Not Alms but ACCION

The fetid slums that choke Latin American cities breed disease, crime and a numbing sense of helplessness. For most slum dwellers, there is seem ingly no escape from misery, and little incentive to try. Yet in less than three years since it was founded, a small but dedicated group called ACCION (Americans for Community Cooperation in Other Nations) has shown that Venezuelan slum dwellers can be helped to help themselves. In Venezuela, it is a sort of private Peace Corps.

Bucket Brigades. The founder of ACCION is Joseph H. Blatchford, 29, an intense, athletic law graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. Convinced of the need for more U.S. good will and good works in Latin America, Blatchford swung into ACCION in 1960, six months before the Peace Corps got under way. Today the organization has 30 Americans and 30 Venezuelans working in 25 slums in Caracas, Maracaibo and other cities. Typically, they win slum dwellers' confidence by organizing volleyball or baseball teams, then build a recreation area and later divide the teams into bucket brigades to clean up the barrio. Soon the whole community joins in, digging, hammering and painting, installing sewers, sidewalks, water systems. ACCION workers scrounge around for bricks, pipe and cement, also hold classes in reading and sewing. On major projects they occasionally get an assist from the Venezuelan government and the Alliance for Progress.

ACCION'S philosophy, as one leader puts it, is "not to give people alms, but to give them confidence in their own ability." At the Canada Honda slum in Maracaibo, residents organized by ACCION volunteers recently pitched in to build a community center, proudly naming it Nuestro Esfuerzo (Our Effort). Two years ago at the notorious Barrio la Linea outside Caracas, Communists sabotaged their projects and intimidated residents, but a new sense of community pride won out. One Communist leader is now a regular volunteer worker.

Profits for Progress. At least 70% of ACCION'S current $420,000 budget comes from Venezuelan contributors, and it can count on future support from the "Voluntary Dividend for the Community," a new program whereby Venezuelan corporations agree to kick in 2% to 5% of their profits to help fight poverty (TIME, March 6). Gradually, the Americans are turning over their jobs to Venezuelan volunteers and to slum leaders themselves. Says Blatchford: "That's what we want to do--work ourselves out of jobs." They may not get the chance. Already communities in Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia and the Philippines are asking for ACCION.

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