and innovations in the hemisphere
hands.” Recruited locally through
churches, civic groups, corporate
sponsor employees, the Glasswing
website, and word of mouth, volunteers engage in a wide range of activities, from tutoring and raising
awareness about literacy to building
youth centers and implementing reforestation projects. The formula has
attracted close to $3.5 million in private support.
Glasswing collaborates with government ministries of education and
health, USAID, other NGOs, universities, and local and U.S. hospitals
to train its volunteers. It has also become a resource for corporations seeking to expand or establish corporate
social responsibility projects in Central America, including Taca, Micro-soft, SAB Miller, and Chevron.
According to Baker, Glasswing’s pri-
mary role is to help companies iden-
tify local needs, then provide a plan
for investment and management of
projects. Once those initial factors are
in place, the companies then “build
up the relationship on their own.”
To date, in El Salvador and Guate-
mala, Glasswing has enlisted more
than 15,000 volunteers in its infra-
structure projects, and an additional
dadanas, a citizens net work that aims
to mobilize voters at the local level,
involving them in environmental
causes and issues of security, family
health and economic empowerment.
In a country where popular cynicism
and pessimism toward politics is all
too common, Rojero hopes to inspire
Mexican citizens to engage more with
their representatives. “Political parties for too long have not put people
front and center; rather, it has been
about self-serving interests,” she says.
Rojero is also currently leading a
grassroots effort to engage PAN party
members at the local level by forming
working committees that relay voters’
concerns and expectations to PAN
candidates. The goal is to generate
political capital—and votes—for the
PAN in the run-up to the 2012 election.
While pleased with the program’s
success, Rojero is far from complacent. She is convinced that Mexico
must do more to bring all citizens
into the political process. And though
currently focused on PAN’s upcoming
campaign, she dreams of one day becoming Mexico’s foreign secretary. If
appointed, she says, she hopes to use
the office to demonstrate that Mexico’s future as an economic power depends on eliminating discrimination
by age, ethnicity and gender.
Glasswing International. Inspired
by groups like Habitat for Humanity,
Glasswing works in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Named after the transparent-winged butterfly native to Central
America and Mexico and representing the transparency NGOs bring to
development, Glasswing’s efforts focus on education and health. The
three founders believe these two areas are most in need of help and have
the greatest potential for impact. Unlike the past work of Celina and Ken—
former disaster relief workers—the
work is not top-down or short-term.
The projects are staffed by a corps of
volunteers called Crisálida (
Chrysalis—in keeping with the butterfly
metaphor). The spirit that motivates
the volunteers is not one of noblesse
oblige . The Crisálida corps attracts the
young and old, students and professionals, and representatives from all
socioeconomic strata.
According to Diego, who, along
with his sister, was born in El Salvador, volunteers’ energy and input
build their civic pride, helping “to
transform a society where fatalism
is prevalent, and to empower people
to take their destinies into their own
CIVIC INNOVATORS
Diego de Sola,
Ken Baker and
Celina de Sola
El Salvador
Bringing it home: Diego de Sola and his sister Celina, with Glasswing
International’s volunteer corps, lead an after-school art program.
Real change begins when communities learn how to help themselves, believe Di- ego de Sola, his sister Ce- lina, and her husband Ken
Baker. This idea guided the three former Connecticut residents to pack
their bags and move to El Salvador
four years ago to start a small NGO,
