CRIPDES San Vicente –
June 5, 2003
This week I would like to introduce you to Erika Betsabeth, the youth organizer for CRIPDES-San Vicente. Erika is 23 years old and has been working with CRIPDES for the past year.
Most of my time is spent working with Erica and supporting her work with youth organizing throughout the region, which is extensive. Erica works in communities all over the region, which means that she is always on the move. She also splits her time between local, regional, and national work for CRIPDES. For example, in the past two days, we have traveled to San Salvador to meet with other regional youth organizers from CRIPDES to talk about the creation of national legislation to support youth, to San Bartolo in the Lower Lempa region to work with youth on reforming a youth committee in the community, and to a regional assembly north of Tecoluca to elect a youth from the sector for the regional youth committee. Erika likes to laugh at me when my biggest concern with all this traveling is where the next meal will come from.
Between the numerous meetings, Erica is always writing up reports. She records how many people were at each meeting, what were the objectives, and if the objectives were met as well as the youth activities planned to take place in communities. I should know, I am now in the process of recording over 50 pages of these reports into the computer! I am happy to do this though, since it will be beneficial for future organizers to have access to reports on each community and meeting, and understand the histories behind different committees.
Recently Erica traveled to Canada for two weeks with Salv Aide, a Canadian NGO, to share her experiences and work with different groups. Despite her sadness over being away from her family during holy week, she felt proud and excited to share her experiences, struggles, and culture with others. When she returned and we sat down to see her pictures, I saw pictures of her speaking about the struggles of youth in El Salvador in lecture halls filled with people, with high school students, church groups, and many others. I also saw pictures of her making Salvadoran sweet breads with a group of people, sightseeing, and laughing as she was freezing her butt off in the Canadian winter.
That is what I respect about Erica. She is able to work incredibly hard and passionately and still have a good time. This is something I hope to learn from her during my time here. I hope you all have the opportunity to meet Erica, not just because she works with the youth of all the sistered communities, but because she is a amazing leader who has something to teach everyone she meets.
by Vanessa Cardinale
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