• For our 2007 Progress Report, click here.

• See SHARE’s 25^th Anniversary Poster.

III. Grassroots Program

The Grassroots Program of the SHARE Foundation is an exciting initiative driven by international, cross-cultural cooperation over 20 years strong. This initiative has brought together Salvadoran Americans, US women religious, US Sistering committees and a host of actors from throughout Salvadoran civil society. This cross border collaboration or accompaniment has not only yielded education and inspiration in both countries, but also funds for local development projects and direction for advocacy aimed at creating systemic solutions to the obstacles to development faced in urban and rural El Salvador.

As a key component of our strategic plan, SHARE continued to implement a grassroots “model” in 2003 that prioritizes a greater collaboration and communication among all of the people and programs that make up SHARE. This year, SHARE made important advances integrating our advocacy work into our outreach efforts to sistering committees and other groups that comprise SHARE’s base of support.

Answering a call from our sister communities, much effort on both sides of the border in 2003 was dedicated to educating and advocating for “fair” trade over “free” trade. As Father Daniel Sanchez of Maria Madre de los Pobres said “cross-border solidarity is about saying ‘yes’ to a globalization which puts the well-being of the world’s majority, the poor, above macro-economic indicators which translate into large profits for small numbers of people.”

Sister Communities: Facilitating Cross-Border Solidarity
In 2003, approximately 50 US parishes continued historic sister relationships with 21 rural communities (administered by our Salvadoran local partner CRIPDES) and four urban parishes. These personal connections continued to bring forward the faces, stories, and lives behind SHARE’s support for initiatives for social and economic justice in El Salvador. US sister committees accompanied communities in El Salvador through personal exchanges, advocacy, and financial support. A volunteer network of eight promoters served as the US links to parishes in six regions. These promoters hold an annual retreat that includes crossover time with SHARE’s annual staff retreat in September.

Financial Accompaniment
In 2003, members of SHARE’s sistering program and Salvadoran American Committees raised thousands of dollars to support regional youth and women’s empowerment initiatives.

In August 2003, SHARE completed one of the objectives of its 2002-2006 strategic plan and finished the transition of sistering projects from local to regional in scope. We are now executing two regional projects, one in the CCR region and the other in the UCRES region; and we have four more proposals from the other regions where we work. The UCRES project is being carried out in the region of Northern San Salvador and La Libertad. This project focuses on youth development and includes: creating municipal platforms to support youth leadership, encouraging greater voter turn-out in the 2004 presidential elections and promoting local budgets that better address the basic rights of youth in the region.

Technical support
SHARE provided technical support to the regions of CRIPDES, financing three project administration workshops in each of the CRIPDES regions. These workshops seek to strengthen the regional offices' capacity to manage projects. Topics covered in the workshops include project design, accounting, and report preparation. These regional trainings have been evaluated as a success, strengthening regional and community capacity to seek, obtain, and administer funds.

Working with the Salvadoran American Community
For the past five years, SHARE has been hard at work building relationships with a talented and diverse pool of Salvadoran organizations and individuals. SHARE’s Salvadoran American committees and SHARE’s relationships with Salvadoran and Central American organizations in the United States, such as MILPA, CUS, SANN and CARECEN have created spaces for Salvadorans in the United States to articulate the relationship between rural development policy in El Salvador, poverty and immigration. In September, SHARE attended the first conference of Salvadoran associations in the US in Los Angeles, an important step in information sharing among this vibrant and diverse community.

Photo: ACAP explaining Highway Bypass to a delegation

On December 7, 2003 SHARE, MILPA and the Quijote Center mobilized approximately 150 – 200 members of the Salvadoran and solidarity communities to march in opposition to CAFTA. The march served as a catalyst that led to daily noontime vigils for the two weeks while the final round of negotiations were taking place in Washington, DC. During December, SHARE also served as the liaison between Representative Hilda Solis and Dr. Salvador Arias from the legislative assembly in El Salvador, setting up meetings for the Congresswoman in DC and facilitating communication in January to bring Dr. Arias to Washington, DC for a Congressional briefing. We also helped integrate the Salvadoran community representatives and Dr. Arias into a press conference at the National Press Building.

On June 27, 2003, members of the SHARE San Francisco Salvadoran American Committee ran as “Team El Salvador” in the San Francisco Chronicle Marathon to raise money and awareness for SHARE’s local development partners. The committee is working on creative ways to do more than just send back vital remittances to El Salvador. By supporting initiatives aimed at creating sustainable local economies, the committee hopes not only to ameliorate poverty in El Salvador, which drives people north, but to also combat the roots of this poverty.

Delegations, Tours and Special Events
Nine sistering delegations visited El Salvador this year. SHARE also hosted a group of theological students from San Francisco, and two general delegations, one of women religious and a second of other SHARE supporters including Board Members and donors. A 14 year-old from Kansas City, Rebecca, wonderfully demonstrates the objectives and achievements of the grassroots program in a reflection written after visiting her rural sister community, El Buen Pastor:

In addition to delegations, Leslie Bilchick of the Grassroots Program participated in a Sistering meeting of Central American Sister Parishes in Guatemala together with rural and urban sister parishes from El Salvador. Six Salvadorans also visited their sistering communities in the US, representing CRIPDES communal and regional organizing initiatives on tour in Boston and Kansas City. During these visits, touring guests shared their knowledge and experience related to regional initiatives addressing the negative impact of national and international economic policy on the rural sector of El Salvador. They engaged in conversations and calls to action in schools, churches, community groups, and Congressional representatives, encouraging their audiences to join in these initiatives States-side.

In addition, SHARE staff based in the US and El Salvador visited with supporters in Kansas City, Baltimore, Southern California, Boston, Vermont, Dubuque, IA, Houston and Milwaukee during 2003.

US sister committees, sistering promoters, religious communities, and Salvadoran American committees drew on inspiration from delegations, tours, and general communication to keep organizing strong throughout the year. Committees held regional meetings and events such as anniversary commemorations of the martyrdom of Archbishop Romero and workshops around CAFTA and free trade including workshops in Boston and Maryland. Returned delegates brought their recent experiences to representative policy-makers, informing them of the effects of US policy in their sister communities in El Salvador.

2003 Program Report:

Contents:

• Introduction: A Review of our Programs and Institutional Priorities
• Advocacy Program
• Local Development Program
• Grassroots Program
• Organizational Update
• Summary

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