became irreversible, CISEP worked to consolidate and strengthen mining cooperatives to improve production processes and thus raise the income for mining families. It worked with the Mining Cooperatives Morococala, Santa Fe, Machacamarca, Poopo, and Huanuni. Its efforts also included Hans Moëller's presentation that led to Application of the Environmental Law and indemnification for rupture in a pipeline maintained by Transredes.
CIPEC's training and technical assistance programs promote safe and efficient production to reduce the impact on the environment of mining cooperatives. Miners, men and women, in five mining cooperatives were trained in techniques of mining work, industrial safety, and environmental preservation. Cooperatives members in Oruro were also given protective equipment. In mining villages, CISEP produced solar ovens to improve the diet and conserve resources, also training housewives. CISEP furnished funding for fishing cooperatives of Poopo and Uru Uru lakes, of the Uru Muratos people, but contamination of the two lakes is extinguishing this industry. CISEP has a close relationship with the municipal governments in Poopo and Huanuni Machacamarca which are working toward political autonomy. CIPEC's research led to the publication of: "Dynamites and Contaminants", "Socioeconomic Situation of Child Labour in Artisanal Mining", "Who will take care of lakes Uru Uru and Poopó?", and "Oruro and mining cooperatives."
Urban areas
CISEP's urban department is active in five districts in the municipality of Oruro. It works among the 278 neighborhood councils focusing on settlements that are new or in the process of consolidation, sectors of the population with little access to basic services including health care and education These settlements are growing rapidly due to immigration from rural and mining areas.
CISEP promotes citizen participation in local development planning in the context of the new Constitution of the State and the emerging legal framework of this legal change, as the country moves towards government decentralization within a regional structure. It seek to unite the five districts for greater political impact of their representative organizations, while training their leadership and lending technical assistance fostering citizen participation toward community development. This includes opening the first schools for women leaders and youth with a curriculum that forms new leadership for the management of local development.
CISEP's strategies of organizational strengthening and advocacy would bring equitable access to basic and social services for the overall improvement of the living conditions of the inhabitants of peri-urban areas. It would facilitate social dialogue and establishment of multisectoral partnerships for influencing the public policies related to urban habitat, environment and the exercise of human rights.
Publications
Publications covered technical and religious issues. What is liberation theology and Being Christian Today in Latin America by Victor Codina were reproduced in several countries in Latin America and Europe. Publication of a periodic report on the cost of "The Family Basket" receives national coverage. CISEP has 110 of its works from the period 1987-1997 archived in its library.