Need a Hand?
With all the work we do, it is no surprise that sometimes we need help too! This week we wanted to highlight some other amazing organizations that we have worked with and are excited to continue working with! We are extremely fortunate to have so many connections and partnerships to better help the community of Los Tehuistes and rural people all over El Salvador as well!
CIS
Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad
Center of ExChange and Solidarity
Mission
To be a sustainable institution that promotes ties of solidarity among communities in El Salvador and around the world, strengthens social organization, promotes human development and contributes to the transformation of Salvadoran Societt
CIS was founded in 1993 by Leslie Schuld in August of 1993 after the signing of the Peace Accords that ended the Salvadoran Civil War. They are currently working on building community and dignified homes in order to address the root causes of migration and gang violence. They do this through creating markets for artisans, scholarships, supporting women’s enterprises, clean water, and dignified homes.
The current programs of CIS are:
Youth Scholarships and Leadership Development
Dignified Housing
Clean Water
Clean Water
Women’s Enterprises and Empowerment
We have such a great relationship with CIS and collaborate with them often. In the past, we have collaborated with them on providing and implementing the use of water filters.
Most importantly we collaborate with CIS for our scholarship program. This has been EXTREMELY valuable for our recipients as they are able to attend workshops developed through our partnership on environmental management, sexual and reproductive rights, leadership, life projects, etc. We have specifically worked hand-in-hand to carry out exchanges with other communities that want to implement initiatives such as the School of Environmental Awareness. We are fortunate for Manuel, our director of our Knowledge is Power Program, to attend their Community Network meetings to continue this excellent partnership.
CONFRAS
Confederacion de Federaciones de la Reforma Agraria Salvadorena
Confederation of Federations of Salvadoran Agrarian Reform
Mission
To strengthen solidarity with and among the Salvadoran people in El Salvador and the United States in the struggle for economic sustainability, justice, and human and civil rights
CONFRAS began their work in the 1980’s following the Agrarian Reform and has worked to promote sustainable and organic agricultural techniques, the organization of the agricultural sector, and women’s empowerments. They work to “strengthen and defend national cooperatives by advocating for policies that promote economic and social development for its members”.
This confederation represents 131 cooperatives in El Salvador and these cooperatives together represents approximately 6,550 rural farmers and their families throughout El Salvador
The goals that CONFRAS focuses on are:
Pass the Food Sovereignty Law in the Legislative Assembly
Plant 5,000 fruit trees to create pathway to food sovereignty and security and prevent soil erosion
Provide opportunities for women farmers to take on leadership roles within the aforementioned cooperatives
Our collaboration with CONFRAS has provided fruit and timber trees for Los Tehuistes to combat deforestation. They have been instrumental in assisting with communication with other agroecological initiatives. CONFRAS was the first NGO to bring a delegation of people from several countries to plant trees with the students of one of the community study centers. Currently they help support us by sharing information on topics related to agroecology! This NGO has been extremely contributory in excelling our Farming for the Future program!
CARITAS
Mission
Caritas Internationalis reflects the social mission and core values of the Catholic Church. We believe in dignity, solidarity, and stewardship on behalf of the world’s most vulnerable people
Ending Poverty, Promoting Justice, and Restoring Dignity are the key aspects which Caritas brings to every project. Yet despite worldwide efforts they maintain guiding values such as the dignity of the human person, solidarity, subsidiarity, and taking care of our common home, among many others.
They were first founded in Germany in 1897, and their work in El Salvador began in 1960 where they worked to facilitate better food distribution, building and repairing of minor roads, small bridges, schools, community halls, clinics, vegetable gardens, and emergency relief.
Currently, CARITAS promotes sustainable development in the most vulnerable communities, and has been a valuable connection for us in facilitating relationships with other institutions such as: the Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Center which donated fish along with the orchards, and the Ministry of the Environment for the donation of 200 trees which were planted in the canton of San Jeronimo.
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
Mission
Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light of each person, AFSC works with communities and partners worldwide to challenge unjust systems and promote lasting peace
The AFSC has a vision of a just, peaceful, and sustainable world free of violence, inequality, and oppression. They achieve this vision through their values as:
We respect the equality, worth, and dignity of all people and regard no one as our enemy
We seek right relationship with all life on a sustainable Earth
We accept that our understanding of truth is incomplete and seek ever deeper insights from lived experience
We trust the Spirit to guide discernment from our collective actions
We assert the transforming power of love and active nonviolence as a force for justice and reconciliation
AFSC first began their operations in El Salvador in 2014 to pursue their overall key issues in advancing peacebuilding, humane migration responses, healing and not punitive justice, and just economies.
In El Salvador the AFSC focuses on working with Salvadorian young people who are in the process of peace building, and advocating for the rights of those who are in condition of displacement or forced mobility. These goals have created the Peace Programs of Human Migration and Mobility to “foster the development of capacities, establish strategic partnerships and help to create dialog spaces between key actors for a social transformation”.
The American Friends Service Committee has donated the materials necessary for 10 more families to join our Farming for the Future program. They have also helped with the purchasing of broilers for families in Los Tehuistes. They continue to assist in financing the construction and instillation of the six water filters as to prevent the community from drinking dirty and contaminated water.
RACDES
Red de Ambientalistas Comunitarios de El Salvador
Network of Community Environmentalists in El Salvador
Mission
Confront the root stories of debt and its structural causes
Promote lasting alternatives of economic, social, and ecological justice
Challenge and shift the dominant discourse on debt towards the recognition of its illegitimacy to give strength to the South's collective and global movement against debt
Raise awareness and strengthen a popular consensus on the human costs and illegitimacy of debt, within and among social and political movements in the countries of the South
Contribute to the construction of the notion of creditor peoples of the South of historical, social, ecological, climatic, cultural, financial, and gender debt that must be repaired
Support and develop platforms, agendas and campaigns that promote the fight against foreign debt and the domination it exerts, at the level of each people and coordinate globally
RACDES is defined as a “broad and pluralistic network of social movements, popular organizations, ecumenical (promoting or relating to unity among the world’s Christian Churches), women’s and human rights organizations, and political formation campaigns in Latin America and the Caribbean. As evident from their mission statement, RACDES primarily works on debt, militarization, and socio-environmental development.
This organization acts as a group to build a global movement in the South that will fight to free them from the domination of the foreign debt and to repair the immense human costs caused by their service and payment to foreign debt.
Our work with RACDES is primarily to connect Los Tehusites with other communities to collaborate and share knowledge regarding our Environmental Awareness School and our Farming for the Future Program. RACDES had planned to train young individuals within the School of Environmental Awareness initiative with tools to turn them into environmental promoters, but unfortunately due to the quarantine that was applied due to the ongoing pandemic it was unable to begin this implementation. However, we plan to extend our ties with RACDES in order to help them achieve this goal.
P.S. The website is in Spanish, but the English translation is very accessible!
Unidad de Salud Comunitaria del Ministerio de Salud
Community Health Unit of the Ministry of Health
Ministry of Health in El Salvador
We are extremely fortunate to have worked with and continue to work with the Ministry of Health in El Salvador
At first the Ministry of Health supported us by giving workshops on health care so the residents of Los Tehuistes are able to perform clinical examinations of personal health. We work with a local health care provider to advise residents on how to avoid the spread of diseases such as ZIKA, Dengue, and Chikungunya. This is done by destroying mosquito breeding grounds and delivering poison to eliminate the latter. For young scholarship holders these individuals are able to take cytological tests, HIV tests, how to maintain healthy children and pregnant woman, and has previously worked to prevent rabies through their canine and feline vaccination campaigns.
Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Ministry of Health has provided individuals with training in personal care, first aid, and the use of certain medical equipment in addition to promoting vaccination for those available to receive it.
Departamental de Educacion del Ministerio de Educacion
Department of Education of the Ministry of Education
Ministry of Education in El Salvador
We collaborate with the Ministry of Education primarily regarding our Knowledge is Power program.
Through the Ministry of Education our scholarship students collaborate with the Senior Literacy Program. Young students meet with older individuals within the community who never had the opportunity to attend school how to read and write. It’s an excellent way for our students to practice what they’re learning and interact more with the community.
Ministerio de Medio Ambiente Y Recursos Naturales
Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources
Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources
We collaborate with the Ministry of the Environment regarding our Farming for the Future Program and our Environmental Awareness School
Over three years, 400 fruit and timber trees were planted on the banks of the rivers of Los Tehuistes. The Ministry also provided families and those that requested trees for orchards. We are excited to work with them in the future to continue to raise environmental awareness and sustainable agriculture.
