Post by Tim Hollins – (Final fifth post in a series)

You can read all the posts in this series here: 1
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5

Tim Hollins is a long standing supporter of GSN and has been active in promoting solidarity in the UK with Central America. In the following series of articles, Tim gives an account of 15 years of grass roots solidarity with the former refugee community of Nueva Esperanza, El Salvador. It is not intended as a “model” for others to follow, but merely as a record of some of the successes and difficulties that have been encountered in this period, and some reflections on what makes solidarity effective and some of the traps that lie in wait…

 

Ethical/ Eco trip to Nueva Esperanza (“New Hope”) El Salvador

So how did this idea come about? Whose idea was it? Read on…

We (Mogs/Maureen and Tim) were sitting on the veranda of the Community Centre in Nueva Esperanza, sipping a cool beer (there’s electricity now) and chatting with Tonio, Ismael, Mina and Soledad, of the “junta directiva” – executive council – of the community. It was a stiflingly hot evening (35 degrees, sweat dripping off our noses as usual), and the chat wound round and round, up and down, back and forth, while the song “No basta rezar” (“It’s not enough to pray”) drifted over from the youth band rehearsing next door.

The chat went from Ismael and Mina meeting as young fighters in the FMLN guerrilla army during the war, Tonio’s brother who struggles to survive elsewhere in El Salvador as a member of a coffee growing co-operative, the outlook for this year’s cashew and maize harvest, to the different ways in which Solidarity from outside had supported the founding, construction and ongoing sustainable development of this community of ex refugee and ex combatant families, as well as providing emergency aid during the floods of Hurricane Mitch and the destruction of the series of earthquakes in 2001.

One idea stuck out – “we don’t want to be receiving aid and gifts all the time. We want to be self sufficient, to earn our living as families and as a community. We need to develop more real projects that provide real income, real jobs.” Just as the Cubans have done, we discussed the merits and pitfalls of visitors / tourists from developed countries coming to visit, paying their way and more so, the surplus (profit) providing funds for health, education, cultural and other projects. But we have all heard horror stories of “eco-tourism” that is little more than a rebranding exercise for exploitation, which ends up harming or destroying the environment and culture it has come to enjoy.

The conversation took wing, dipping and soaring, as our totally different life experiences, needs and ideas criss crossed over and under each other. We all knew that this was to dance with the devil – to try to create funding through more visitors. To invite a wider circle of visitors to experience the extraordinary warmth, the inspiration of seeing at first hand community development in the hands of campesinos/as who despite a continual minefield of problems, both internal and external, have managed to find their way forward over the last 13 years. Maintaining their vision of a community where social justice and development go hand in hand.

We were told of journalists from the US – good people so they thought – handing out dollar bills to children, laughing as they scrambled in the dust. Of a couple of fat gringos banging on Soledad’s door late at night, asking where they could get a bottle of rum and where the brothel was…

We had seen at first hand a solidarity delegation (from Spain as it happens) treating their generous hosts practically as servants rather than as equals, exploiting the welcome extended to all. And the bus load of Europeans coming in for the night, then leaving a couple of hours later, telling Ismael “We can’t possibly stay here, look at the conditions, look at the poverty – we’re going back to the hotel in the city.”

All this had already happened.  It made us aware of how difficult a step this kind of venture could be. Yet the experience is superb – overwhelming almost – and we still wanted more people to come and have this inspiration for themselves. And so did they! We decided to put together a joint proposal for the directiva. To cut a long story short, the first “pilot “ group went ahead in 2003 – a  great success!

We took four visitors – all first timers to Central America – each of which found their own points of interest, their own most memorable moments – from horse riding through the jungle, to a boat trip down the river to the Pacific coast. Or sitting in a hammock with a cold fruit juice while Raul and his friend Raul (!) sang songs old and new and played their battered guitars. Or was it the series of meetings, some to explain to us how different aspects of the community its school, its farming, etc. worked, others which just happened to be programmed, and which we were able to sit in on, and see real “participatory democracy” at work. Then again perhaps it was the chance to sit and chat (through us as translators)  in people’s homes, and get up very close and make real contact with local society – in fact to be a part of it for a couple of weeks.

On a purely practical note, the community housed, fed and watered the 6 of us for two weeks, and took us out in vehicles for 6 or 7 different trips out during our stay. And they made a healthy profit on the trip, which was able to be invested in some teaching materials for the school, new software for administration, and the construction of a new building to house a kitchen and eating area for visitors.

So that’s how it came about – a real partnership, a joint idea, a practical solution to a never ending problem – how to fund community development when there is no funding to apply for…

Above all it’s a trip in the spirit of solidarity and equality – not “helping poor people” but bringing what we can (funding and human solidarity) to the tasks that face them in this massively unequal world. They find the ways to do things, we can support them as they work (and work hard) to become sustainable.

If you decide to come on a trip (and we hope you will want to!) you will be playing a small but important part in the development of a small but important community in a small but important developing country. It is one way to help even out in a tiny way some of the inequalities of the world we live in.

Oh, and you’ll have an absolutely amazing experience!

You can read all the posts in this series here: 1
2
3
4
5

If you're interested in visiting and supporting the community of Nueva Esperanza: “El Salvador for Beginners” Ethical/Eco Visit (2 weeks) Easter 2007

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