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Support Grassroots Organizing in El Salvador!
CAMPAIGN: ADOPT A GRASSROOTS ORGANIZER
El Salvador?
The Center for Exchange and Solidarity (CIS) focuses its work on fostering long-term structural change in El Salvador through increased community participation at the local and national level. Throughout our 10 years of accompanying the people of El Salvador we have developed language exchange programs, facilitated solidarity partnerships, guided delegations, supported solidarity crafts, and many other projects that have built a sustainable foundation for the CIS. However, we have continually been faced with the challenge of raising the funds necessary to maintain our Grassroots Organizing Project, which provides stipends for organizers in rural communities to work on mobilizing & educating community members and fomenting their participation in development. The CIS has been fortunate to maintain a fairly self-sustaining budget in relation to our other programs, but there is no feasible way for us to generate enough income in other programs to support the costs of the Grassroots Organizing Project, which is approximately $36,000 annually. Therefore, we are urgently trying to consolidate solidarity partnerships between communities abroad and communities in El Salvador through our Campaign “Adopt a Grassroots Organizer”.
Why is grassroots organizing crucial in development and reconstruction in El Salvador? The CIS has always promoted a mission of non-assistentialism through our programs, which implies a long-term vision for development not just short-term projects. Grassroots organizing in communities means fostering participation and collective action around structures that continue to exploit the majority of El Salvador’s population. CIS Grassroots Organizers are Salvadorans that live and work in their communities to educate community members about the oppressive structures that affect their livelihood. Organizers also work to create community member-led steering committees to foment local participation, collective decision-making, and the implementation local development plans.
How is grassroots organizing more effective than other assistance efforts? Grassroots organizing is the only way to develop a basis for long-term, sustainable change through focusing on the PARTICIPATION of community members that lasts long after solidarity groups have come and gone. While short-term assistance is necessary for immediate needs, in the form of building schools or donating building materials, we must look towards institutional change or the need for schools and building materials will never subside. This need is especially crucial in a time when neoliberal social and economic policies, such as Central America Free Trade Agreement and healthcare privatization, threaten to become a reality in El Salvador.
What does adopting a CIS Grassroots Organizer mean? We are urging individuals, communities, churches, community groups, and schools to adopt a CIS Grassroots Organizer, which implies providing for the organizer’s $330 monthly stipend including expenses for meetings, travel, and administrative costs totaling $3,960 per year. The idea is to create longevity and stability in the work of the organizers through these partnerships. Included in this packet are some ideas of ways that you can make this a reality.
Who are the CIS Grassroots Organizers that need support? Currently, the CIS supports the work of 8 organizers. We have a policy that at least 50% of our organizers must be women and/or youth (35 years old or younger). You will find the organizers’ profiles in this packet. If you are interested in learning more about an organizer or the community where s/he is working, just let us know and we can send you a complete community profile.
Campaign: Adopt A Grassroots Organizer
In your community social justice group, church, temple, parish, religious institution… § Host a “teach-in” to educate people about the situation in El Salvador and how they can get involved by supporting a grassroots organizer. § Sell local Salvadoran crafts, which you can order from the CIS, to generate a part of the money needed to support your adopted grassroots organizer. § Organize 25 individuals to commit to giving $160 to cover an organizer for the year. § Organize 11 individuals or families to commit to giving $1 per day per month ($30), totaling $330.
In your school, university, educational institution… § Each grade level can be responsible for raising a specified amount of money for their adopted grassroots organizer to total $330 monthly. For example, the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior class each raises $1,200 for the year ($100 per month). § Create a pen pal relationship within your school and a school in your adopted community – each participant pays $10 per month (at least 33 participants) in order to support the community’s grassroots organizer. The pen pals could operate out of Spanish classes in your hometown and/or English classes in El Salvador (most schools teach English, though it is often minimal).
In your office, school, neighborhood, community group, etc… § Find 17 people to donate $20 per month to support your adopted grassroots organizer. Find 50 people to donate $7 per month, etc. § Ask your friends to donate money to support your grassroots organizer instead of giving a birthday, anniversary, Bat/Barmiztvah, baptism, etc. gift.
The fiscal year for the July 2003 – June 2004 Grassroots Organizing Project has already ended, so your help is needed urgently to continue their work for 2004/2005. If you are interested in supporting an organizer, please send your financial support to either of the addresses below:
In San Salvador: In the United States: CIS Center for Exchange and Solidarity (CIS) Boulevard Universitario, Casa #4 P.O. Box 17025 Colonia El Roble St. Paul, MN 55117-0025 San Salvador, El Salvador CENTRAL AMERICA
CAMPAIGN: ADOPT A GRASSROOTS ORGANIZER
Maira Romero, 27 years old, grassroots organizer Coordination of Communities for Reconstruction & Development in Tamanique, La Libertad
Tamanique is an extremely impoverished municipality with approximately 15,000 residents, 85% living on subsistence farming. The municipality was deeply impacted by the 2001 earthquake and many homes were lost. Maira and other active community members have created the Coordinator of Tamanique Communities, active in 10 villages and the municipal center. Maira has organized the reconstruction of 300 homes in the municipality. She has worked with the Coordinator to organize, raise awareness, and mobilize community members around issues such as CAFTA and privatization. With Maira’s work, the communities have formed committees to pressure the ARENA mayor for much-needed projects. They have initiated a small eco-friendly, tremor-proof roof tile factory that employs women. Five communities have recently started a project of fruit tree planting. Maira has also organized and led trainings for leadership and income-generation projects and more communities are asking for this training and support. The municipality has six women’s committees where women have been trained in natural medicine, improved adobe house-building techniques, and hydroponics. In addition, three villages have youth groups and two have girl’s soccer teams.
Dora Alicia Alas (Iris), 38 year old, grassroots organizer & health promoter Citizen’s Roundtable, San Rafael Cedros, Cuscatlan
Iris works as a grassroots organizer with the aim of building women’s and youth participation in community development. Iris has worked for the development of a Citizen’s Roundtable for community decision-making. She, along with members of the Citizen’s Roundtable, have focused on grassroots organization and training for village steering committees. They have also opened spaces for youth to participate in development. Iris gives trainings in three communities on themes including leadership, self-esteem, the environment, women’s rights, and free trade agreements. She has also developed a women’s group of 28 women with a small sewing workshop. Iris also serves as a coordinator for various housing projects in the municipality and is fighting along with residents for land titles and property rights.
Rafael Vásquez Martínez (Lito), 37 years old, grassroots organizer Comasagua, La Libertad
The municipality of Comasagua has eight villages and most residents work in subsistence agriculture or, for lacking rural work, travel to cities to work in maquila factories. Lito helped to settle the village of Arcoiris-España with other displaced, landless, homeless people to build from scratch following the 2001 earthquake. Arcoiris-España is an impoverished community of provisional homes without running water or electricity. Lito has worked to organize community members to settle with aid from The Rainbow of Hope for Children Foundation, to purchase the land where they live and farm. The community is currently in the process of digging a well with the participation of community members. Lito has also focused his work on the organization of women's groups, including the development of micro- income generation projects and workshops in natural medicine and handicrafts. In addition, he has formed literacy circles in the evenings for adults who work as farmers during the day.
José Isidro Rodríguez, 35 year old grassroots organizer ANDAMOS –Community Development Association in Zaragoza, La Libertad
Isidro is a survivor of the Massacre at the Sumpul River in May 1980. Following the massacre, he was evacuated to a refugee camp in San Salvador and taken in at an orphanage in Zaragoza. Isidro lived and worked in the orphanage in Zaragoza through his youth and early adulthood. At age 28 he won the mayoral elections as the FMLN candidate in the municipality. He served two terms as the mayor, 1997-2003. In early 2003, the local organization ANDAMOS (translated literally as "We go") was created to strengthen community organizing. ANDAMOS focuses its work on community organization, early education, youth and women's organization, and community development. Isidro accomplishes these goals through community visits, meetings with villages’ Board of Directors, participating in community assemblies, giving leadership training in communities, and assessing community needs. With immense help from Books for Peace (Kansas City), ANDAMOS considers one of their major successes to be the creation of six Centers for Infant Development, providing a place where children go to receive early education and providing a safe place for children to stay when mother’s go to work.
Xiomara Natalí Sánchez Maravilla, grassroots organizer Citizen’s Roundtable, San Pedro Perulapán, Cuscatlan
The Citizen’s Roundtable prioritizes the involvement of women and youth in decision-making processes and community development. Natali’s primary focus has been strengthening political awareness and increasing voter turnout in the recent presidential elections. The Citizen’s Roundtable has organized a women’s group and a sewing workshop for women. Now they are in the process of forming a micro-enterprise to generate income for the women and their families. The Citizen’s Roundtable has worked with Books for Peace to get libraries to the elementary schools. They have a four-year relationship with students in Colorado that has organized brigades with the community to work on fixing roads, cultivating plants for natural medicines and other community projects. Residents work as farmers, market workers, or carpenters in the municipality or commute to work in factories.
Sandra Lorena Marenco and Noé Palacios Ayala, grassroots organizers The Voice of the People Association, Estanzuelas, Usulután
Residents of Estanzuelas rely on family remittances from the United States and some work as fishers or subsistence farmers. Sandra and Noé primarily work out of the Voice of the People center in Estanzuelas, an association started in February 2003. They focus on education for youth in the association, coordinating 55 high school and 2 university scholarships, and have initiated computer classes, all with the support from their solidarity partner, St. Patrick’s Parish (Kansas City). This year they have opened a Political School for leadership and published the first edition of a magazine highlighting the association’s work. Their goals are to start a cyber café to generate income and provide access to the Internet in the community. Through their work with youth, they are raising awareness around social issues, organizing and mobilizing community members to attend marches and create long-term community groups. Their model of organizing, focusing on youth and education, serves as an example for other communities as their work has resulted in a strong base of community participation.
Angela del Tránsito Carranza, grassroots organizer Women in Action – Island of Espiritu Santo Puerto El Triunfo, Usulután
Tránsito works as a CIS organizer with Women in Action Group on the Island of Espiritu Santo and collaborates with the women’s organization Mélida Anaya Montes (M.A.M.) to build a network of women in the department of Usulután. The island has approximately 1,200 residents; 60% of the population works as fishers and 40% work in agriculture. The average salary for workers on the island is $3.43 per day. On a community level, her goals are to strengthen relationships and communication among the island's women, improve community organization, and collaborate with local organizations. She has worked extensively with the organization of women on the island to create and strengthen micro-credit and income-generation projects for women. Tránsito facilitated Women in Action’s attendance of a training on micro-credit in a nearby town. The women have also initiated a project to collect small mollusks found off the island and have opened a market in Guatemala to sell them. Women in Action have hosted two delegations from St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New Hampshire which have worked on community and home improvement projects on the island.
José Santos Martínez (25) and Laura Dinora Martínez (24) grassroots organizers Cultural Association of San Francisco Chinameca, La Paz
The municipality of San Francisco Chinameca, which includes five surrounding villages, has approximately 9,000 residents. Most residents subsist by working in agriculture and many commute to work in factories. The Cultural Association of San Francisco Chinameca, operates a variety of projects including: a library, music classes, musical group of 12 young men, computer classes, sewing & tailoring workshops directed by the community's women for interested community members, sports, and solidarity projects with other communities. Laura works part-time with women's organization and José Santos works in the library and gives basic computer classes in the Cultural Association. Their primary goals for continued work are fostering interest in artistic development for youth, promoting reading and computer classes for youth and adults and promoting women’s participation in the community.
Click the link below to read previous reports about the Grassroots Organizing Project:
Grassroots Organizer Project 2007
Grassroots Organizer Project 2002 & 2003
Six Month Report: April - September 2001, and Projections
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