Conference & Discussion “Canada’s Dirty Gold Rush in Central America”

CONFÉRENCE | PUBLIC LECTURE
Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG-Ottawa) and the Ottawa-Gatineau Coalition Against Gold Mining in El Salvador present | présentent Conference & Discussion
“Canada’s Dirty Gold Rush in Central America”
Wednesday, January 12, 2011, 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. / le mercredi 12 janvier, 19h à 22h
Pavillon Fauteux (FTX), Room 147
57 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa
Guest speaker / Conférencière invitée : Nelly Rivera, Deacon of a United Church of Canada chapter partner and rep of the Centre for Research on Investment and Commerce, El Salvador / Nelly Rivera, diacre d’une chapitre associée de l’Eglise Unie du Canada et représentante du Centre pour la recherche sur l’investissement et le commerce à El Salvador
Public lecture presented in Spanish and English. Translation to French will be available. A short documentary may be presented to facilitate the discussion / Cette conférence est présentée en espagnol. La traduction à l’anglais et au français sera disponible. Un court documentaire pourrait être présenté pour alimenter la discussion.
Expanding mining capital has increased Canadian presence in Central America and also substantive damage to the environment, to human health, and numerous indigenous peoples and human rights violations in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Cerro Blanco is the name of a second large gold mine proposed by Goldcorp Inc in Guatemala near the Salvadoran border that the organized resistance of affected communities in both nations is determined to stop to prevent further damage to the environment and to indigenous/human rights and health. How is the struggle between Canada’s new dirty gold rush and Guatemalan and Salvadoran communities evolving?
This public lecture is free and open to the public. It is not required to register. For further details, please contact OPIRG opirgrc@gmail.com.

Partner Profile - Teachers Without Borders

Teachers Without Borders is a new adventure for us. This summer, we are hoping that we will be working with Teachers Without Borders while we are in Chalatenango google satellite maps">Chalatenango

This year our approach will be different. We have spent two years visiting communities and talking to lots of people. During these visits, we have learned a great deal and more importantly, our hosts have learned lots about us. We are now at the stage where we can focus on a community that we have visited and a group that is interested in developing sustainable links with us.

I have written about Nelson and the community support organization CCR. I want to write a little bit about TWB. I consider TWB another partner, one that can bring great value to our work. We have worked with TWB staff and have decided together that we will be developing a program that combines some of the most dynamic elements of TWB programs.

We are very interested in the teacher training tools that TWB can offer. From past conversations, teachers in El Salvador have told us that what they really want is more training. It will be great to see a program develop that will allow Canadians and Salvadorans participate in professional training and dialogue. It is still early days, but we are really looking forward to see what ideas TWB will come up with!

Information meeting coming up

Next week - January 11, we will be meeting with teachers who are interested in taking part in the July 2011 trip.

I have made a new powerpoint presentation for this meeting - you can view the presentation at the following address:

https://www.yousendit.com/download/RlRwZFhzNDJrUmxFQlE9PQ

We are meeting at a local school - here is the information:

COMPADRES
Collective of Ontario teachers moving
for Peace, Action,
Development andRelationships in El Salvador

COME with us ON
The 2011 trip to el Salvador

To experience the beauty of The land and people

And the power of education and building links

between Ontario Teachers and communities in El Salvador

Information Meeting - January 11, 5:00PM

Vincent Massey School

745 Smyth Road, Ottawa, ON K1G 1N9

For more information:


www.compadres-elsalvador-canada.ca
613-218-9615
paul.mcguire@ottawacatholicschools.ca

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.

Partner profile - CRIPDES

Greetings and Merry Christmas to everyone. We are just months away from the next trip to El Salvador. I think it is time to start blogging again in preparation for the next trip.

While I have been sending out Facebook messages on a regular basis, it is time to start writing something more specific to the trip.

Today, some information on CRIPDES, our hosts in El Salvador. This is an excerpt from my 2005 journal entry on our Development and Peace trip:


Our first full day was spent with two organizations, CRIPDES and CORDES. CRIPDES is our sponsoring organization. They had hired Roberto as our interpreter for the trip and we met him at the CRIPDES offices. Roberto and Miguel became our good friends and our best sources of information. Much of what we know about the lives of Salvadorans came from their stories.

We were introduced to Marta Lorena Araujo, President of CRIPDES, and Janet of CORDES.


Janet and Lorena at our first meeting at CRIPDES


CRIPDES started July 14, 1984 as an organization to support the people of El Salvador during the war. Originally, they worked with displaced people. CRIDPES works in 300 communities in El Salvador to support these communities in the establishment of basic services like health care, clean drinkable water, basic education and electricity. This reconstruction process began in earnest in 1986 when CRIPDES began to assist rural communities to relocate from refugee bases in Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

The repatriation process is one of the early achievements of CRIPDES. In this they worked without government assistance. Support did come from the international community for the building of homes, roads, water infrastructure, education and health care. This rebuilding process continues to this day.

While the Peace Accords were signed in 1992, the struggle continues. The people of El Salvador continue to struggle for basic human rights, access to clean drinking water and good quality education. In the rural communities the provision of good quality health care continues to be a very real concern. Families struggle to make ends meet. The minimum wage provides a worker a salary of $154.00 (US) per month. CRIPDES and other social organizations estimate that the cost of living is closer to $625.00 a month. Prices continue to rise for basic services like water and transportation; wages are not keeping up with these increases. It is becoming increasingly difficult for families to survive.



our first meeting with CRIPDES in 2005, the start of a great friendship.

Here is a description of CRIPDES from the US - El Salvador Sister Cities web site

CRIPDES, our Sister Organization in El Salvador
Sister Cities is proud to work directly with the Association for the Development of El Salvador (CRIPDES) the largest rural organization in the country and a leader in the Salvadoran social movement.
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. CRIPDES organized and accompanied re-populations, strengthened local organizations so that people could stay in their communities, and called for a negotiated solution to the war.

After the Peace Accords were signed in 1992, CRIPDES became the Association of Rural Communities for the Development of El Salvador. Its current mission is to strengthen and develop organizing in rural communities as they struggle for an economically, politically, and socially just society. Day-to-day, CRIPDES supports community organizing of the rural population, popular education and mobilization for political advocacy.

Today, CRIPDES is made up of 300 rural communities organized through seven regional organizations. National and regional leaders are elected democratically from among community members. All the sister communities of Sister Cites are organized through CRIPDES.

We are again working with CRIPDES to prepare for this year's trip. I have been in regular correspondence with Miguel



Miguel - our main contact in El Salvador - I work with Miguel to set the schedule for the trip.

Miguel has seen our project develop over the past three years, he is very well situated to respond to the developing nature of the Compadres program. He works closely with the communities we will be visiting.

Next entry - Nelson and San Jose Las Flores

Compadres 2011 - Join Us!

The next trip to El Salvador is being planned. We have a group committed to taking part in this year's experience, but we would like to include more people.

Do you need to be a teacher to go on this trip? No, we are all about developing community, so we will not exclude anyone who wants to be part of this experience.

Who will we be working with in El Salvador? We have several great partners - starting with CRIPDES,the largest rural organization in the country and a leader in the Salvadoran social movement. Its current mission is to strengthen and develop organizing in rural communities as they struggle for an economically, politically, and socially just society.

We will also be working with Teachers Without Borders on a specially designed program that incorporates elements of their Certificate of Teaching Mastery program with the Millennium Development Ambassador program. A draft of this new program will be available this January.

Who else will you be working with?

Will we be working with any local organizations? Yes, we will be working with Nelson Orellana, the Secretary of Popular Education, for The Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango-CCR. Nelson is also principal of one of the schools in San Jose Las Flores and will be designing much of our program for this year. The 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.

What are some of the elements of the program?

Apart from the work we will be doing in Chalatenango, we will be doing the following:

Visits to historic sites in Sal Salvador - Visit to Divine Providence church were Monseñor Romero was killed; Monseñor Romero's House; the memorial to civilian victims of the military repression and the war at Parque Cuscatlan; UCA (Jesuit University). museun.

Visit to the beach - El Salvador is quickly becoming a great tourist destination. We will spend one day at the beach on the Costa del Sol area.

We will also visit the offices of CRIPDES Equipo Maiz and other organizations involved in social justice and popular education work.

How much will the trip cost? Costs are approximately $2100.00 including transportation, accommodation, translation and group facilitation. Participants are responsible for their own lunch and dinner.

If I am interested, what do I do? Please send an e-mail to Paul McGuire at mcswa1@gmail.com
The first deposit of $500.00 is due at the end of January. We will hold one final information meeting in mid-January for those who are interested in the program.

When are we going? We are planning on a 14-day trip starting on July 3rd.

If you would like more information before we meet please e-mail me or call at 613-218-9615.

Compadres Schedule for 2011 - update

Nelson at his school in San Jose Las Flores



I would like to welcome people from the public board who have expressed interest in the Compadres program. I am in the process of working on the schedule for this summer. I have attached a copy here. You will see that this is an early draft - there is much that still needs to be firmed up.

You will see that the focus of the program is on Chalatenango Province and the community of San Jose Las Flores. We will be working with teachers groups and focusing on popular education.

A few things to notice in this early version of the schedule:

1) Equipo Maiz is a very well known and respected group that works on popular education methods - we will be spending time with them to learn something of their methods before we leave for Chalatenango.

2) Nelson, mentioned in the schedule is a young education leader in San Jose Las Flores. He is beginning to play a prominent role in popular education initiatives in Chalatenango. His school is linked to Holy Trinity High School in the Ottawa Catholic Board.

3) We are now working with Teachers Without Borders - we plan to use some of their programs with teachers and popular educators in Chalatenango. Please see http://www.teacherswithoutborders.org/ for more information. Their Millennium Ambassadors Program is particularly interesting.

4) We continue to look for ways to provide additional qualification credit for the Compadres experience for teachers who take part in the program. There will be more information on these initiatives in the near future.

5) We are now exploring ways to get the word out to teachers in the public board. It is obvious to me that I will need to hold an information session for public board teachers in January. I will provide more details on this meeting once I have heard from more teachers.

6) Finally, we are a small group right now - please talk to your friends and colleagues about Compadres. The ideal group size is eight people. We currently are at three people (confirmed). I am very confident the group will increase in size, but I could use some help promoting this experience.

Thanks

Paul

DELEGATION OF Ontario Teachers - COMPADRES 3 – 16 July 2011. (with focus on Chalatenango CCR)

Sunday, July 3
Pick up at the airport transport to La Amistad guest house Hostel: Avenida Izalco No. 218, Colonia Centro America, San Salvador (503) 2226- 0437
Flight Arrival:

Day Two: Monday, July 4
Orientation Meeting with Miguel
Meeting with Equipo MAIZ. Equipo Maíz : Carlos Garcia. T-shirts and posters and music available at their store.
CRIPDES. Meeting with CRIPDES
Meeting with CORDES ?
Lunch at any place.

Day Three: Tuesday, July 5
Visits to the historical places in San Salvador : Visit to Divine Providence church were Monseñor Romero killed,Visit to Monseñor Romero litle House,Visit The memorial to civilian victims of the military repression and the war at Parque Cuscatlan, Visit to UCA museun.
3:30 PM Return

Day Four: Wednesday, July 6
8 AM. Drive out to Chalatenango Province to get to San Jose Las Flores community. It is a two and a half hours drive.
9:30 AM. Meeting At CCR in Chalatenango City with Nelson and his education team fron the teachers association.
keep going to San Jose Las Flores: Lunch at the community Restaurant set up by the women of the community.
We will rest a little in the Pastoral Center where we will stay.
3 P.M. Meeting with the community Directorate where they will speak to us about the history of the community and its development and their present struggle against the Canadian mining companies. Visit around the community projects such as: a bakery, seamstresses, etc.
Dinner and time for rest.

Day Five: Tursday, July 7
From here until Wednesday 13, The teachers association will suggests the program or itinerary for each day.

Day Six: Friday, July 8

Day Seven:Saturday, July 9


Day Eight: Sunday, July 10
Breakfast
Mass at the chapel of the community
Visit to the Sumpul River Ecological Project
Visit the local Swimming pool, and the famous Sumpul River, so bring your bathing suits.
Return Pastoral Center

Day Nine: Monday, July 11

Day Ten: Tuesday, July 12

Day Eleven: Wednesday, July 13

Day Twelve: Tursday, July 14
7: 30 AM. Breakfast
8:30 AM. Leave for San Salvador and we will stop at Chalatenango City for some handicrafts sold by local artisans organized by CORDES.
Return to Casa La Amistad

Day Thirteen: Friday, July 15
8 AM. Drive to the Costa del Sol – beach

Saturday, July 16
Airport
Participants depart for Canada