Founding meeting of FOVELIC
More than one hundred representatives of various housing areas and residents’ associations were present at the foundation of the Federation of Neighbourhood Associations of Lima and Callao (FOVELIC) on Sunday 28 January 2007.
This event was the result of a process of organisation and activism originating in the mobilisations in 2005 of people living in low-income housing areas in support of the approval of a new law concerning access to land, housing and urban services.
As a result, a group of community leaders decided to form an organising committee to work on setting up a Federation.
FOVELIC currently represents some thirty low-income settlements and other areas across the city that are fighting for the right to housing, to access to land, against evictions, and for basic urban services – in short, for the right to decent living conditions in the midst of a city that excludes and ignores them.
FOVELIC has as its goal the achievement of a right to decent housing for the inhabitants of these areas, as well as their integrated upgrading and development and the growth of unity and solidarity among their residents. As the people who have built this city over the last fifty years know only too well, strength lies in unity and good organization.
The event started at 10 in the morning in the headquarters of the Telephone Workers’ Union. It got underway with greetings from Arq. Carlos Escalante of the Campaign for Decent Housing, Esther Álvarez, the director of CENCA, Mario Palomino from the Lima Municipal Council and other guests, and the International Alliance of Inhabitants support, who welcomed the event and called for the strengthening of an urban popular movement linked to worldwide struggles for decent housing and inclusive cities.
An organising comité was elected and a proposal for the constitution of the new federation was discussed. After a range of debates among those present and the approval of the amended constitution, a new director of the infant FOVELIC was elected at 5 in the afternoon.
Finally, the first FOVELIC meeting finished with a cultural event and fiesta. This event marks a new stage in the strengthening of neighbourhood associations in Lima and Callao.
Nicanor Janampa, of San Martín de Porres, Confraternidad, in Los Olivos, was elected President of the Federation. Demetrio Sarmiento of Nuevo Horizonte, San Juan de Lurigancho, was elected Vice President.
The following elections also took place: