SHARE's Programs

To read a story is one thing, to hear a story is another. SHARE invests in bringing Salvadorans to the U.S. to tell their stories, because we believe that their stories—in fact their lives—educate, inspire and prompt action. One of the ways that we do this is by facilitating tours of our advocacy, local development and sistering counterparts to meet with SHARE supporters.

Between April and August SHARE has helped facilitate the visit of four tours of Salvadorans and Central Americans to the U.S. These tours included two sistering tours, from Hacienda Vieja to Boston and Guarjila to Milwaukee, as well as the first tour of a local development partner from SHARE’s new target area of Chalchuapa, Lidia Orellena the President of FEDECOOPADES, to the San Francisco Bay Area. Later this summer and fall, we will be hosting another 2 tours of our local partners from El Salvador. These tours include Daisy Cheyne, the Executive Director of the Institute of Women of El Salvador (IMU), a partner in our women’s empowerment work in Chalchuapa to Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco and another sistering tour from Guajoyo to Texas.

To give you an example we would like to highlight one of our tours from earlier in the year. In April, SHARE was proud to host 5 Bishops from Central America, led by Monsignor Gregorio Rosa Chavez of San Salvador, to Washington, DC. I want to share with you the experience so can gain a better understanding of what SHARE does with these tours.

In January, following a staff planning retreat in Maryland, SHARE approached the auxiliary bishop from San Salvador, Monsignor Rosa Chavez, and suggested an idea, “What if we were to bring bishops from Central America to the U.S. to talk about the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)?” Before the words were out of our mouths, Monsignor Rosa responded, “I’ll do it.” Following complicated and extensive planning and coordination, on April 23rd and 24th five Central American bishops, official guests of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, navigated their way through Washington, DC’s political labyrinth warning U.S. policy makers that CAFTA will be detrimental to the poor of Central America.

While all the participating bishops managed with both expertise and convincing data to support their concerns about CAFTA, it was the stories that they carried with them of the people who live in the communities they serve that was the most effective way to reach people.

Bishop Ramazzini of San Marcos, Guatemala spoke about migration. During the 1990’s the slow elimination of safeguards for farmers in Guatemala, which was one of the initial steps towards CAFTA, put the pinch on farmers in his region, forcing many to flee north. Migration, as Bishop Ramazzini witnessed in San Marcos, has detrimental social costs, as it tears away at the fabric of the Guatemalan family and society. Bishop Ramazzini predicts that CAFTA would spark an increase in the perilous exodus north.

Monsignor Rosa Chavez from El Salvador suggested that without real participatory initiatives to make trade beneficial for the poor, as well as the rich, we risk street violence and social unrest throughout the region. In May 2003, Monsignor Rosa Chavez was one of the people called on to help mediate what turned into a long and violent standoff between government officials and healthcare workers. El Salvador’s healthcare workers were protesting the slow privatization of public health care—another step in the process of preparing for CAFTA.

One observer from a local solidarity organization thanked the bishops saying, “You have brought more attention to CAFTA in two days, and created more dialogue around its potential impact, than we could have in three months”. The response that we received from people shows the importance of having people hear directly from the communities.

The bishops drove home the point that trade is not a panacea for development; yet they acknowledged that trade is an important element in the development equation. For which reason, future trade agreements, and hopefully comprehensive development plans, in contrast to CAFTA, must be defined by the participation of all stakeholders.

Following their visit to Washington, U.S. and Central American bishops wrote a joint statement outlining criteria for judging CAFTA. The statement was anchored in the belief that “The human person must be at the center of all economic activity”. SHARE works hard to bring our Salvadoran friends and partners to the U.S. with the hope that their visits anchor our struggle for justice in El Salvador in their stories. Interestingly enough in the midst of the information age, during days dominated by email and cell phones, we have found the power of face-to-face gatherings has increased.

In solidarity,

Dave Johnson
Washington, DC Office Director

P.S. If you are interested in hearing directly from one of our counterparts or helping to organize events during one of our tours, please contact us. Deysi Cheyne will be visiting the Los Angeles Area September 6-9, the New York City Area from September 10-14, and the San Francisco Bay Area from September 15-18.