Compadres y Comadres Journal 2011 - our meeting with CRIPDES

July 4 Meeting with CRIPDES

First day, our meeting with Rosa and Bernardo of CRIPDES


We met with Rosa and Bernardo, the current president and vice-president of CRIPDES respectively. Always on our delegations we begin to set context by meeting with our hosts, CRIPDES. Rosa started with a history of the organization. Formerly the Christian Committee of the Displaced, CRIPDES was founded in 1984 to support people displaced by the Salvadoran civil war as they returned to their homes. At the time, there was much repression in the countryside. Massacres had taken place on the Sumpul River in and around Suchitoto, San Vincente and other areas. People were forced to move from place to place. Many left for Honduras, Nicaragua, the United States and also San Salvador. Most of the original board members were women. CRIPDES quickly got involved in resettling the displaced population. They linked themselves to Salvaide in Canada and Sister Cities in the United States.

It was hard to bring people back to the countryside; the army did not want the people resettled. There were no services for the people, no access to education or health care. People had to learn to help themselves. They became their own teachers and they had to learn how to look after each other medically as well. People also did not have access to clean drinking water or even land. CRIPDES worked with communities and helped them to become organized.

After the war ended, the struggle continued. CRIPDES assisted women as they advocated for their rights. They trained popular educators in order to get schools going again. This work is on-going, some communities have schools and teachers however in other areas, there is a lack of teachers and schools. There is a great deal of work to do in this area!

CRIPDES has done a great amount of work on the issue of water privatization. Rosa was amongst several staff members who were imprisoned a few years ago as they took part in protests against water privatization policies of the government. CRIPDES members were actually charged as terrorists under post-911 legislation. The charges were eventually dropped, but the law they were charged under still exists.

CRIPDES works in 390 communities across the country. They are divided up into regional groupings that include the CCR (Chalatenango), PROGRESO (Suchitoto), San Vincente and La Libertad. Within each community there are local organizations. Good, strong organization is certainly the key to success for CRIPDES. Throughout the organization, there is a strong emphasis on programming for youth and women. Training is the key and CRIPDES uses popular education methods to empower youth and women.

CRIPDES, along with many other Salvadoran groups focuses on the issue of mining. National and especially international laws favor the exploitation of mineral resources by mining companies. Most of these companies are Canadian. The main problem is that El Salvador is a densely populated country. People live where companies want to mine. Currently there are 29 mining projects on hold as the current Salvadoran government studies the possibility of banning mining outright in the country.

The drive to exploit these resources has led to violence, especially in Cabanas, where Pacific Rim is hoping to develop a gold mine. Five people, including a woman eight months pregnant, have been killed over the past two years as a direct result of this conflict. An economy based on exploitation is not sustainable. CRIPDES advocates for the development of a local economy focusing on local crops and animals. Tourism is also being encouraged as a well to develop resources in a sustainable fashion.

This was our introduction to the work of CRIPDES. Themes relating to mining and sustainable development will reoccur throughout our meetings.

CRIPDES logo outside the main office in San Salvador

Upcoming Orientation Day for Compadres

We are 5 weeks away from our next trip to El Salvador! Next week, we will be meeting as a group to prepare for the trip. We have a group of 5 people going down this time - the perfect size for group. I am including here the agenda for next Saturday. Soon, I will be blogging regularly in preparation for what promises to be an exciting summer!


Compadres Orientation
Summer 2011

El Salvador Exposure trip
Location: 148 Meadowlands Drive West – St. Gregory School



8:30 Arrival, welcoming
coffee


9:00 Welcome to the day
Introductions - group members we would ask participants to talk about yourselves a bit
Individual expectations – what do you see as your challenges, what do you want to achieve through this experience? We are asking participants to answer this question
outline of objectives for the day – what we plan to accomplish today - Paul


Discussion on this year’s objectives – how does this trip fit into the overall Compadres project overview of Compadres - Paul

9:45 Our partners in El Salvador – CRIPDES, CORDES, CCR, brief history of El Salvador - René Guerra Salazar – director of Salvaide

10:30 Break for coffee/snacks


11:00 review of trip agenda – where we will go, health and security, money, customs and cultural norms, weather, and living arrangements (especially in Las Flores) – René and Paul

12:00 lunch at La Cabana – local Salvadoran restaurant on Merivale – car pool


1:30 Social Issues and El Salvador

2:00 discussion on possible workshops in El Salvador -


3:00 future planning for trip – group discussion

Planning for this summer

CCR Assembly - we will be working with the CCR in San Jose Las Flores


This time of year we start getting into the specifics of planning for the summer Compadres trip. We are now at five people which is the number of participants we had on our last trip - great number!

In planning for a very different trip, I have written below what I think are the essential elements for this year's trip. I am very interested to hear what the rest of you think.

This will be a different trip this year. We will be spending most of our time in one community and we will be living with families. I think these two essential changes will make this very rich experience.

Here are some of the elements that I think are important in planning:

1. Language school - I have read lots about language schools in Guatemala - they sound pretty good. Why don't we work to start one in San Jose Las Flores - we can do a few hours of Spanish every day - this will lend structure to the program and will give us a skill they can use and improve upon throughout the day. Hopefully, this is something we can develop over time. This could become a regular feature of our progrm.

2. Living with families - I think this should be the basis of the program - we should look for some activities we can do with our families - maybe a fun outing at some point. This too will develop over time. I think we should also structure regular debriefing time in throughout the day so the group can get a chnce to check on how everyone is doing.

3. Work in the schools - this is something we should try to do - I know this is difficult due to the language barrier, but I think it is important that we spend time in the schools - I hope there are some workshops we can do that will be of use to teachers and students.

4. Dialogue with teachers - this is essential. We will learn a great deal if we have a chance to dialogue, learn and plan with local teachers. These sessions have been very helpful in the past.

5. A common workshop - I think it would be really interesting to develop a workshop that both Canadian and Salvadoran teachers could take part in. This is not an essentail part of the program, but I think we should work towards this.

6. Work with TWB - I hope we can do something in this area. This is a very interesting group and I think it would very useful to work with them during the trip and throughout the school year.

These are just ideas, but I am hoping these ideas will help to develop a structure for the program. I would be very interested to hear what you think about all this.

The interesting work begins

For the past six months, we have been working on promotion. All this in an effort to get a group of teachers to come with us this summer. We are now working on program development. This is the really creative phase!

Basically, the schedule looks like this:

day 1-5 - arrival in El Salvador, orientation and visiting sites of importance in San Salvador.



day 5 - 11 - Stay in Chalatenango, working with CCR and teacher co-op



Day 11 - 14 - Beach Day and return to San Salvador for further travel or return home.



What I am really interested in right now is day 5-11. This part of the program is largely undefined - which is great! Teachers Without Borders and CRIPDES (Nelson) are working on ideas for this section - but I really want your ideas. What would be good for this week - participants, what would you like to do and explore? Former participants - based on your experience, what do you think we should be doing?

Here are some of my ideas



1. A workshop on popular education methods hosted by Equipo Maiz - a day-long experience where Canadian and Salvadoran teachers can learn and share together.










2. Exploration of the issue of mining - Canadian mining companies really want to open this area up to mining - lets explore community attitudes on this issue







3. Extended history lesson on San Jose Las Flores - this is a really interesting community that was deserted during the war and resettled while the conflict still raged - this history has created a vibrant community.

That's a start

What are your ideas??

Partner profile - Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango-CCR

Street mural in San Jose las Flores

A new feature of the program, this year Compadres will be working with the Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango-CCR. Our contact with the CCR is Nelson Orellana, the Popular Education Director for the organization. We met Nelson on our last trip to El Salvador. He is a principal in one of the schools in San Jose Las Flores and is involved in a variety of community initiatives in the Chalatenango region. Here is an excerpt from my journal entry written after our first visit to Nelson's community:

San Jose Las Flores has a thriving school community headed by Nelson, a true education innovator. Their first schools were built from the rubble of crumbling buildings. Nelson started teaching with a third grade education. His students used charcoal to write on rocks. By the end of the war, a group of teachers were able to upgrade their education and become certified. Now there is a branch of UCA, the Jesuit University in San Jose Las Flores. Over 300 students have signed up to take courses at this satellite school. Teachers now receive training in the community. This community has had a long-lasting connection with the Sisters of Ascension in Spain and from the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts through the Sister Cities Program. Linkages with groups outside the country work very well to assist the Salvadoran people to develop strong, vital communities. This is part of the social and economic rebuilding that needs to take place throughout the country. While communities like San Jose Las Flores receive a good deal of help from international donors, there is no question that the local people are the ones in control.

Nelson will be arranging part of our schedule for this year. This is very exciting - all this will be new and will finally allow us to work closely with educators in El Salvador. We will be hearing some of the specifics of what this part of the program will look like in January. I plan to blog this information as it comes out. The material that is being prepared will be uniquely fashioned to the work we want to do in the Compadres project.

Here is a little information on the CCR:

The Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango-CCR was founded in June of 1987 during the armed conflict in El Salvador, as an answer to the need to repopulate the communities of the North-eastern part of Chalatenango that had been destroyed by the armed conflict. Thanks to the work of the CCR the people who were exiled in the refugee camp in Mesa Grande Honduras, refugee camps inside the country and in other countries were able to repopulate the communities devastated by the war. With the signing of the Peace Accords in 1992, the CCR reoriented its work to organize and facilitate the reconstruction of the communities, and advocate that the Peace Accords be met and the process of democratization of the country move forward. Today the CCR works with 100 communities in 22 of the 33 municipalities of Chalatenango, promoting community organization and development through popularly elected community boards, legal representatives of their communities.

I believe that there is great potential here for collaboration. In my next entry, I will write about Teachers Without Borders - another new partner for Compadres.