SHARE Grassroots Weekly Update
Association of Rural Communities for Development
in El Salvador
CRIPDES San Vicente, 5/26/06
by Noel Andersen
 SHARE
and CRIPDES are always occupied with an array
of subjects, but in the sistering projects there
remains a constant focus on youth and women’s
projects and participation. Maritza Amaya and
I visited a community called La Platana on May
24th, where the community council met for their
first time. Witnessing a council in its beginning
stages illustrated the importance of regionally
based work that has a broader vision of what
solidarity is, expanding to those who don’t
have as much history or a funding base for organization.
“We are humble campesinos,
we don’t know much about approaching different
groups to involve them in community activities.”
-Gregorio Fernandez (new member of council)
CRIPDES’ training on organizing is accompanying
La Platana in learning what it means to be in
leadership together. One of the important subjects
at the community council meeting was the formation
of the women and youth committees. The council
assigned temporary promoters to organize women
and youth and assure their attendance and participation
in the next assembly, scheduled for June 17,
2006.
(Above photo: CRIPDES´ Maritza Amaya supports
council members in learning how to work together
as leaders of the community.)
The SHARE Foundation is promoting greater education
with a new project that gives scholarship opportunities
for community leaders from CRIPDES San Vicente
to begin their university studies. Few are able
to finish high school in the San Vicente region
for lack of resources. Many young adolescents
stop studying to work and help their families.
Even more infrequently is there financial stability
to attend college. SHARE has developed a donor
base to connect CRIPDES San Vicente with a scholarship
program that will cover ninety percent of the
costs to attend university.
This program heightens consciousness regarding
the importance of higher education community
organizing and strengthens administrative abilities
on an institutional level. Furthermore, three
of the four proposed scholarship students are
women, bringing the emphasis and importance
of educated working women to influence the communities
in which CRIPDES works.
Together CRIPDES and SHARE are bringing greater
opportunities for education and women’s
rights to San Vicente. At the same time CRIPDES
continues to concentrate on the importance of
youth and women participation within newly organized
communities such as La Platana.
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