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No one sleeps, or can hear a radio or TV when there is drilling 24 hours a day sometimes only 20 meters from your house. That is what happened in Hacienda Vieja, the small, poor community in rural El Salvador where IP delegations have lived and worked over the last 5 years. Read More...

Community Updates

• All communities – Leaders launch monthly planning meetings. Read More...
• Scholarships and loans – Elba, Noel, and Lolo are outstanding students. Read More...
• El Sitio Zapotal – Guazapa trails provide jobs for guides with tourists and overnight camping. Read More...
• Hacienda Vieja - Community completes tank and pipes, negotiates for water, starts gardens but ….needs help to find new support for preschool. Read More...
• Alegria – Completes Casa Comunal. Read More...
• Zacomil Dos – Mayor helps, but still needs roof. Read More...
• Mazatepeque -- ADESCO builds an adobe church and gets a new road from the mayor’s office. Read More...
• Corozal -- Community receives IP furniture donation and holds 15th Anniversary celebration, raising funds for improvements at the multi-use center. Read More...

IP News

• Summer delegations: June 26 – July 13 – Apply NOW! Go to www.internationalpartners.org for on-line applications.
• Paula Beckman and Don Montagna to lead 2008 delegation
• New office – new staff
• IP joins Combined Federal Campaign.
• More details...

What It’s Like to Be Mined: Mine Exploration Invades Hacienda Vieja

No one sleeps, or can hear a radio or TV when there is drilling 24 hours a day sometimes only 20 meters from your house. That is what happened in Hacienda Vieja, the small, poor community in rural El Salvador where IP delegations have lived and worked over the last 5 years. Pacific Rim Mining Company spent several weeks drilling dozens of exploration holes before they moved to another community. They left behind large puddles of the chemicals they use for drilling. Next to one chemical puddle neighbors found 5 dead armadillos.

The drilling also used great quantities of the community’s scarce water. At first, they took the water from the river, and then added chemicals for drilling before returning it to the river. People protested to protect their water, so the company ran a pipe about 1 km from land that they bought. While people in Hacienda Vieja must walk for water because they do not have pipes to their houses, Pacific Rim ran many pipes across fields to wherever they drilled. In contrast, the community has been negotiating to get permission to bury pipes across private land and drill a well for community drinking water for 18 months.

A neighbor reports, “Their pipes and vehicles go wherever they want no matter how many trees they cut, how much damage they do to the land, or what chemicals they leave in the water.” Community members were powerless to stop the damage done by these giant machines, and they worry about their land, water, safety, and future. How will these toxic chemicals hurt them? Will they leave them enough water to drink? Company workers told neighbors they originally found water 60-80 meters down, but the water level is lower each time they drill. The mines also created community conflict because some neighbors, desperate for income, were pleased to get a few days work helping the drillers, while others opposed the drilling. Some wear t-shirts saying: “You can live without gold, but not without water.”

Last May, El Salvador's eleven Catholic bishops signed a joint pastoral letter warning against the dangers of commercial mining: “Human life is being put in danger. Even if economic benefits could be obtained, mining for precious metals should not be permitted in El Salvador. No material advantage can compare to the value of human life." The government has so far stated that it will not permit the mining without further studies. However, the mining company publicly expresses confidence that they will eventually get approval for mining in El Salvador.

Community Updates

Community Leaders Organize

IP has launched a new program, CODECO, “Construyendo Desarrollo Comunal” (Constructing Community Development), to provide monthly support for leaders in our partner communities. In December, Elba Rodriguez and Noel Iraheta, our talented IP representatives in El Salvador, scholarship students, and beloved Hacienda Vieja leaders, held the first meeting to bring together the leaders of our partner communities to do planning and joint problem solving, share resources and provide personal support and training for leaders and share progress.

Noel and Elba started visiting each of our 2007 partner-communities to explain the new program, invite participation, and identify community-chosen leaders. Once established, we plan to open participation to communities where we have worked in previous years. In addition, CODECO will orient and train new partner-communities to prepare proposals and host delegations.

The kick-off was in Suchitoto in December, but monthly meetings will rotate among the communities. The leaders in Hacienda Vieja are Lolo and Beatrice; in El Sito Zapotal, Oscar and Josefina; in Zacomil Dos, Merlin and Pedro, and in Alegria, Walter, Sara and, of course, Sarita.

El Sitio Zapotal: Eco-Tourism Launched

Our eco-tourism project in El Sitio Zapotal is already paying off! The project is getting tourists regularly – who love the hike and the view and has started bringing income to the youth guides. The biggest excursion yet happened on Thursday, January 10 – when a large overnight expedition of 35 people and six guides started in Palo Grande, spent the night on Guazapa and ended the next day in El Sitio Zapotal. Overnighters paid $32 each for the expedition – which included music at the top of the mountain and food. On Saturdays, the econ-tourism office has become the site of a pupusa-making enterprise.

Meanwhile, the work to improve the site continues…. three teams of 6 teens plus Wilman, the mason, take weekly work trips up the mountain. The kitchen on the mountain of the ecotourism project is done, and they are finishing six bathrooms along the trail and making wooden trail markers that a local artist is helping them paint. They put gravel around the eco-tourism office to prevent erosion and puddles. Their next goal is a new look-out station at a recently discovered, former guerrilla camp. Ideas for future expansion of the eco-tourism office include making a mini children’s library, making a crafts center for kids, and a museum to educate tourists about the mountain’s wildlife and history.

In addition – word is that it is now difficult to find a piece of trash on the trail… trash collection is now an important part of the program. Each Saturday at 8 am, using a megaphone the Oscar and the kids walk around El Sitio calling for and collecting trash. The effort is supported by mayor of Suchitoto -- who has agreed to send a trash collection truck 4 times a year.

The community received funds from last year’s IP delegates for uniforms for their three soccer teams – men’s, women’s and children’s. They are grateful to all who contributed.

Hacienda Vieja – New Challenges

Water Project: The new water tank is completed and the several kilometers of piping have been set in place so that water can reach families who do not have running water. However, before the water actually flows -- the community still must resolve several complicated political/legal negotiations. Will the neighboring community withdraw their (unfair) objections to more houses getting water? Will they get the promised legal right away for pipes and tank? Will they need to drill a new well? Will they find water if they do? Fortunately all these questions should be resolved by late January when the community hopes to meet with the mayor and the neighboring community to work out a solution. Stay tuned.

Preschool: There was a special trip at the end of their school year, Elba and Noel, teachers, Claudia and Yesinia, and many parents took almost 50 children to the zoo and the children’s museum in San Salvador, “Tin Marin”. Hannah Flamm and neighbors now living in the USA helped children raised the fees. The children loved the adventure and felt proud for having raised part of the money for the trip.

Preschool Needs Help: The NGO that has been paying teachers for many years notified HV that they will no longer fund their school. Anyone who has visited this charming, thriving preschool knows what a treasure this school is and what a loss it would be to the children if it closes. The community immediately created a plan, but they need outside help. Parents are being asked to contribute to feed the children lunch, and neighbors who now live in the USA are being asked to make a monthly donation to pay the teachers. The teachers each earn only $75 per month so Don and Paula personally donated funds to keep the school going until February 15. IP would like to offer a matching grant to encourage donations from HV neighbors living in the USA. This means raising $75 per month or $900 a year. If you are interested in helping us raise funds to support the preschool, please contact Paula Beckman (director@internationalpartners.org).

Don Mariano and family have taken the lead in experimenting with family gardens. A glance across the road from the CEDI is the first clue… where thriving tomato plants are staked to wires, producing dozens of tomatoes and attracting the interest of others in the community. Last week, the Yale delegation helped the children in the CEDI start their own plants which we hope will produce chilies and tomatoes that for the benefit of the school.

HV hosts Yale Delegation: In January, IP leader, Emma Vawter organized and led a small delegation from Yale to build a roof over the children’s eating area, add a bodega and to work with children in the preschool. They started plants that will be grown in the CEDI to help provide lunches there. The delegation received a typical HV greeting – with throngs of children escorting them everywhere they went and the women filling them with pupusas, enchiladas, and fruit.

Alegria: Casa Comunal is done!! The new community building is used for meetings, dances, fundraisers, church meetings, and children’s activities. They are seeking a clinician to visit once a month.

Uniforms, provided by IP delegates, outfitted nearly 40 kids who play soccer in Alegría and against neighboring communities. In September, they planted grass on the soccer field, ending the IP Mud Bowl made locally famous by the 2007 delegates.

Zacomil Dos: Meetings, Classes, & Water

The new community center in Zacomil Dos—the first community building this village has ever had—is lacking a roof – but otherwise is nearly done. The Suchitoto mayor gave funds to complete doors, windows and an outdoor corridor. The community center will be used for meetings, dances, and classes. High school students and graduates will teach reading and writing to adults. High school students will also mentor primary students who are falling behind.

When the community center is completed, the village plans to work on a water project to pipe water to people houses—something no one has ever had here.

Mazatepeque will benefit from a much improved road that has been provided by the mayor. Any of you who helped push a very stuck truck out of the deep, muddy ruts in the road will appreciate what an improvement a new road will be and how much it will benefit Nuevo Consolacion and Mazatepeque. There is also a new chain link fence around the school in Nuevo Consolacion – which now holds classes to sixth grade. The ADESCO, with help from community members who live in the U.S. has built an adobe church. La Casita is open once a week, but needs new toys and materials and the clinic is in need of medicines. Anyone who would like to help can contact Paula Beckman at director@internationalpartners.org

Corozal - In August, the new ADESCO organized a celebration of the 15th anniversary of the community – with a soccer tournament – where they hosted 20 teams from surrounding communities, a dance and a fiesta. The dance and fiesta were held in the multi-use center and school built by IP. The ADESCO and the youth group sold food, which they used to pay for some improvements to the center – including planting some trees for shade and some other plants.

And… in late July – the preschool finally received the furniture IP collected and sent! They also built a dividing wall for the center so they could have two classrooms and added a pila so the school would have water. This month, the President of the ADESCO has plans to talk to the ministry about providing a teacher for the school.

IP NEWS

• Summer delegation scheduled for June 26 – July 13. Apply now! Contact tripcoordinator@internationalpartners.org
• Orientation Meetings for Summer Delegation scheduled: This February, Paula Beckman and Don Montagna will organize and lead monthly orientation and training meetings.
• International Partners has just been accepted as part of the Combined Federal Campaign as part of the Hispanic United Fund. A big thanks to everyone who helped us get there -- new IP coordinator Gail Lewis, IP supporter, Pat Munoz, and IP’s board president, Don Montagna,
• IP was sad to loose our long time trip coordinator – Peggy Goetz – when she decided to devote more of her time and energy to the Washington Ethical Society. Peggy’s energy, hard work and good will helped make the IP trip program a great success and she is greatly missed by all of us.
• A new face around International Partners is our new coordinator, Gail Lewis. In addition to helping us organize our office and administrative activities, Gail is helping with trip informational meetings, trip organization, fiesta planning and fund-raising. In her first month – Gail was the primary person responsible for getting IP accepted as part of the Combined Federal Campaign.