Vozz El Salvador: Youth Cover 2012 Elections and Organize Local Forum

Check out our first youth project for 2012 and Donate Today via Paypal.  Project description below:

During the years 1980-1992 El Salvador suffered a civil war that resulted in more than 75,000 people dead, thousands wounded, and over one million who fled the country.  Years of instability and violence gave rise to problems that are still present in Salvadoran society today, including growing gang violence, economic inflation, and general social unrest. Nevertheless, a strong civil society and a growing network of nonprofits has helped the human rights movement in El Salvador and many, especially youth, remain hopeful and active in civil society. The mayoral election season is a pivotal moment for participation, and it is one sphere in which every Salvadorean is faced with the task of finding solutions for the challenges facing their country.

There is an evident need for a youth-driven election project focused on education and training, citizen first-hand reporting, interactive events for conversation-building, and collaboration with the local municipalities to create lasting ties of civic engagement and participation. Vozz, a name created by youth in Guatemala City’s crime-ridden Zone 1 to capture the spirit of having a voice or voz to their stories, will create opportunities for youth to be trained by local reporters and seasoned election trainers, to share their stories from their municipalities on election day, and to distribute those stories both to a central website and to local and global syndicating partners such as YouTube and Demotix.

 VOZZ is a citizen journalism training project which was implemented as a successful pilot project during Guatemala’s election in August 2011. More than forty trainers from 22 municipalities were trained in the age range of 16- 24 years old. Youth were taught the fundamentals of journalism and reporting, the use of reporting tools like cameras and cellphones, and the electoral process. The reporters returned to their communities, replicated these trainings and reported both during and after the elections. The project continues as an online space in English, Spanish and Kaqchikel  for Guatemalan youth to share their stories around local events, environment, information and news that impacts them.

This project will be launched in El Salvador as a second pilot test to coincide with the 2012 municipal elections. There will be three components to Vozz El Salvador:

●        TRAINING OF TRAINERS We will focus on creating a training of trainers “bootcamp” program which will convene two youth from each of 20 municipalities and provide scholarships for them to attend two weekend trainings in San Salvador in February 2012. The first training will focus on the fundamentals of reporting, the electoral process in El Salvador and the use of multimedia tools for reporting safely and accurately.  The second training will focus on educating this same core team on three youth laws that could serve as tools to hold local governments accountable during the mayoral elections.

●        A PUBLIC FORUM. A public forum will be held in Santiago Texacuangos where youth from youth-serving organizations will publicly interview local candidates for mayorships on issues concerning young voters. This forum will also livestreamed online so more people both nationally and abroad can view it. The semi-urban municipality where the forum will be held is located 30 minutes south of San Salvador, where CEIBA has worked to develop youth organizations in communities and to create partnerships with the local municipal government to help implement new laws to protect and empower youth.

●        SOFTWARE PACKAGE AND CURRICULUM. An out-of-the-box easy to install open-source software package ready for online launching. This software package with language localization capacity will also be accompanied by a digital and printable curriculum that contains trainings focused on election coverage and participation. This electronic “Journalism and Political Participation Do-It-Yourself Election Guide” will be in both Spanish and English and available for nonprofits and civic groups across Latin America to use as an initial civic engagement tool and gateway to civic knowledge.

Increasingly, youth in the country are in crisis – unemployment is at an all time high,  hundreds migrate to the U.S. daily in search of work or fleeing violence, and gangs and drug trafficking disproportionately affect youth – the murder rate among young Salvadorans is 92 per 100,000 people. Thirty percent of youth in El Salvador 2009 last election exercised their right to vote. The factors that account for low youth voter turnout are misinformation and lack of voter education, as well as youth sentiment that political parties and leaders fail to represent their concerns or to provide them with opportunities to participate. Many youth voters are also not interested in voting because of the perceived lack of importance of the activity of voting. The mayoral elections to be held in March 2012 are an opportunity for young people to get involved at the most local level of political participation and to hold their future leaders accountable for the concerns and rights of young people.  

The issues of crime, gang violence, and drug trafficking has generated negative stigmas and stereotypes of youth in El Salvador and all of Central America. The Salvadoran government has perpetuated such stereotypes, passing harsher anti-gang laws or increasing militarization of the streets. Young people equipped with the tools to understand and digitally discuss the problems affecting youth will be powerful actors in public policy. Not only will trained youth be more confident to participate in their local communities, they will have the online skills and mentorship necessary to return to their own municipalities and replicate these spaces for story-telling and civic engagement, and to conduct trainings from the toolkits provided. By the end of the project, young people in this geographic region will connect with other youth globally and locally, will serve their communities by producing accurate information, will act as a watchdog in a fledgling democracy, and will amplify the space for freedom of expression by exercising their basic right to choose and share their stories.

This project will directly benefit more than 200 Salvadoran young adults ages 18-24 who live in 20 municipalities considered to be areas of social exclusion. Forty youth will be trained as the core group of citizen reporters to cover the 2012 Mayoral Elections, and 160 youth will be invited to participate in the Youth Forum in Santiago Texacuangos. The project has the potential to benefit hundreds more Salvadoran youth because it requires that the first youth trained return to their home municipalities and conduct their own training, in partnership with local youth organizations. In addition, Vozz will publish an open-source electronic “Journalism and Political Participation Bootcamp” curriculum in both Spanish and English, available for the benefit of thousands of NGOs and local government across Latin America so that they can apply our project to elections throughout the region.

Organizations: HablaCentro and CEIBA

CEIBA has been working on youth participation and violence prevention since February 2010. As part of a human rights commission on a national youth network, CEIBA actively participated in the creation of the Youth Policy (Politica de Juventud, passed March 2011) and the Youth Law ( Ley de Juventud, passed November 2011). CEIBA is also part of the local RAC (Red de Atencion Compartida) for Santiago Texacuangos which is responsible for helping the local government implement the LEPINA (Ley para Proteccion de la Ninez y Adolescencia. Law for the Protection of Children and Adolescents, passed January 2011). Lawyer Jonathan Velasquez, a founding member of CEIBA, is certified in LEPINA by the Salvadoran Supreme Court. Dany Portillo, another CEIBA founder, is currently the Director of Youth and Culture in the Secretary of Culture for the Salvadoran Government. CEIBA has the community context, experience with youth on the local level, appropriate insertion into national advocacy organizations, and ties to national and local government to undertake this kind of project.

HablaCentro has trained close to eight hundred people through work with nonprofits, civic groups, and other organizations since 2010. The organization has also created a community of 1,141 contributors, 9,027 articles, and more than 4,128  text message alerts. On average, HablaCentro serves 20,000-30,000 visits per month across all the 6 hubs located in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. HablaCentro also created a number of strategic partnerships to form the foundation for real social change and impact.

HablaCentro.com is a local mobile-driven network of regional citizen information websites in Latin America where contributions can be anonymous. Contributors, especially young people, from each country share and discuss information in various languages, including local indigenous languages. People use whatever means is available to them – computers, email and cellphones – to contribute and access the websites. A team of mostly volunteers share information and tools to participate and own the websites within each country. The core of the network is to provide a space for anyone to share their views or news reporting, and to train community groups and citizens about how to tell any story in such a way so that it has impact, relevance, timeliness, can be verified, and has geographic significance.

HablaCentro began as a pilot project, HablaGuate, in Guatemala in May 2009. When the prominent Guatemalan lawyer, Rodrigo Rosenberg, was murdered and a group of people requested a tool to be able to tell their stories from the ground. One month later HablaHonduras was created on the eve of President Manuel Zelaya's ousting in order to provide an alternative news outlet for the community reporting those events. Within a month the traffic reached 30,000 visits without any marketing efforts. One month later, HablaVenezuela was launched after a request from a core group of Venezuelans organizing against the governments educational cutbacks. Two months later, HablaCostaRica and HablaElSalvador were created. HablaCentro was formed as this growing network of news and information hubs with a legal entity in the United States. Co-founder Kara Andrade is now an Ashoka fellow strenghtening this network of community news and information websites by working locally with the teams that run them and providing training and technical support.

Hablacentro is partnering with a local nonprofit called Construyendo Espacios Integrales  para el Bienestar Ambiental (Ceiba), Constructing Integrated Spaces for Environmental Well-being, which was founded to respond to destruction caused by landslides as a result of Hurricane Ida in November 2009.  The organization was founded by Beth Tellman, on a Fulbright in El Salvador at the time, along with five Salvadorans, two of whom were from the affected region. While initially providing humanitarian aid to over 30,000 people in 30 communities, Ceiba focused the scope of its work to the social reconstruction of the most devastated communities in the municipality of Santiago Texacuangos, based on community diagnostics and Beth’s research on the keys to community resilience. 

Ceiba’s vision is to be a foundation that promotes sustainable community organization to manage the natural resources and social development of the municipality of Santiago Texacuangos.  Ceiba’s mission is to give community members the tools to organize themselves in order to generate: environmental consciousness, alternatives sources of income, food sovereignty, risk management, mental health, and gender equality. Ceiba is non-religious and non-political, and its board of directors includes an assembly of more than 20 local community leaders, volunteers, and students. Thus far, they have collaborated with the United Nations, the USA Military Civil Affairs Unit, and New York University, among others. Ceiba began its process to become a legal Salvadoran NGO in January 2011, expecting official status as a Foundation in early 2012.

Amount of budget requested and total cost of project or program :$13,905

the great flood of 2011

its been an incredible, exhausting, insanely wet 10 days. tropical depression 12 hovered over the salvadoran coast for the past 10 days or so, dumping down more raining than hurricane mitch. in some places, more than a meter and a half. there has been an incredibly low death count by my analysis, to which the Salvadoran government and the system of Civil Protecion (El Salv's FEMA) deserve huge kudos for precautionary and lifesaving evacuations. while only 34 lives were lost, more than 55,000 were evacuated, and more than a million people effected. the economic costs are yet to be covered- but will include the loss of houses, stores, businesses, and the entire bean and corn harvest of 2011 for many families.

In Santiago Texacuangos alone, there were 586 people sheltered in 6 locations; 3 in the town center and 3 communaly run shelters in la Cuchilla, El Sauce, and Shaltipa, respectively. CEIBA offered support to nearly all of these shelters, in addition to 2 shelters in Santo Tomas, a nearby region. We aided in food, water, toothbrushes, toothpaste, clothing, maxipads, diapers, soap, floss, and coordinated with various organizations such as Anmutsipical, SSPAS, CIPJES, Generacion Ochentas, Caritas, and others. Probabaly our largest contribution was the immaterial; the puppet shows, the movie showings, painting classes, and the use of hundreds of crayons to start a process of psychosocial intervention with at least 350 children (and maybe more). We gave motivational speeches in the community run shelter of El Sauce, taught community members how to fill out shelter statstics forms, and much much more. So far, we have raised $2,000!!!!!! and have yet to spend all of it. The rains have stopped for today, so what we didn't spend on relief, we will surely need to spend on reconstruction.....

Here are some pictures with some good stories from the week (though there are so many more to be told)

1. candlelit spaghetti dinner. this was the most beautiful moment for me in all of the tragedy- eating spaghetti with my fingers in the shelter in El Sauce with the children. We have no utensils, but we did have hot (and really bland!) spaghetti. Since the electricity had been out ALL day, CEIBA pitched in with the community leaders to buy 20 candles for the shelter, so that we could eat by candle light. After noticing the teary eyes of the exhausting community leaders who has been running the shelter for 5 days straight, CEIBA decided to give a pep talk of sorts, encouraging the community to keep supporting their leaders and pitch in to run what we have dubbed "The 5 star shelter" when compared with nearly every shelter we has seen. This shelter was clean, dry, participatory, organized into commissions and felt so much happier than EVERYWHERE else. The adults camped out at the edges of the building, so the kids could run around in the middle.

2. destroyed home, el sauce.
This is the reason the El Sauce shelter filled so quick (over 80 people in a small small room). In the early hours of the morning (Sunday October 17th), the wall fell in on this humble home. Thank goodness the leader of the youth group, Tito, happens to live across the street, and jumped into action to pull the 6 person family out of the rubble. Its hard to tell in this picture, that there used to be a home here. The future of where this family will live now that the rains have stopped...is unknown.

3. Kevin and the Indy 500
In one of the ugliest moments of the disaster, when the first shelter opened in Friday Oct. 13th, with the first few families from Joya Grande (which would later grow to nearly 200 families from Joya), this family was standing around, looking terrified, just waiting for what to do next. I pulled some chairs out of the school director's office, and frantically began to search through the bags of dry clothes to get the soaking children a little warmer. These 2 characters, Erik, and Kevin, choose the Indy 500 shirt, and their eyes opened
in delight as I explained the wonders of cars racings hundreds of miles an hour around a huge track.....
4. drawing water is rain.
the same friday evening, we traveled to a far away rural shelter of Las Casitas in Santo Tomas (which soon got moved closer into town, thank goodness). I literally watched a landslide fall 3 second IN FRONT of my car on the way home. We did some initial diagnostics with these kids...who only drew rain. one 5 year old drew his destroyed grandmother's home with ghosts all around it, signifying his fear.        

5. finger paint. crayons are pretty exciting (most kids in your average salvadoran home probabaly do not own any) but finger paint is even MORE exciting. Karina's innocent and excited and ENOURMOUS brown eyes couldn't contain their excitement for the finger paint. she drew this. 

6. vulnerability in shaltipa
 this community didn't completely lose any houses- but almost. this landslide ripped down the hillside through an urban area, forcing nearly 30 families into community run shelters in churches and schools. The back wall on the house on the right could cave in any second. Though the rains have stopped for now, the saturation  in the soil is preventing many familys from returning home just yet- any little old thundershower could send a landslide toppling all the homes in this picture over like dominoes. 

7. How old am I?
These tiny tiny boys with very rotten teeth appear to be 3 or for years old... think again! They are 7 and 8! These little munchkins, malnourished for sure, continuously giggled and tugged on my rain jacket, because they were wet and cold. I tried to fit them both in, and fought back the tears thinking about their obvious poverty- the kind of poverty you always seem to confront in disaster shelters.  And I wondered as they lined up for lunch- were they not better fed in this shelter than in their day to day life? And is this cold, wet, school worse than their actual home? But you could never tell....Carlos David (munchkin on the right) continued to giggle and nuzzle further into my raincoat, asking me if I was already leaving....and when I would be coming back...

 8. Una Vez y No Mas (once and not more)
This is the name of the improvisational puppet show that our partner organization, Anmutsipical has engineer together. Inside are Salvadorans Juancho (Anmu) and Tito (that heroic kid from El Sauce) who have invented a show about why they have come to the shelter, and how they are going to act there. The show is interactive, as the puppets talk to the audience, asking them how they feel, or the audience shouting advice to the puppets. Creative education (like puppets) is really important to our methodology, and totally magical for kids.                                                    

9. dedicated youth volunteers.  the people who bring life and light into disaster shelters.....

Juancho, working with the children in El Sauce

Daniela, interviewing families about their experience in the shelter

Maggie, faithfully guarding the crayons while the local catholic church hands out clothes.

This is why we do what we do. Thank you and your donations for helping us create smiles amidst the chaos.

lo que significa perder las alas/what is means to lose your wings.

What it means to lose your wings

AT HALF FLIGHT.

It’s raining, it’s been raining for nearly 10 days, entire communities flooded, children dead, politicians telling lies, news in the newspaper and television… international loans

And outside people recollecting supplies, people digging up and mourning their dead…

El Salvador is the most vulnerable country in the world, the second most deforested country in Latin America after Haiti, deforestation, social inequality, lack of health education, malnutrition, social and juvenile violence… poverty…

It’s nearly noon, I am driving over a dark and sad sky like the laughter of a child who at a distance greets me… the community “El Sauce” one of the communities in which we have been working in for two years. With it’s “adesco” and its youth it is in a state of emergency like the rest of the country due to the constant rains and their mortal consequences…

I arrive at the shelter, the people greet me, they appreciate my help and support, they give thanks because we are the first to arrive with some bags of water, they don’t have food not even drinking water. Up until now there are about 40 or 50 people living in the shelter, the rain will not cease.

At a distance a young woman yells at me “Jonathon, a house has already fallen down.” I walk to verify the location and talk to the people, the site is terribly saddening, the house completely filled with mud and rocks, a bed destroyed, a kitchen totally useless, clothes, etc…

From the side door I hear crying that makes me tremble, it’s the owner of the house, a woman of perhaps 40 years who is holding down with her hand her two children, who without knowing what is going on laugh amongst themselves…

I hug her I feel her sadness in my bones, I see the disillusionment of the people in her gaze, I want to cry but something inside of me is keeping me from doing so…

“It was everything I had,” she tells me. “My life, my hard effort, my work, and now what’s going to happen?” She was evacuated minutes before her house was destroyed, she doesn’t have a house tonight. She will sleep like many others in the community shelter, wondering what’s going to happen tomorrow when the rain marches on…

Her emotional state is well known, she is crying, the people murmur around her, “Poor thing she lost her house and all of her belongings.” She looks at her children and smiles like playing a silly game of throwing a stone at them and hiding her hand. She kisses their foreheads and tells them, “God has not died. Everything will be okay.”

The children filled with energy run around without even paying attention…

And so, I ask myself, should I ask you? What would you do if you were a bird and the rain cut off your wings?

Sometimes when one believes to have lost something that strange sensation in the body takes control of our eyes. Now imagine if all the hard work in your life were to disappear in one minute, your house filled with mud, your bed covered with roots and rocks, your children left with only the clothes they have on, the rain threatening you from the outside… death singing its terrible songs at the door of your home…

Sometimes losing everything is a different way of starting over to fix our errors, or to show the rain and death that God has not died and that always or almost always we can fly without wings…

Jonathan Velásquez

A MEDIO VUELO.


Llueve, lleva casi 10 días lloviendo, comunidades enteras inundadas, niños muertos, políticos
diciendo mentiras, noticias en los periódicos y la televisión….préstamos internacionales


Y afuera gente recolectando víveres, gente desenterrando y llorando sus muertos….


El Salvador es el país más vulnerable del mundo, el segundo más deforestado en América
latina después de Haití, deforestación, desigualdad social, falta de educación salud,
desnutrición, violencia social y juvenil….pobreza….


Son casi medio día, manejo sobre un cielo oscuro y triste así como la risa de un niño que a
lo lejos me saluda…La comunidad “El Sauce” una de las comunidades en las cuales hemos
trabajado por dos años. Con su adesco y sus jóvenes esta en emergencia así como todo el país
debido a las constantes lluvias y sus mortales consecuencias…


Llego al albergue , la gente me saluda , agradece mi presencia y apoyo , da gracias porque
somos los primeros en llegar con unas cuantas bolsas de agua, no tiene comida ni agua potable
hasta ahora hay quizá 40 o 50 personas albergadas , la lluvia no cesa.


A lo lejos una joven me grita: Jonathan, ya se cayó una casa, camino a verificar el lugar y
hablar con la gente, el panoramas es terriblemente triste, la casa totalmente llena de lodo y
piedras, una cama destruida, una cocina totalmente inservible, ropa, etc.…


De la puerta de al lado un llanto estremece mi piel, es la dueña de la casa, una señora de 40
años quizá que sujeta con su mano sus dos hijos que sin saber que pasa ríen entre ellos…


La abrazo siento su tristeza en mis hueso, veo la desilusión de todo un pueblo en su mirada,
quiero llorar pero algo en mi lo impide….


“era todo lo que tenia me dice, mi vida, todo mi esfuerzo, todo mi trabajo y ahora que va a
pasar” ella fue evacuada minutos antes de que su casa fuera destruida, no tiene casa para
esta noche dormirá como tantos otros en el albergue de la comunidad, pensando que pasara
mañana cuando la lluvia se marche…


Es notorio el estado de ánimo de ella, está llorando, la gente murmura entre ella, pobrecita
perdió la casa y todas sus cosas, ella mira a sus hijos y sonríe como quien tira la piedra y
esconde la mano, les besa la frente y les dice: Dios no se ha muerto, todo va estar bien…


Los niños corren energéticos sin prestar atención….


Entonces, me pregunto, te pregunto? que harías si fueras pájaro y la lluvia te cortara las alas?


A veces uno cree haber perdido algo y esa sensación rara en el cuerpo se apodera de nuestros
ojos, ahora imagina si todo el esfuerzo de tu vida desaparece en un minuto, tu casa llena
de lodo, tu cama con raíces y piedras, tus hijos con la única ropa que llevan puesta, la lluvia
amenazando afuera….la muerte cantando sus canciones terribles en la puerta de tu casa…


A veces perderlo todo es otra forma de iniciar de nuevo de reparar nuestros errores, o de
demostrarle a la lluvia y a la muerte que Dios no ha muerto y que siempre o casi siempre
podemos volar sin alas…..


Jonathan Velásquez

Support Children by Donating Today

The following message is from Beth Tellman, who currently is working with the population of refugees who have fled to the temporary shelter established in the Camilo Campos school in Santiago Texacuangos. When we last spoke she and several volunteers were coloring pictures with the children of the families in the shelter. Thanks to much work in recent years to overhaul the region's disaster-response system, the situation in Santiago Texacuangos is stable thus far. Unfortunately, that is not the case for the regions of the country that have been hardest-hit by this triple tropical storm week. Read below to see how you can empower CEIBA to offer assistance to the most delicate regions in this hour of severe need. The need is immediate, so please consider acting now.

Hello,

I know that you all and your various institutions are out supporting this country in these difficult moments.

We know that sometimes, although material needs like mattresses and food are covered, psychological support is left untended to, especially when it comes to children who survive disaster.

Our two collectives, Anmutsipical and CEIBA, are professionally trained in this area and we offer support in the municipality of Santiago Texacuangos. Here the shelter already houses 35 people who have fled their homes. This afternoon, we will go to Santo Tomas to see the situation there. Thus far, here in the southern part of San Salvador, all seems to be benefitting from a well-orchestrated disaster management effort from local governments, the Civilian Protection Ministry and other institutions, which have covered the majority of immediate material necessities.

Therefore, we would like to offer support in other regions of the country that have more immediate needs: places like the coast or the department of Ahuachapan, where the crisis has hit with more force and local authorities haven’t been able to respond adequately. What we lack to be able to reach that region is transport. If you would support us by donating funds for gasoline, we will be able to support the children of these delicate regions with our knowledge, materials and experience as they ride out yet another disaster.

Please see the formal financial proposal below.

Thank you,



CEIBA y Anmutsipical

Hurricanes Irwin and Jova
Psycho-Social Attention Project Proposal

Who We Are

We are two youth collectives, Anmu-tsipical and CEIBA, which work in social community development with an emphasis in socio-environmental themes. We emphasize community organization, especially in the municipalities of Santiago Texacuangos and Santo Tomas.

What We Do

Our two collectives have united to carry out several projects over time, such as one that offered psycho-social support for 300 children who survived Hurricane Ida and who reside in the communities of Joya Grande, San Martin, and Santo Tomas. This project lasted 6 months. We also belong to and work through the following Salvadoran national youth networks: Juxvida, Youth in Favor of Life (an environmental youth network), and CIPJES (the Inter-Sector Coordination in Favor of Youth in El Salvador.) These networks unite to support each other when we are in need of volunteers, to carry out large events, and in times of crisis. Finally, our two collectives together have together trained two Children’s Emergency Committees in Santiago Texacuangos.

The objective of carrying out this type of attention is to support children in expressing their emotions after having lived through trauma. We help them to understand what is happening and how it is related to their feelings, so they can understand it and feel themselves empowered to be part of the solution to the problem. Our methodology consists in using different interactive techniques, like painting and drawing, puppets and games, and movement therapies like yoga, which help the children to fully comprehend the crisis they’re living.

The Resources We Offer

We have a team of 3 to 6 trained psychologists along with some materials like paper, crayons, puppets, movies and games.

What We Need

In order to provide immediate attention we need either vehicles to provide transport, or gasoline to fill up our SUV and to provide food for the psychologists during the work days. This attention is necessary immediately and lasting throughout the effects of the storms.

Contact Us:

CEIBA:

Telephone: 011-503-7403-2702- Beth or 011-503-7182-4827 Jonathan

Email: ceibaelsalvador@gmail.com

Facebook: Ceiba El Salvador

Website: www.friendsofsantamaria.blogspot.com and español www.ceibaelsalvador.org

Anmutsipical Collective:

Telephoen: 011-503-7904-5272 Juancho

Email: anmutsipical@yahoo.com.mx

heavy rains-donate if you can.

friends
dont have much time to write will post pictures next week.
intense rains in elsalvador since tuesday night are continuing into the weekend. the most affected part of the country are on the coast but santiago texacuangos is in danger.


we have yet to open shelters, but there are landslides that have partially destroyed or entered some houses.

the largest landslide so far is in el sauce, and has filled part of a house with mud. by the time i arrived, the youth group was there, barefoot, with mud up to their knees, digging the family out. jonathan, henry, and tito were working tirelessly.

joya grande is fine so far, but the road has been obstructed so we are only communicating by phone.

ceiba is coordianting with proteccion civil, since we are part of the comission municipal.

since we are trained in trauma therapy for kids, we are going to movilize to other parts of the country with more needs to implement tramua therapy in shelters (still deciding where, possibly la herradura in la paz or berlin in usulutan or in auhuchapan....we are coordinating with cipjes, unes, and the red cross to decide WHERE are people most underserved). we met at cafe la T last night with juancho from anmustpicial, erik and jenni to plan our campaign.

we are getting all of your donations out of our storage. the clothes, the batteries, the wigs, the puppets, and the crayons. THANK YOU SO MUCH. how useful they are these tough days.

we do need some monetary support-

$100 to buy plastic to prevent more landslides
$150 for gas to get to far away shelters this weekend to implement trauma therapy
$50 for communications (we have been using new early warning technology frontline SMS to communicate with local gov and the community leaders via text message. each text is .6 cents so its cheap...but we already used up $10 yesterday so if this continues we need support for the communications system.

i think about $300-500 bucks could get us thru the next few days and help A LOT.

the local gov office had no car (neither did the police, and the health clinic has no amblulence!) so i was driving a team from local gov and proteccion civil around to verify landslides, needs, write down names and stats. good think my car is in tip top condition ! just got it back from the shop....its a real tool worth investing in. the local gov gave me gas $$ to drive out to the most affected locations.
i have seen the most heartwrenching poverty these days.

kids in my youth group who literally live between pieces of plastic.

the eldery has affected me the most. i have seen many old women with blue lips, chattering teeth, and when i ask if they have a sweater to put on, just shaking heads.

we are going to be delivering all the sweaters from our storage to the elderly. and plan on brewing HUGE vats of coffee and choclate as well...just to try and warm some bodies and spirits these terrifying days.

will write more reflections and stories and pics when this is over. but for now please pray for Salvadorans, and if you can make a small donation we promise to make excellent use of it.

with dedicated volunteers, we are doing our best to help where and when we can in these wet wet times!

we are not in crisis in santiago tex YET but we are on the brink. hopefully with good communication and some prevention we can make a difference

Filling a big hole with tires- preventing more than landslides

September 10th/11th, thanks to the generous donations of the Ryan Alaniz and the Futbol Project, Fred Sanchez, Sally Chamness, and Megan Doss, the youth group from the community of El Sauce went to Joya Grande for the weekend to fill a big hole with tires. This project we started in August with St. Thomas Aquinas Delegation, and only got about halfway done, so the youth were convinced that we had to finish it. They made a budget and wrote a letter- click here to read.

tito, with his accounting notebook in hand

The El Sauce kids had to do the planning, including going to Joya Grande to coordinate the project, figure out where to eat and sleep all weekend, and plan activities with the youth group in Joya Grande. They split up roles for the project-tito, the defacto leader of the group, handled accounting and money. Jorge was in charge of making sure we all had a place to sleep. Mirna was in charge of foto documentation etc. It was the first activity that they planned and executed as a group, important for thier leadership and team building.


henri, 8 , children's emerency comittee la marmonera

And its El Salvador. Not all goes right, always. The bobcat we solicited nearly 3 weeks prior came 3 hours late, setting us back. Our water contact did not deliver the water, so I had to drive around the community looking for jugs of water to fill to keep us all hydrated.  We honestly expected a bigger turnout of adults in the community-nearly all the work was done by children from our emergency committees and the youth from joya grande and el sauce. But we nearly finished, drenched it sweat at 3pm, ready to jump into beautiful Lake Ilopango. We might have continued had we not ran out of tires!

In an evaluation of the event, the kids reflected on how good it felt to help out another family, and try to accomplish a project they started. Many kids told us it was the "best weekend ever.." Because we didn't just work! The El Sauce kids decided to spend the night in the Casa Comunal of Joya Grande, and build relationships with the youth of another community. Each youth group presented the history, mission, and vision of their group, and the challenges they have had making change in their own community. El Sauce was pretty impressed with the Joya Grande youth's many projects- plans to put up a Red Cross post in Joya Grande, extensive surveys of the community, and a Halloween party to raise funds for the group. Jonathan from CEIBA then gave a presentation on obligatory military service in El Salvador (the governments newest "violence prevention" plan).  We discussed the structure of WHO makes decisions FOR youth in El Salvador- and the fact that youth are not actively involved in writing such proposals and projects. Everyone was unanimously against obligatory service, and concluded that the real problems of gang violence are rooted in unemployment and lack of access to education. To follow up on these issues, CEIBA is involved with CIPJES , a national network of youth organizations that encourage political and democratic participation. We sent two of the El Sauce Kids, Jorge and Linda, to the CIPJES formation schools to learn about many issues affecting Salvadoran youth- among these- integral strategies for violence prevention.

and then of course, we danced! Joya kids brought their HUGE booming speakers, and we got down in the Casa Comunal. but alas, not for long. at about 10pm, we were told that the local MS/13 clic from nearby community Shangallo had rolled it, and we had to keep it down so they wouldn't notice and come mess around. Hard times to be a youth in El Salvador these days....
We reverted to playing cards and indoor soccer, altho the shouts coming from each mini goal was just as loud as the booming reggaeton...

untying the human knot on the island

first boat ride ever for many

I passed out, exhausted at 10pm on the girls side of the room...trying to place police and prevent any frisky business. I was abruptly awaken by shouts of the boys running around at about 530am, as they rushed off to climb the nearby coconut trees to prepare our coconut juice drink for the soccer tournament. Nearly 100 coconuts, a few boys, and a rope! We has breakfast with the Joya Grande kids (their treat!) and took off for the island. The boat ride was pretty exciting, since most of the El Sauce kids had never been in a boat, and most couldnt swim. We did group integration activities, and shared our dreams for the next 10 years- some of which traditional development world might frown upon.... "work hard in the carpintery shop to support my family" and "become a liscenced mechanic and own my own maintence facility" and "go to the USA to be with my sister." Their dreams, from their realities.

Thanks to Ryan Alaniz's Futbol Project, we then distributed 4 sets of jersyes, socks and shorts! (one for each women's and men's team in each community). Sweating in our new gear,

enjoying our coconut juice, sweet victory, and NEW JERSEYS!

we closed with a soccer game, which the El Sauce kids won, 9-1, even though they were younger and smaller than the Joya kids. They played as a team, they didnt swear at each other, and they really passed the ball. Some of the gansters showed up to play for the Joya team, and it felt really good to beat the kids who thought they were cooler and badder...     

  At our weekly meeting in El Sauce, Tito informed me that the Joya Grande kids would be coming to visit El Sauce, and kick their butts in soccer. Their idea, their logistics, their youth group. That is project sustainability- give youth groups skills to plan and fundraise, and the responsability to manage an event...and they start to plan and execute their own projects. It may seem small or silly, but to live in a world of poverty and violence and take the initiative to plan intercomunal youth activities...is a bold step in the right direction for violence prevention. What kids need here is to be given a PLACE, a VOICE and to feel VALUED.

When a good friend Colette interviewed the El Sauce kids on violence prevention ideas, one kid replied, "well, I think what CEIBA is doing you know, coming here and opening up a space for us to feel good and hang out." Pretty simple concept- but somehow so complicated for the government to take seriously. Art, soccer, and education....are probabaly much cheaper projects to run than obligatory military service. In fact, in one weekend we spent $400 to fill in a sinkhole to save someone's house, foment intercommunal youth participation, discuss obligatory military service, talk about our dreams, and play soccer. Clearly, we prevent more than Josue's house falling over. This kind of good clean fun and positive development of our ideas and dreams, as well as critical analysis of government policies, is cheap and effective violence prevention. The real win of the weekend was not the service project- it was the space that was created for youth to participate, help out, and ENJOY BEING YOUNG, something that doesnt happen very often here.

So this weekend, I get to give El Sauce kids $40 of what they raised to make the BIGGEST bucket of Tang  ever been seen, and 100 chicken sandwhiches for a post game celebration....no matter who wins.

Help El Sauce youth fill the sinkhole in Joya Grande!

Friends- CEIBA wants to help one of our youth groups finish a service project we started with our St. Thomas Aquinas Delegation (Aug 6-15) to fill in a sinkhole described in an previous post on Josue's house together with the youth of the community, the youth from el sauce, another community, the kids in our emergency comite from el borborllon, and the gringos from indianapolis, we filled in 1/3 of the sinkhole with tires. We have 2/3 to go, and the salvadoran youth want to get this done and save Josue's house for real! Here is the unedited letter, pretty much directly translated-pictures of the progress we have made on the carcava so far below the letter. they need $600 to finish the job...


Santiago Texacuangos 15 August 2011

St. Thomas Aquinas Church
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

We humbly wish to write you wishing many blessings and success in your work and school.

Via this letter, we want to communicate with you and simultaneously give thanks to the youth who in solidarity collaborated with us on various community projects that benefited both El Sauce and the community of Joya Grande.

Via this letter we would also be very grateful if this delegation of youth with a little of their resources could help us with some economic support. Said support would serve as much help because it would cover costs of transportation and food so that we can help our brothers and sisters of Joya Grande to help finish filling the sinkhole that threatens many families from the previously mentioned community.

We want to thank you beforehand for your response to the request we write to you.

Sincerely, JUBDIS (Jovenes Unidos Buscando Desarrollo Integral El Sauce/ Youth United Seeking Integrated Development of El Sauce)

Fernando Jose Villelas Serrano
Mirna Roxana Urias Lopez
Jocelyn Yajaira Vasquez Perez
Jairo Francisco Diaz Hernandez
Lester Esau Perez Sariano
Jesus Enrique Lopez Lopez
Carlos Alberto Sanchez
Ricardo Francisco Urias Lopez
Henry Alexander Vasquez perez
Erlinda Beatriz Valladares
Carlos Alejandro Sorto
Milton Gustavo Cruz
Kevin Antonio Prolen
Jorge Eduardo Fuentes Moncada

Item    Number    Cost
Lunch for volunteers    140    350
Dinner for youth    25    37.50
Transportation to joya    -    40
Water    5    25
Gas    -    35
Breakfast    25    75
subtotal    -    557.50
Other possible costs    10% of total    55.75
TOTAL    -    613.25
Santiago Texacuangos 15 de Agosto 2011
Iglesia Santo Tomas de Aquino
Indianapolis Indiana USA

Atentamente nos dirigimos a ustedes deceandole muchas benidciones y exitos en las labores que desempenan.

Por medio de la presente les hacemos comunicar y asi mismo a gradecerles al grupo de jovenes que solidariamente nos colaboraron con diferentes trabajo a beneficios de la comunidad de El Sauce y el canton Joya Grande.

Por medio de la presente les agradeseremos mucho a este delegacion si  por medio de un poco de sus recursos nos pueden ayudar con aporte economico dicho aporte nos servira de mucho ayuda para asi poder cubrir gastos de transporte y alimentacion y asi poder ayudar a nuestros hermanos de joya grande para poder terminar una carcava que amenaza a varios familiars de la zona anteriormente mencionada.

Agradeciendole antemano su ponta respuesta a la solicitud nos suscribimos de ustedes.

Atentamente:
JUBDIS (Jovenes Unidos Buscando Desarrollo Integral El Sauce)