In recent months, the Connecting Peoples program has been focusing more and more on three major advocacy issues that MCC Guatemala/El Salvador has prioritized as being key parts of the work we do: international mega-projects, migration, and violence. The more one reflects on these issues, the more interconnected they all become. Issues of violence and lack of economic opportunities lead to migration either to larger city centers or the north. These same issues make it easier for international mega-projects to gain footing in rural communities by offering employment and infrastructure opportunities, which often ends in creating more division and conflict in these same communities. The issues are complex and intertwined as fellow MCCer Tobias Roberts eloquently explains in his recent writing "
Dreams of Our Own: Revalidating Traditional Mayan Lifestyles." In spite of the complexities of these issues in the region, MCC and the Connecting Peoples program continue to work at supporting small initiatives that offer youth and others the opportunity to dream differently, and as Tobias says, "add something better to a way of life that is filled with hidden riches." By supporting youth bakeries, community trout cooperatives, eco-tourism initiatives, and many other local projects, we can encourage people to believe that there is a future in their own communities that does not require them to leave or seek violence as an alternative. By supporting peace and justice initiatives in urban centers, we can work at changing the cultural psyche of violence to one that embraces freedom from fear.* By making connections with local people through service and learning experiences, we are creating a large group of witnesses who can be a voice in other lands, advocating for the needs of those they meet here. All of these and more, are ways in which we can all join in the work of creating a more just and sustainable world, one where something different is possible.
*See here to learn more about the issue of urban violence in Latin America and the work of the American Friends Service Committee in at-risk areas of Guatemala City. Or here to learn about the Caravan for Peace that is traveling across the U.S. calling for an end to the violence that is caused by the drug war in Mexico and Central America.
Thank you to Phil Lind for providing the pictures of his visit with the Avila University group in May. Through a course focused on mass violence and genocide, the students learned about the past and present reality of violence that affects Guatemala. They also supported the work of various women and youth projects in Nebaj, the area which Tobias reflects on in the article mentioned above.
Concrete examples of "adding something" to the work of MCC and their partners: teaching youth new recipes to use in their bakery project, working with a group of women to construct small cages to raise their own chickens, participating in a women's workshop focused on gender equality.*
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Learn more about indigenous women taking leadership and working against violence in other parts of Guatemala here
