Archive for July, 2011

Yesterday, July 24 marks 128 years since the death of Anastasio Aquino, the indigenous leader that led an insurrection of the Nonualco peoples against fuedal landowners in 1833.  Aquino injected rebellious genes into the blood of the Salvdoran people, who are still today fighting for their liberation.

This reflection was written by Kathy Werly, a member of the recently returned delegation from Good Shepherd Parish in Shawnee, Kansas, after they visited the Divina Providencia.

Reading and hearing about Archbishop Oscar Romero is one thing.  Standing where he stood and imagining his last minutes is quite another.  The Good Shepherd delegation’s visit to Divina Providencia gave us an opportunity to do just that, and it had a powerful impact on us all.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by Sister Marceline.  She guided us into the chapel and spoke to us as we sat in the pews.  She asked us to individually think of a word that we would use to describe Archbishop Romero.  After sharing our words, she described the day of his death and extended an invitation to each of us to stand at the altar.  Read More »

Como mujeres rurales organizadas, nos reconocemos protagonistas de la vida de este país, pues de muchas maneras logramos llevarl al comida a nuestras familias.

Yo, Sonia Alemán, mujer rural y cuidadora de vida, deseo compartir las refelxiones que con otras mujeres rurales de Chalatenango tenemos con relación a la grave crisis alimentaria que enfrentamos.

Pese a los esfuerzos propios y el de nuestras familias dedicadas a la actividad agropecuaria, las mujeres organizadas pensamos que en nuestras comunidades rurales no logramos asegurar una alimentacion sana para nuestras familias.

En nuestras comunidades al menos logramos producir maíz y frijoles, pero entendemos que una alimentación completa es más que eso, necestiamos comida en cantidad y calidad para nutrir nuestros cuerpos, para que nuestros hijos y hijas puedan crecer con salud y fuerza.

Continuar leyendo el Mensaje de las Mujeres Organizadas de las Comunidades de Chalatenango ante la Crisis Alimentaria sobre sus demandas del gobierno para lograr una seguridad y justicia alimentaria!

At a recent Forum on Food Justice sponsored by Oxfam, Sonía Alemán, representing hundreds of organized women in Chalatenango, read the following message about food security in Chalatenango.  The message was collectively written by twenty women leaders of SHARE counterpart the CCR.  SHARE is currently working with the CCR on a project called Women’s Empowerment through Food Security and Microfinance.

A translation of Sonía’s message:

As organized rural women, we recognize ourselves as protagonists of life in this country. We bring food to our families.

I, Sonia Alemán, rural woman and preserver of life, wish to share reflections that, with other rural women from Chalatenango, we have in relation to the serious food crisis we face.

Despite our own efforts and those of our families, dedicated to farming life, organized women believe that in our rural communities, we are unable to ensure healthy food for our families.

In our communities, we are able to produce at least corn and beans.  But we understand that a complete diet is more than that—we need food in both quantity and quality to nourish our bodies, so that our sons and daughters can grow healthy and strong.

Currently, women face many difficulties to provide food for our homes.

In the first place, we do not have secure access to land to grow.  In addition, it is impoverished land, sick and polluted.  This effects especially women, as the majority of fertile land owners are right, and it is almost always men that enjoy the right to property, although it is us women who work the land.

Read More »

Comunicado de prensa de CONFRAS, una contraparte de SHARE:

El cooperativismo surge a la par y como alternativa al sistema de explotación capitalista. En este mes de julio las cooperativas del mundo conmemoramos 167 años de vida. Recordamos que en 1844 se fundó una de las primeras empresas cooperativas, en la localidad de Rochdale, Inglaterra. Hoy, una sexta parte de la población mundial, o sea 1,000 millones de personas, está organizada en cooperativas. Por eso, la Organización de Naciones Unidas ha declarado al 2012 como Año Internacional de las Cooperativas.

En este Mes del Cooperativismo, nuestras organizaciones también recuerdan que hace 97 años, en 1914, un gremio artesanal de zapateros creó la primera cooperativa en El Salvador. Desde entonces nuestro movimiento fue creciendo y pese a las grandes adversidades de las últimas 2 décadas, el cooperativismo salvadoreño sobrevivió a las políticas neoliberales y hoy empieza a levantarse para convertirse en la semilla de un nuevo modelo de desarrollo, basado en la producción y en nuevas formas socialistas de convivencia social y económica. Read More »

The following is a press release by SHARE counterpart CONFRAS, the Confederation of Federations of the Salvadoran Agrarian Reform.  It is titled: During the International Month of Cooperativism: In El Salvador, Cooperatives are the Seed of a New Model of Development. SHARE is currently working with CONFRAS to promote organization in the eastern part of El Salvador in order to motivate cooperatives to participate in national advocacy efforts for sustainable agricultural policies.

Press Release:

Cooperativism begins alongside, and as an alternative to, the exploitative capitalist system.  In the month of July, cooperatives around the world celebrate 167 years of life. We remember that in 1844, one of the first cooperative business was founded in Rochdale, England.  Today, a sixth of the world population, or some one billion people, are organized in cooperatives. This is why the United Nations has declared 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives.   Read More »

As SHARE celebrates thirty years of solidarity with the people of El Salvador, we are expanding our mission.  The Outreach Coordinator will be working with the Salvadoran community in the United States in an effort to strengthen developing relationships and partnerships with this community.  The Outreach Coordinator will work closely with the Executive Director in the US and the Director of SHARE’s field office in El Salvador to advance SHARE’s mission to “strengthen solidarity with and among the Salvadoran people in El Salvador and the United States in the struggle for economic sustainability, justice, and human and civil rights.” This is an exciting position that will help to do research, become a clearinghouse for information important to this community, support advocacy efforts, and strengthen capacity building of the Salvadoran community. As SHARE develops this new program area, the Outreach Coordinator will be instrumental in defining our goals and strategies. This position is based in our Berkeley, CA office.

Read the complete job listing

The body of murdered fourth-year university student and active member of the environmental movement in the area of Ilobasco, Cabanas, Juan Francisco Duran Ayala, has finally been returned to his family in San Salvador. On June 24, 2011, the family gathered together with members of civil society and representatives from government agencies to exhume his body from a common grave in the Bermeja Cemetery, where he had been buried by the National Civilian Police. Juan Francisco, who lived in Ilobasco, left his home at 9 a.m. on June 3 to attend his classes in San Salvador and never arrived. His body was found on the same day by the police, next to a basketball court in the community of Amatepec in metropolitan San Salvador, with two gunshot wounds to the head.

Local environmental activists call on the National Civilian Police and the Attorney General of the Republic to conduct exhaustive investigations of the string of violent crimes in the department of Cabanas. They cite corruption and illicit trades within three local mayoral offices—facts they claim to be well-known to the local population, and which they list in today’s press release—as well as ties between the aforementioned authorities and the mining company Pacific Rim, as possible motives for the violence. As Francisco Pineda, President of the CAC and recent recipient of the internationally recognized Goldman Environmental Prize, asserts, “We can make a good guess about who are the intellectual authors of this crime given our lived experiences here, but that’s not our responsibility. The attorney general and the police have the obligation to investigate and determine the guilty parties.”

Continue reading this article, written by former SHARE team member Danielle Mackey, here!

In a press release issues June 28, President Mauricio Funes condemned the recent murder of anti-mining activist Juan Francisco Durán Ayala and reaffirmed his opposition to mining in El Salvador. The press release read as follows:

The President of the Republic, Mauricio Funes, energetically condemned today the murder of Juan Francisco Durán Ayala, a volunteer with the EnvironmentalCommittee of Cabañas, which was perpetrated by unknown subjects last July third.

“As President of the Republic I lament any murder that happens in the country,regardless of motives, of course I feel the pain of the family and the environmentalmovement in loss of these four leading environmental defenders” expressed President Funes upon condemning the murder of Durán Ayala and the three other environmentalists which have occurred in recent years in the department of Cabañas. Read More »

Por este medio, las orgazanizaciones abajo firmantes expresamos nuestra consternación ante el cobarde asesinato de Juan Francisco Durán Ayala miembro del Comité Ambiental de Cabañas.

Nos preocupa profundamente este hecho ya que reafirma la tendencia de persecución organizada contra activistas y organizaciones defensoras del medio ambiente en El Salvador, particularmente en el Departamento de Cabañas. Desde hace varios años miembros de organizaciones defensoras del medio ambiente han denunciado ante las autoridades correspondientes una serie de acciones de  hostigamiento y amenazas a muerte que se han hecho contra sus vidas.

Read more…