Every year, MCC Guatemala/El Salvador hosts an activity called Semana de Servicio for youth from both countries. This is an exciting opportunity for local young people to experience a mini-work and learn tour in hopes of promoting: personal reflection, faith and cultural exchange, open spaces for dialogue around issues that are affecting youth in the region, the importance of Christian service and peace building in each individual's community.
This year's event was held in Nebaj in the Quiche department of Guatemala, a region populated by the Ixil people and an area that suffered greatly during the armed conflict here in Guatemala. Some 40 young people from 8 different partner organizations participated in three days of work, reflection, and fun, helping Q'anil paint their new building and providing some other general clean-up services to the organization (i.e. moving buckets and buckets of dirt, something I know many of you are familiar with from your time in Guatemala!)
Part two in our series of blog posts that highlight the interesting and exciting programs that make up MCC Guatemala and El Salvador, all of which work at community development through EDUCATION, RELIEF, and PEACE and JUSTICE initiatives. Stay tuned for more highlights next month!
Community Development through CAPACITY BUILDING
Cooking activity with women's group in Metapan, El Salvador
Working with youth in Metapan, El Salvador
Relief Work through: GENERATION AT RISK PROGRAMS
Partner organization, ANADES, works on issues of gender equality and sexual health in El Salvador
Teaching families in El Salvador how to make jewelry, part of ANADES's program supporting those living with HIV/AIDS
Sexual health and responsibility workshop in Nebaj with partner organization Q'anil Relief Work through EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE In areas such as San Marcos and Panabaj, MCC has supported disaster response through the building of minimal dwellings and through programs that focus on psycho-social recovery after disasters. You can read more about the emergency response in El Salvador in last month's post. Path of mudslide in San Marcos as a result of Hurricane Stan Evacuation route for school in San Marcos
"On Sunday, Nov. 8, a low-pressure cell dumped almost as much rain on central El Salvador as Hurricane Mitch did over four days in 1998.El Salvador was already in its rainy season. The storm went largely unnoticed in the Canadian and U.S. media because it coincided with Hurricane Ida.
Just as Andrea de Jesus Parada, her four children and two grandchildren were preparing to go to sleep, they heard a noise that sounded like a helicopter hovering over the house and then cries for help. Mud and stone began to pour into the windows and doors.As they hurried out of the house, Parada called one of her granddaughters. “‘You hold from my neck,’” Parada told her.“I felt stones and mud hitting my body,” Parada said. The mudslide carried them along for almost a block before Parada could feel the ground beneath her. She was able to walk to safety with her granddaughter, guided by feeling the walls of the houses in the dark. All around them, people were crying in panic and terror, Parada said.
Parada told her story to Irma Solano and Antony Sanchez, MCC representatives to El Salvador in mid-November. They were in Verapaz to evaluate the damage caused by massive flooding and mudslides that killed at least 85 people in Verapaz and more than 140 people in the country."
Taken from
Mudslides wash people, trees and houses away in El Salvador
MCC Guatemala and El Salvador is committed to supporting local partner organizations that work at community development through projects focused on Education, Relief, and Peace and Justice. The Connecting Peoples program is just one of the examples of how these general categories are put into practice "on the ground"; the Connecting Peoples program is considered one of MCC's key peace building initiatives as it works to build bridges of understanding and commitment between different cultures and groups. However, we are doing a lot more than just connecting people down here! In Guatemala and El Salvador, MCC is supporting projects that focus on: education of women, youth, and children, food security and income generation projects, capacity building, HIV/AIDS, sexual health and gender equality, emergency preparedness and disaster response, peace and justice education through arts and recreation, psycho-social recovery, and much more! Over the next couple of months, we will be highlighting the various projects that make up MCC Guatemala/El Salvador to show just how we work at community development - these are just a few:
Communinity development through EDUCATION
Caring for the environment workshop in Nebaj with partner organization Q'anil
Students at Bezaleel school in Altaverapaz work at builiding a basketball court
Teaching children in Panabaj about dental health with partner organization ANADESA
Community Development through FOOD SECURITY AND INCOME GENERATION PROJECTS
Women of Panabaj practice making fruit salad for visitors that partcipate in ANADESA's eco-tourism project
Community cooperatives in San Marcos work at constructing a green house and trout reproduction system as part of the food security program of partner organization Caritas
"Guatemala gave me a completely different outlook on life in American culture and how to avoid getting distracted by what is the 'norm' in our culture. Guatemala changed my values and my beliefs. I no longer wish to buy the latest thing, or see the latest movie. My friends and my family have become much more important to me, and I value them much more. Guatemala, first and foremost, showed me what life should be like, where I should put my concern and my attention. I have become much less involved in the 'Buying, Wanting, Lethargic' life that I used to live and more the "Giving, Acknowledging, Loving"
Enlace 2009
It is always a pleasure to hear from past participants once they have returned home and are back in their reality. The hope is that once back in the context that if familiar to them, participants continue to process the experiences they had here and that they can somehow connect these experiences to their world at home. That is what makes things like this blog and email updates so important; they provide a way for us to reconnect and to remember what we shared here and to challenge us to not forgot. They challenge us to continue working at connecting with people in hopes of making a difference in our world, be that the world in Guatemala or the world in Pennsylvania or Ontario.
Thank you to participants from this year's Enlace group (Keenan) and the MCC Meat Canner group (Tim) for sharing your thoughts with us! Please feel free to keep sending them our way!
"A general observation I would make is the fact that hospitality had a major impact on all of us. The smiles and greetings and welcoming attitudes that we all received were both humbling and exciting. We went as a canner team representing MCC and the thousands of volunteers that give of their time and money to help people both near and far whom we do not know. It is humbling to be received with such appreciative hospitality, knowing that the gifts of the people make a great difference. The excitement comes from leaving our home country, some of us for the first time, some of us having visited other countries before, experiencing another culture and lifestyle, and realizing that the media does not always portray the "real" story. We visited a community located in the mountains seemingly far away, especially in terms of the city lights, transportation system, and what most in the developed world could consider "the middle of nowhere." As we walked the "road" to San Juan Curenas we were escorted by the people who live in the area. They greeted us with a banner welcoming us as friends. We had never met our hosts before, yet, they knew the name Mennonite Central Committee, and the reputation of the people who have served and represented MCC went before us. Even though I perceived our physical bodies to be present in "the middle of nowhere," we really were not. I ask myself, "How can I perceive myself to be in the middle of nowhere if I am welcomed with open arms, invited to a community meeting of introduction, hosted in a home for a meal, and then invited to walk to another home to see where they live?" Granted, we could not speak the language and needed a translator, but there is patience and time for that.
What is our responsibility in the world? When do we find the time to be with our neighbors? When and where to we learn that people who live in other lands or are from different ethnic groups should be humanized instead of de-humanized? This starts within our hearts, our minds, our souls. Our faith-based relationship with our Creator and Savior who desires a relationship with us, is our example to establish relationships with people we don't know. I continue to be encouraged by the relationships and work that MCC carries out.
I hope that the staff and volunteers who work for MCC in the USA and Canada can remember the great importance of relationships with people. To also remember that we serve people in our world, created by God, who do not care about the politics associated with who has the final say on program and how the money is raised or who is in charge of whatever. Once they receive a gift of blessing that meets a need benefitting the core of their physical existence, their smiles ought to melt our hearts as we realize together we can change the world, one Christ-centered and God inspired relationship at a time."
MCC Meat Canners
O God, when I have food,
help me to remember the hungry; When I have work,
help me to remember the jobless;
When I have a home,
help me to remember those who have no home at all;
When I am without pain,
help me to remember those who suffer,
And remembering,
help me to destroy my complacency;
bestir my compassion,
and be concerned enough to help;
By word and deed,
those who cry out for what we take for granted.
Amen.
What is Global Family??? That is what I was wondering myself when I heard that an MCC group wanted to visit Global Family programs in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. What I found out is that Global Family is an exciting program that is helping make education possible for individuals and communities in countries all over the world. What fun I had working with this inter-generational group of 10 for a quick, six days in September. We visited various Global Family sponsored programs in the area of Altaverapaz (featured in the post "What's Happening in Altaverapaz) and I think I can say, that we all learned a lot! Thanks to the new SALTER's, Luke Penner and Paige Reuber, for joining us on the trip!
Taken from the Global Family website
http://www.mcc.org/globalfamily/
"Through Global Family, MCC's education sponsorship program, you help make creative, community-based education available to children and young adults. For more than 70 million children, going to school remains a dream, just out of reach. Their days are filled with working for survival or with domestic chores. Students who achieve education gain confidence and skills that enable them to improve their lives and their communities. As a sponsor, you receive two updates annually, including stories and photos of the program you're supporting. Will you join Global Family in making the dream of education come true?"
Walking down (and up!) to the community of Santo Tomas Xacalta, where we heard the following meaningful testimony to the value of education:
Maria Caal, 35, lives in Santo Tomas Xacalta, a rural Kekchi community located two hours away from Coban, the capital of the Alta Verapaz Department in Guatemala.She has been part of one of the 6 literacy groups that Fundameno is running and that are supported by MCC’s Global Family project.During a recent group visit, Maria shared the following:“Before, we indigenous women used to stay at home the whole day cleaning house, cooking, and taking care of our children.Our world was so small and our voices were soundless.But when we started to study and to learn how to read and write first in Kekchi and then in Spanish, our world became bigger. Now we are taking on other roles and we are aware of the needs of our families and the whole community.We have a say and our perspectives are being heard.We are able to participate in discussions and proposals in order to address the different needs in our families and communities; this is how education is transforming my life."
"intentional time to recognize that the world is not just" "working daily on your perceptions of what you have"
"shaping opinions, ideas, direction"
students at one of the children's centers we visited; each welcomed us with colorful signs and a song
In late August, I had the pleasure of meeting the MCC Meat Canner guys and spending a week traveling with them in El Salvador. We had a whirlind tour that included visiting four different chidren's programs, ANADES, MCC's partner organization, the communities of Torola and San Juan Cureñas, and the monument of the massacre that took place at El Mozote. We met and heard the stories of many individuals, adults and children alike, who have received the canned meat and other forms of MCC relief. It was a great opportunity for the group and myself to learn about the work of MCC in El Salvador and how this work has impacted families and communities.
children eating pupusas made with the canned meat
new friends in La Torola
lunch with community in San Jose Cureñas
greenhouse we helped work on that will benefit health center and community in La Torola
