So, here we are in the “muy bonita” Ahuachapan… Never have we experienced so much hospitality and love from strangers, made even more amazing by the fact we communicate in smiles, head nods and a little bit of Spanish.
Three weeks in El Salvador and if the heat doesn’t kill me then the excitement will. Working as a volunteer for Progressio is turning out to be the once in a life time experience I hoped for. Our group is working with a women’s rights organisation, IMU, who aspire for gender equality through families. A typical day includes helping to create sustainable gardens, topped off with an afternoon of English classes.
Imagine staring at your home of 16 years submerged underwater, watching your livelihood and possessions floating away and being powerless to do a single thing. This was the stark reality for Ana Joseph Fernandez during a period of non-stop torrential rain that led to extreme flooding in October 2011 that left 32 dead and more than 20,000 displaced in rural Ahuachapán, north of El Salvador.
“I was completely homeless for 15 days, all four of my children became sick due to the contaminated water and I had no money to treat their illnesses.”
On 9 May, the Progressio programme in El Salvador participated in the Europe Day Cooperation Expo in the capital city of San Salvador, with the purpose of sharing information about the various development projects and initiatives that European Union countries contribute to in El Salvador.
Over the past two weeks the team has been involved in small community projects in the neighbouring villages of Los Pozos and Los Rivera. Whilst being introduced to various members of the community we learnt of the struggles they face in day to day living but also of the educational initiatives which are helping the communities to increase their development.
We spent a lot of days these past two weeks in the greenhouse. We were taking cucumber plants down, planting radishes and lettuces, putting strings up that the tomatoes could follow when growing, and beginning to prepare lots of banks that are outside the greenhouse. The tomato strings actually took a surprising amount of time as they were quite fiddly but we powered through and managed to get the job done in a final session on Saturday morning. The banks outside are now ready to be planted on and we have all became quite good at working in the greenhouse.
On Monday 6th February we visited the mayor of El Refugio, a municipality in Ahuachapán. We learnt from him what policies the council has in regards to women’s rights and how he is helping the local bakery, La Esperanza, which is run by women who live close by in the community. We even managed to get the mayor to give a computer to the bakery so that they can have more accurate finances and plan their marketing strategy. Whilst it might seem like something small, it was one of the women’s priorities for the future when we first came into contact with them.
“Social movements here [in Central America] create new ideas and are an inspiration, not only for Latin America, but for the whole world.” So said Eva Ekelund from the World Lutheran Federation in her opening speech at a Mesoamerican Climate Justice Campaign conference on 16-17 February.
As for the rest of the world – the global North – Angel Ibarra of Progressio partner UNES said in his presentation: "They don’t even mitigate, and we in turn are obliged to adapt, in a scenario in which adaptation isn’t even possible."
After a three hour drive from San Salvador, we arrived in the beautiful town of Arcatao in the Chaletenango district of El Salvador. This small rural town was one of many effected by the civil war and the brutal massacres that took place. This area was originally used by the indigenous population to grow crops for material dye but due to the development of synthetic dyes in Germany the land was taken from them and instead used for growing coffee beans, an industry from which the rich could profit.
