Women and the Environment

SHARE currently supports two projects with UCRES: Women and the Environment and Youth Leaders for Nonviolence. Read more about the Union of Rural Communities of Northern San Salvador and La Libertad (UCRES)!

Project Name: Women and the Environment

Community Leader Ana Ruth from San Jorge

This project promotes initiatives that motivate women’s participation in community organizing, increase the involvement of the population in community development, and involve communities in caring for the environment and the clean-up of the Río Sucio. Active women’s participation will be strengthened through support for women’s committees and alternative economic initiatives, including the continuation of the vegetable garden project and a pilot project in microloans.

Pollution of the Río Sucio has been a serious problem since 1987 and 15,000 families that live along the banks of the river are affected. Industrial factories located along the Rio Sucio, including Kimberly Clark, dump industrial waste and untreated water directly into the river. This has lead to serious environmental and health consequences, including crop damage and livestock losses and human health effects.  This project supports advocacy initiatives targeted at businesses and local governments that seek to reduce pollution.  Community leaders also will be educated in the importance of environmental preservation.

Specific Project Elements:

• A pilot project for women’s microloans, which will support at least ten women through a training process in business administration and solidarity economy, low-interest loans for economic initiatives, and support in executing and administering their micro-enterprises
• Accompaniment for women’s committees in the creation and execution of work plans;
• Facilitation of communal, municipal and regional women’s assemblies to share experiences and coordinate efforts;
• Training for twenty women in fruit and vegetable gardening techniques and provision of the basic materials and seeds for communal or home vegetable gardens to overcome the food crisis, and ongoing support for previous garden project participants;
• Accompaniment of a municipal environmental committee in defense and advocacy for the clean-up of the Rio Sucio; “With the vegetables that we were able to produce, we didn’t have to buy that for our family. We tried to use as little chemicals as possible to make it healthier. It was a wonderful experience and we are really excited to continue this year when the rainy season comes again.”  Ana Ruth
• Training for 140 community leaders from 20 communities about environmental issues and caring for the environment, including garbage and water treatment and management of crisis situations due to natural phenomenon and ecology.
• Promotion of historic memory through the celebration of the anniversaries of Father Rutilio Grande and campesina leader Patricia Puertas.

Ana Ruth is the President of the community council in her community San Jorge, a leader of a theater group doing health education about HIV/AIDS prevention, and beneficiary of a community vegetable garden.  Watch a video interview with Ana Ruth.

Project Supporters
Thanks to the following Grassroots Partners for their ongoing accompaniment of communities in the UCRES region: St Elizabeth Ann Seton WI, Good Shepherd KS, Eastern Michigan University, St John Francis Regis MO, the Northwest School.

More about the SHARE-UCRES Women’s Empowerment Project:

NEW! UCRES Women and the Enviornment Semester Report 2011
NEW! Loving La Joya Niña Juana’s Story
Caring for Families and the Earth: Women Leaders at UCRES Teaching and Learning about Organic Home Gardens
Planting Seeds of Women’s Empowerment in San Pablo Tacachico
Community Gardens in Dimas Rodriquez
Project Recommendation UCRES Women and Environment 2011