Empowered Women, Empowered Communities!

Shoveling soil is HARD! That thought ran through my head over and over again as I watched SHARE Foundation’s delegates and members of cooperatives shovel compost as the sun beat down on the tin roof that barely covered the compost soil pile. We kicked up dirt and sand and soon everyone’s brightly colored sneakers were covered with muted brown earth. I gulped down water from my water bottle and wiped sweat from my brow with my sleeve.

The group I was with was comprised of American University students and MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger’s staff and board members who had come to observe El Salvador’s historic elections and learn more about Salvadorans who are fighting for justice and creating real change in their communities. This group visited two cooperatives that participate in SHARE Foundation’s local development program: Los Frailes (The Friars) and the Marta Gonzalez Cattlewomen’s Cooperative (ACAMG).

Around 9AM, the SHARE delegates piled off the bus in the morning in La Bendición and were immediately greeted by a throng of excited, gregarious children. The delegates then convened with representatives from the Los Frailes in a community space, where individual farmers, both men and women, spoke about the benefits of using organic rather than chemical fertilizers and compost soil. Los Frailes participates in the Campesino a Campesino (Peasant to Peasant) Program, in which a local grassroots organization, CONFRAS, provides training on organic farming techniques and then encourages each participating cooperative to teach and train another community on what they learned. Farmers from Los Frailes spoke about the sense of empowerment they’ve gained by working together as a community in order to solve the community problem of hunger. To better illustrate their hard work to their visitors, the cooperative members took the group to a site where they were preparing compost soil. The cooperative members showed the different layers of the soil and invited the delegates to help “turn” the soil. Under the sweltering sun, the delegates took turns shoveling the compost, huffing and puffing with the effort. Rachel Ford, a freshman at American University and one of the first to volunteer to shovel the compost, stated, “I really enjoyed having the opportunity to work alongside the members of the cooperative and talk them about their experiences.” Luah Tomas, a freshman from American University, marveled at the difficult work required to make compost soil, “While I was watching some members of our group help shovel the fertilizer I thought that, for us, this is just two minutes of our lives, but for them it is their lives.” When it was time for the group to leave, we gave our new friends at the cooperative (sweaty) hugs and thanked them for sharing their time with us and teaching us about their work.

We arrived in Zamorano in time for lunch with the Marta Gonzalez Cattlewomen’s Cooperative (ACAMG), who prepared a sumptuous feast for the delegates. After the meal, the women spoke to the delegates about their cooperative’s history, their challenges, and their hopes. ACAMG began as part of a larger, co-educational organization, but the female cooperative members did not feel supported or included in the decision-making processes, so they chose to branch off in 1993 to form their own women-run, women-only cooperative. The women told the group how they struggled with members of their community, mostly men, who told them that they were selfish for choosing to leave the larger organization. However, the women moved forward with their plans of creating a women’s cattle cooperative, and to date, around 300 women participate in the cooperative. The women smiled slyly when they said that now some men have asked to join their cooperative, but they have told them that the only way that can join is if they start wearing a dress. Because of their success, the women have expanded their cooperative’s mission and have begun literacy circles to encourage women to learn how to read and write. During our visit, a delegate asked the representatives of the cooperative if they preferred any particular candidate or political party in the upcoming presidential election. Most of the women agreed that they wanted the FMLN (Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation) party to win, but they also reminded us that they had survived seventeen years without support from the government, and they would continue their work regardless of the election results on March 15, 2009. After the women’s presentation, Heather Wolfson, MAZON’s Marketing Manager, reflected, “I was inspired by the women of the cattle cooperative. Despite facing many hardships at its inception, the cattle cooperative has changed the lives of hundreds of women. The women have used this empowerment to provide a service for the region and have given women the independence to succeed.”

At the end of our visit, the members of ACAMG invited the delegates to participate in a procession in memory of Rutilio Grande, a priest who was assassinated during El Salvador’s civil war 32 years ago. We gathered up the road along with most of the citizens of Zamorano, which included an enormous green parrot, and filed into two lines. We sang spiritual and political hymns as we processed toward Zamorano’s church, appropriately named after Rutilio Grande. I marveled at the people in the crowd, Salvadoran and American, Christian and Jewish, young and old, united in creating a new El Salvador today.

To learn more about SHARE’s local development programs, click here.

To support SHARE's projects, click here.

- Sara Skinner, US Grassroots Coordinator

SHARE DC REACHES OUT TO SALVADORAN COMMUNITY

Following the guidance of one of our strategic goals, SHARE DC reached out to the Salvadoran community in Washington DC during Hispanic Heritage Month. The Washington DC metro area is home to the second largest Salvadoran community in the United States after Los Angeles, CA. With approximately 500,000 Salvadorans living in the area, they constitute the largest foreign-born population according to the 2005 US Census. Migration from El Salvador to Washington started in the 1970’s, increased in the 1980’s because of the civil war and continued to grow in the late 1990s and into this decade because of the harsh economic conditions back home.


a) Fiesta DC 2008

Each year, Fiesta DC, a non-profit organization sponsored in part by the DC Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs, organizes events during Hispanic Heritage Month. The largest of these events is Fiesta DC’s Latino Festival, which includes a parade of nations, a children’s festival, an arts and crafts fair, food vendors, music and dance performances, and a community-based organization information fair. This year more than 60,000 people attended the Festival on Sunday, September 28th. Therefore the Latino Festival is an excellent opportunity for non-profit organizations to reach out to the Latino community, particularly to Salvadorans. SHARE DC, with the support of the Salvadoran Allies Group (CISPES, Sister Cities, Voices on the Border and SHARE) and the Center for International Policy (CIP) had a booth at the fair to raise SHARE’s visibility among the Salvadoran community and to advocate for free and fair elections in El Salvador. To prepare for the event, the SHARE DC Grassroots Team asked and received contributions from the Salvadoran Allies Group and CIP to sponsor the table. Each organization was invited to send organizational materials and volunteers for the event. SHARE DC was in charge of coordinating the volunteers and materials, set up and take down the booth, and disseminate materials to festival visitors.
The day of the Festival, SHARE DC staffed the table from 8:00am to 6:30pm and handed out grassroots and advocacy materials to visitors. In addition SHARE DC took advantage of the opportunity to promote a petition in response to the presentation given by Salvadoran Minister of Foreign Minister, Marisol Argueta, at the American Enterprise Institute where she asked for U.S. intervention in the Salvadoran elections. SHARE’s petition, with all of the signatures, will be sent to President Saca to implore him to ensure that public employees do not use their positions to influence public opinion on who should win the elections, to ask Argueta to explain her statements, and to respect the sovereignty of the Salvadoran people. SHARE DC gathered 91 signatures for the petition at the festival, 20 people signed up for SHARE’s E-news, and 10 people took home SHARE’s 2009 Presidential Election Delegation flyer. SHARE DC also supported CIP’s campaign to promote investment in potable water in El Salvador, as well as, CISPES’ biking event. Most importantly, SHARE DC was able to speak Salvadorans living in the metro DC to show them that SHARE Foundation is walking in solidarity with their brothers and sisters back home.


b) Cutumay Camones Concert,

On Saturday October 4, SHARE DC had a table at the Cutumay Camones Concert. The band formed in May 1982 in El Salvador, taking the name of a town located in the Santa Ana Department, which was famous for a battle that took place a few days after the FMLN offensive in January 10, 1981. Currently, with most of their members living in the US, Cutumay Camones’ mission is to recover, through its music, the Salvadoran traditions and heritage.

The event was held in the Wesley United Methodist Church in Washington DC and was attended by a multitude of Salvadorans. The concert was organized by the Day Laborers National Network, Metro D.C. , Manuel Zapata Humanitarian Center and Salvadoran Cultural Association MILPA.

In just a few hours, from 8:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. SHARE DC was able to collect 44 signatures for the petition to protest the Foreign Affairs Minister’s statements, and has since gathered a total of 400.

In addition, SHARE DC handed out grassroots and advocacy materials, promoted the electoral delegations and networked with representatives of several Salvadoran organizations.



SHARE DC will keep reaching out to the Salvadoran community at future events in order to strengthen relations with organizations in the area and get Salvadoran-Americans involved in SHARE’s work.

c) Stop the Raids and Deportations: Emergency Response Protest of the Recent Raids in California

On Friday, October 10, 2008, SHARE DC participated in an emergency protest of ICE in response to the recent raids and detainment of over 1,157 undocumented immigrants. The protest took place in front of ICE National Headquarters and was sponsored by DC Alliance for Immigrant Justice, Metro DC Interfaith Sanctuary Network, Casa de Maryland, CISPES, DC Jobs with Justice, DC Students for a Democratic Society, the National Day Labor Organizing Network, and the Washington Peace Center. Over fifty people showed up with signs and banners and marched in a circle in front of the building as ICE employees left for the day. After the march, the group held a press conference in front of the building where representatives of each sponsoring organization spoke out against the racist, xenophobic attacks. Jean Stokan, former SHARE staff member, was the final speaker at the press conference. SHARE DC brought one of the SHARE DC interns, Lars Joon Flydal, to participate in the protest. Univisión televised portions of the protest and the press conference.

Meat, Cheese and Bicycle Repair: Micro-credit and women’s development in Chalatenango

Member of sewing cooperative sewing a pair of pants.

I hadn’t seen a treadle sewing machine in a long time. If they are seen at all in the states it is most often in museums or antique stores. So it was strange to see them here, down a long dusty road in El Salvador. It makes sense though, they are powered by rocking a foot petal back and forth and the sewers don’t have to stop work when the power goes out, which it does… frequently. The women doing the rocking are part of a women’s group in Los Ranchos that makes and sells artisan crafts.

In the 1980’s, as newly repatriated war refugees, the women of Los Ranchos came together and began sewing undergarments. They organized trainings to support each other and learn new skills. They received help from international groups and regional organizations such as the CCR. They learned to embroider and began selling artesian goods to visiting delegations. They built upon their new knowledge and learned that their success came from themselves, from their collective work and their collective will. They learned and they grew. What started as a small sewing group is now a cooperative of 18 members. This group inspired other women in the same community to begin other projects where there was demand. They are now a sizable force within the larger organized community; participating more and more in community decision-making.

Recently, through the CCR and with funding from Salvaide, a Canadian NGO, the women have taken advantage of micro-credit programs to expand existing projects and initiate new ones. Micro-credit programs grant small loans to individuals who have too few assets or collateral to qualify for traditional loans, for example, one woman received a loan of five dollars to purchase corn flour for a tortilla stand. In Los Ranchos, three women in the community used a small loan to start expand their small store into a pupuseria. The words painted on the wall of a donated building holding the venture advertises “Milk, Meat and Bicycle Repair” proving that there are no boundaries to ingenuity.

As the women of Los Ranchos continue with their projects, and begin new ones, they will do so with the backing of community organization and solidarity. They receive and will continue to receive trainings, encouragement and support from organizations like the CCR and The SHARE Foundation.

We invite you to join, SHARE in supporting the next generation of project development. In doing so, you will contribute to the understanding that true sustainable development is accomplished through holistic projects. Micro-credits help women, but micro-credits accompanied by community organization, cooperation and mentoring empower women.

Doña Teresa y Doña Seferina (above)used a micro-credit to open a pupuseria and sell bicycle repair parts.