SHARE's Programs

My connection with the SHARE Foundation goes back many years. It has supported my work in video and written media (Going Home: The Story of Repatriation , for Apex Press, “ El Salvador: Portraits in a Revolution” for PBS, “Sharing the Vision” for the SHARE Foundation itself). It has been the lifeline for my partner Ron’s political work since the 1980s and has sponsored delegations from my church, Central Baptist in Wayne, PA. And SHARE has encouraged the development of women, which enriches us all.

Four other women and I are currently pursuing our dream of producing a book about the lives of Salvadoran women who gave their all during the war and are now striving to rebuild a habitable world for their sons and daughters. We are very interested in discerning what motivated and sustained women who were members of the armed uprising in El Salvador in the 1980s and in what has happened to the dreams and hopes for which they fought. How is the world different for their daughters than it was for them?

We recently traveled to El Salvador to interview some of these strong, courageous women. We explored the experiences of rural and urban women, religious and lay women, women of different generations, middle class and working class women. One of these meetings took place with Julia, a member of the cattlewomen’s cooperative (MUGAN) in the Bajo Lempa.

It was 2:00 on a warm May afternoon. We were in the second stage of a long interview with Julia. All was progressing nicely, but as with all careful information gathering, it was taking longer than we planned. The video and sound equipment took longer to set up than we had allowed; the questions required detailed thoughtful answers; the photographer needed time with Julia at home and in the fields to get the kind of “candids” that would make our book real and full. And we were scheduled to have dinner with a professor at the University of Central America (UCA) in downtown San Salvador at 5:00. It just wasn’t going to work.

Elly Jordan, our arranger/driver/translator, immediately shuffled priorities. She called the UCA, contacted the rest of our working group who were tracking down environmental researchers in the city, finished translating the interview, loaded up the camera equipment, drove carefully and deliberately into the city, and got us to our next meeting with plenty of time to visit, eat and talk. She, of course, translated the after dinner conversation as well. It’s all a day in the life of a SHARE staff member!

Without Elly and the support of the SHARE office in San Salvador and in San Francisco, we would never have been able to pursue our dream. Jose Artíga, the Executive Director, even took a call from us during a staff retreat!

Above all else, members of the SHARE Foundation have been faithful to the task of building a habitable world in the face of war, economic oppression, natural disaster, and development fatigue. May our own faithfulness to the work of SHARE match the faithfulness of people like Jose, Elly and so many others. They are our connection to transformational thinking and planning.

With gratitude,

Elizabeth Morgan

Professor of English

Eastern University