"Manos Unidas projects show that another world is possible."Women at the center of Manos Unidas' work in Africa20 years ago, Clara Pardo was a volunteer at the Manos Unidas. Since then, she has worked in the Projects area of Manos Unidas working in different countries. In May 2016 she was elected president by the Assembly of delegates and next May, after two terms at the head of this development NGO, she will say goodbye to her position as president.
Since March 2020, with the outbreak of the pandemic, Clara Pardo has lived through perhaps the most difficult period in recent decades. However, as the president of Manos Unidas points out, "we have seen an increase in the number of volunteers and in support for our emergency campaigns.
This 2022, the Manos Unidas campaign reminds us that the problems of the developing countries not only continue, but have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and that we must all come out of this global crisis together, giving opportunities to all.
What is your assessment of these years of presidency of Manos Unidas?
- I joined Manos Unidas 20 years ago and have been president for 6 years (re-elected in 2019). It has been an extraordinary 20 years. I am lucky to do a job that is what I like. I don't get paid, I am a volunteer, but the obligation and commitment are equal to a paid job. It's not just a matter of going for "a few hours". In this work you find the time where you can. Being a volunteer does not mean that it is a "light" task to which you dedicate "a little while".
My six years as president have been absolutely extraordinary. For me it has been fortunate. It has also been a burden, it is true, especially last season, with the coronavirus problem. But I am very proud of the work that all of Manos Unidas has done in this difficult moment of the pandemic. We have been able to cope with it.
How did Manos Unidas experience the outbreak of the pandemic?
-Before the arrival of Covid, we had two options: to shut ourselves up at home and let everything sink or to change in order to continue fighting. Manos Unidas is an NGO that is characterized by its austerity and in which we have many older people, so we had to change to learn to work from home. The results have been very good. The delegates of our 72 delegations work, above all, on awareness-raising: raising awareness of hunger and the causes of hunger and raising funds for development projects. Events such as hunger dinners could not take place and the delegates reinvented themselves. We managed to reach people through social networks, the media, television....
By reinventing ourselves, by fighting together, we have been able to continue to reach out to our partners, to continue to support projects and to stay in contact with local partners in Mozambique, Peru or India, even if at the beginning we had to stop some projects, for example in construction.
It has been a very hard but beautiful moment. I leave happy. We have been able to fight together as we did 63 years ago.
Do you think we have become more or less selfish after two years of coronavirus as the main theme of our lives?
-At the beginning of the pandemic, solidarity was the order of the day: we saw that this was a global problem from which we had to emerge united. Little by little, unfortunately, this has turned around and is becoming a "unitary" project: I have to save myself, vaccinate myself... We are forgetting about the situation outside. A situation of extreme poverty which, moreover, has become much more acute.
In the countries where we work, people live on what they collect every day; it is a precarious job, a subsistence economy. The figures of hunger and multidimensional poverty have worsened with the pandemic and the confinements.
For some years we have been very slowly improving development figures in the world, but in the last two years, we have turned around and inequality has increased, also in Spain.
How have the Manos Unidas campaigns been in these two years?
-For me, it was impressive. When the confinement began, in 2020 we had just closed the campaign, which takes place on the second Sunday in February, so the collection for Mass celebrations was not affected. Suddenly, everything had to stop and we have many members who still bring their envelopes to the delegations, and activities such as the hunger dinners are face-to-face.
In the mid-2020s the economic figures were very worrying. We came to think that we were not going to make it. In the midst of that situation, our partners responded again. I always say that Manos Unidas members are the bravest and most committed people I know. People who understand the value of a euro, which can mean a coffee or the possibility of giving vaccines or food.
The number of Manos Unidas members in these months has gone up. Obviously we have decreased the number of activities, but we have looked for alternative ways to support the campaigns: virtual hunger dinners, etc. The important thing is that people are still committed. I always talk about the enormous generosity of the Spanish population and our partners are an example. Thank God, public funding for the projects has also recovered.
In the end, curiously, in 2020 we have grown over 2019 and in 2021 we have an increase in membership figures. An important item is the legacies: those people who leave a legacy for a more dignified future to so many others. During these months, we have also carried out several emergency campaigns, because Covid has struck in a terrible way in countries such as India where, for example, there was no firewood to cremate the deceased.
Manos Unidas is a Church NGDO, are your volunteers always part of the Catholic Church?
-As with our beneficiaries, most of whom are not Christian, we don't ask our volunteers and the people who work for Manos Unidas to profess a religion, to have a particular age or political affiliation... That said, we are a Catholic organization, so if you want to make a greater commitment, which involves being able to vote in the governing bodies or be part of those bodies, you have to be what is called a member of Manos Unidas. To be a member you have to declare that you agree with the principles of the Catholic Church and that your life is in accordance with those principles.
Delegate presidents must be members of Manos Unidas, thereby declaring that they are active members of the Church, practicing Catholics. In addition, delegate presidents must be approved by the local bishop and national presidents must be approved by the Episcopal Conference. In short, we follow the principles of the Church even if we accept anyone as a volunteer and of course, the beneficiaries do not have to be Catholics, in fact, in countries like India there are hardly any Christian beneficiaries.
It is true that a large part of the local partners we work with are religious congregations, dioceses or missionaries. It is not exclusive, but we have always done it and, besides, they are where no one else can reach. When an Ebola epidemic breaks out or there is a typhoon, it is the nuns and missionaries who stay behind. We rely heavily on the whole network of the Church, which also gives us certain guarantees.
Manos Unidas projects
How do you decide to finance a project from Manos Unidas? What is the role of the local partners to whom you give so much importance?
-We travel a lot. The projects to be financed are visited beforehand and the need is established... Certainly, we do not work in the same areas in all countries.
What we never do is arrive at a place and say: "Here we need a school or here we need a well". That is the best way for the project to fail. If, from the eyes of the north, we decide what they need in a developing area, we will always be wrong.
When I arrived at Manos Unidas they gave me an example that I always remember: Some time ago, the oil companies, in order to clean up their image, built a series of schools in Nigeria that nobody went to, because they built them in places where schools were not needed. Schools were needed in Nigeria, yes, but in other places.
You can't decide what a community needs. They are the ones who have to ask for it. Not out of misunderstood charity but to get them involved.
When we carry out a project, the beneficiaries contribute with a financial contribution or their own work, even if it is very small. For example, if we are talking about a school, the parents have to request it through a letter and contribute something, perhaps in the form of moving sandbags or helping in the construction. In this way, they make the project their own.
Subsequently, a follow-up is carried out over a period of time, because it is important to see how the project is evolving and whether it responds to what was expected. If a well has been built, for example, it is important to check that it has its water committee, how many liters of water are being extracted, whether the orchards have started to be irrigated with that water, etc.
In India we do a lot of women's animation projects. Training projects where they are taught a trade that they ask for, whether it's sewing or soap making. Women who have been taught to work, to leave the house, to have a voice, to have access to government loans, their lives are changing and we see it. We see the impact they have and how they are transforming society.
Are there "type" projects depending on the areas?
-Yes, in Latin America there are not so many projects related to education, but we have many projects for food sovereignty or to support indigenous populations, for the recognition of rights.
Africa is the continent with the greatest needs. From health issues: dispensaries, mobile clinics, as well as access to water or food sovereignty and education. In India, however, we find a mix of everything. We also work a lot on raising awareness of the state aid to which they are entitled, because there is a lot of corruption that means that this aid does not reach those who need it, or literacy projects.
It also depends on whether the countries are in coastal areas, which have fishing projects. In countries with mining wealth we work on workers' rights because there are many problems of appropriation or abuses.
Although there are no projects typified by country in the statutes, in the end there are some that occur in some areas more than others.
The female perspective in Manos Unidas
Manos Unidas was born out of the women of Catholic Action and has always had a special focus for the female worldWhat is the role of women in these developing areas?
-If women are able to know that they have rights, that they have the capacity to access the economy or education, they are the first to fight for their daughters to go to school and not to be the ones who stay at home to take care of their younger siblings or go to the fields while the boys go to school. These mothers are the ones who teach them that they have the same dignity. To educate a woman is to educate a family, it is to educate a people, it is not just a phrase.
A significant percentage of the projects we carry out are aimed directly at women and many others have a strong female component. For example, in sustainable agriculture projects, vegetable gardens, etc. When a well is built, it is for the whole community, but it makes it easier for women not to have to walk for an hour to fetch water, for example.
The Manos Unidas campaign for 2022 emphasizes the importance of not getting used to these situations of poverty and inequality. Why did you choose this idea?
- This year we want to call attention to how many times you see some hard images on television and you change the channel... because you don't want to know more or you think that "I have enough with my own".
The only way to transform the world is for all of us to participate as the Pope has told us. We may think that "I am not going to kill anyone" but, in reality, if I look the other way, I am not preventing that person from dying. This year's Manos Unidas poster is very eloquent, in which women are disappearing little by little: because we do not recognize that this reality exists.
We have to make people aware that it is impossible that, with enough food in the world, there are 811 million people who are starving or who do not have access to health care or education.
