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NEWSLETTER

MARCH 2010

A PEOPLE WITHOUT

ORGANIZATION IS A PEOPLEDROWNED IN POVERTYUN PUEBLO SIN ORGANIZACION ES UN PUEBLO HUNDIDO EN LA POBREZA

DON RAMON, COMMUNITY LEADER OF EL SAUCE, SANTIAGO TEXACUANGOS, EL SALVADOR.

Visit us atwww.friendsofsantamaria.blogspot.com or contact at [email protected]

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Friends of SantiagoTexacuangos

Linda and ClarenceHirsch

Valerie Gies

Seton Institute

CARECEN SF

Hariharan Dhandapani

Leslie Gray

The Coffee Emporium atXavier University,Cinncinati

Ruthelen Burns

Brebeuf JesuitPreparatory School

Notre Dame UniversitySOA Group

Toby Capion

Froehle Family

Share Foundation

Mrs. Laura Halls SixthGrade Homeroom andK-8 Students of St.Peters Catholic Schoolin Kansas City, Missouri

Catherine Ford

Xavier CollegePreparatory School,California

Janine Sheppard

Cathy Plump

The Caponi Family

The Knapp Family

The Ravizza Family

Margaret Waters

Myles Minton

Ashton Easterday

Denise Kolenz

The Altemeyer Family

Brebeuf Jesuit Teachers

The Angulo Family

Alexis Mielke

Katherine Gerlich

Richard Belcher

Victoria Shelton

Kimberly Coppin

Katherine Gerlich

Richard Belcher

MEET OUR COMMUNITIES

JOYA GRANDE

350 houses and nearly 1,000 inhabitants

Most destroyed community during Ida

(6 families still living in a shelter)

Right on Lake Ilopango

Fisherman, Farmers, Factory Workers

Only Community with a Health Clinic

Completely isolated during the rainy season

EL SAUCE

110 houses, and about 420 inhabitants

Carpenters, Factory Workers, and Farmers

Almost entirely temporary-turned

permanent war refugees

Community House built entirely

from community fundraising

Water system built and maintained by

community (but destroyed in storm).

LA CUCHILLA

Here we combined communities Los Pozos,Shansapo, Sector Escuela, and Ojos de Agua

to total nearly 200 houses.

Delicious oranges, pacaya,

and coffee due to its high altitude

No coffee harvest this year due to Ida

Local government throws trash near local water

source causing serious health issues

Land Tenure issues cuts many off from access

to water and electricity.

*communities where chosen using a methodology of

community diagnostic and social intervention

developed by Alma Herrera and Dany Portillo.

Choices were made based on factors including:

appropriate # inhabitants, strategic/central

geographic location for project replication, degree of

damage and reconstruction needs, willingness and

interest in participation, and vulnerability to future

disasters. We thoroughly interviewed community

leaders and verified damages in 8 communities.

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Victoria Shelton

Kimberly Coppin

Brian Belcher

The Belcher Family

Emma CordesKatie Power

Dave Graf/ Power ofTouch

N. Karen Deming

Patrick Schweiger

Grace Nixon

Mary Lynch

Chris and Dale Collins

Bill Easterday Family

Jim ForestLisa Enright

Jenna Knapp

Emory Lynch

Katy Erker

Francesca McKenzie

Tay House ChristianCommunity NewOrleans

Sam Baker

Sadie Beauregard

Adrian Sandstrom

Frances Loberg

Ashton Easterday

Cheryl Dieterly

Mr. and Mrs. King

Beth Tellman

Olga Kudinova

Nana and Papa Tellman

Castleton FamilyDentistry

Kennedy Family

Amy Fisher

charlotte karney

john hawn

laura redelman

au soleil healing inc.

jason parry

mandy liebscher pearson

kyle ozawa

MEET OUR TEAM

Mauricio Vladimir Jimenez Lemus Vlady

You may never know that when this hotshot whips around the corner on his fire striped

motorcycle that he is actually an expert in bean plagues. Vladimir is the director of oursustainable agricultural programs. Experience working with organic family gardens with

Caritas, mixed with the fact that he is LOCAL (Vladimir is from community El Sauce,Santiago Texacuangos), makes him an ideal candidate to reinvent the local food movement inSantiago. His diverse groups of farmers cultivate everything from coffee, to tomatoes, to fish,

to cows. He hopes to rebuild local agricultural systems in a way that hedges future

environmental risk- that is ORGANICALLY. Sustainable agriculture protects the hillside

from eroding, reducing malnutrition and preventing future landslides simultaneously.

Dany Nosberto Portillo Flores Chucky

Dany is a co-founder of CRISOL (Solidarity Response Group for

Crisis Intervention), an interdisciplinary group of volunteer psychologists, social workers, and drama therapists. We me

Dany with CRISOL volunteering in the community Santa Maria.He became as fascinated with our projects as we did with his, andwe began to dream together. With an academic background in

anthropology and semiotics (symbolism) and an experiential

background in drama therapy, youth development, anartesenias, Danys ability to run a dynamic workshop with

anyone using everything from trash to leaves is not surprising.He is director of the social-cultural animation project and hismethodology of results and replication from his experience

working with failed NGOs after the 2001 earthquake keeps us

grounded in reality.

Maria Mercedes Eugenia Monge Mamita

This strong woman continues to be our greatest source of

inspiration, and strongest link to the communities we work in(since she has lived in Santiago Texacuangos since the Civil

War in the 80s).

Her on the ground experience as a community organizer

since she was 13 years old living in Chalatenango has been

developed by notable names such as Maura Clarke, Ita Ford,

and Oscar Romero, her personal friends.When not organizing communities with our project,

Mercedes organizes woman with NGO Mujeres

Transformando via organic home gardens, organizing withecclesial base community churches in La Paz, and finishing her bachelors in social work at the

Lutheran University in San Salvador. Mercedes is Director of the Community Organizingprogram. Everybody in Santiago knows Mercedes Monge (and likes her a whole lot), giving

us instant-access nearly everywhere and collaboration in unlikely places.

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Mike and Annie Martin

Bob and Karen Dietrick

Emily Pollom

the Pollom Family

Inner Peace YogaStudents

Linda Hegeman

Wynn McShane

Janie Shumaker

the Sapp Family

the Brumleve Family

Allie Dunne

Pat Flajole

Megan Raimondi

Betsy Purnerskander and tracy nasser

meredith swinehart

shelece easterday

katherine gerlich

martha lehman

nicholas sanchez

anna kolhede

olivia amadon

nick klinger

jesuit communitybrebeuf Jesuit

preparatory school

nicholas sanchez

julie walker

g paul peterson

david decosse

emma jehle

allison stohl

lara brandstetter

kimberly carbaughmallory schwarz

mary wolf

alicia quiros

ronald mead

eddie alexander

maria eduarda cardoso

mandy sobrepena

allison rausch

Rafael Ernesto Flores Rodriguez Rafa

Rafa is the most recent addition to our team,

but no less dedicated. Rafa is Director of ourArt/ Arts Therapy Program; together we

began a painting school in Joya Grande.

He has been teaching painting for 17 years,and perfected his participatory teaching

pedagogy. He won the prestigious PalmaresPrize and is an innovator of the

aerographic technique in Central America,mixing spray paint with traditional acrylics.He also served as a member of the board of

directors for the Department of Culture forthe City of San Salvador, managing projects

and fundraising for the arts. He has learned

fluent English living in over 16 countries, most recently Panama for the past 2 years. Hedesigns WebPages and writes strategic long-term plans for NGOs and Churches. He iscontinuously studying public relations and business administration at Francisco Gavida

University. Rafas experience setting objectives and strategies means we got an artist-

businessman in one go!

Elizabeth Marie Christina Tellman Chibolina

Beth is coordinating Friendsof Santiago Texacuangos,supports the amazing

Salvadoran team, and

coordinates communicationswith donors and partner

organizations. She came to El

Salvador on a FulbrightScholarship,\planning onresearching climate change in

Usulutn when Mercedes

called on a rainy day. Shechanged her Fulbright project

to Community Resilience

and Hurricane Ida: HowMarginalized Salvadorans

Lacking NGO andGovernmental Support Cope

with Climate Shock. She is

planning on turning Amigosof Santiago Texacuangos into a legal NGO over the next 6 months and hopes to stay in

El Salvador over the next 2 years actualizing the dream that communities affected from thelandslides will recover, reconstruct, and begin to prevent future disasters. Beth will presenther initial research in Panama March 14-20, and further advances upon invitation from the

UN University in Germany to present at a conference in July 2010 Summer Academy on

Social Vulnerability: Protecting environmental migrants: creating new policy andinstitutional frameworks. She will come back to the US and get a PhD and all that

responsible stuff someday...

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rachel blanton

Carley Knapp

Jennifer Frontkowski

Paul Knapp

Carrie ClarkMichelle Bezanson

Erin Schlitts

Thomas Counsell

Billy Sladek

kimmanleyort.com

bradley coffman

Bud Frutkin

Jennifer Moyano

Christopher Wahoff

Jaclyn DittrichLeslie Garrison

Brain Bird

Amanda Skinner

Christopher Proctor

Parvaneh Angus

Kira Harvey

Carol Counsell

Allison Ford

Becky Dieschbourg

Michelle Reilly

Mary Ann Wallace

Markus Schaufele

Erin Whinnery

Elizabeth Fatout

Julie King

Marta Petersen

Debbie Sahm

The Mancher Family

Tessa Weston

Natali Rodriguez

Shintaro Doi

John Marrin

Anne Schaufele

Joe and Liz Kulesa

Lauren Trout

The Hupomone Fund

Maggie Hargrave

General Objective: Use educational, technical, and scientific tools that permit community

members to generate a relationship with the natural environment through an integral processthat includes: organic agriculture, risk management/community organization, socio-cultural

animation, and the arts (painting and poetry therapy).

Specific Objectives:

Organize 4 groups of 15-20 (one group for each program) people in 3 chosen communities(Joya Grande, El Sauce, and La Cuchilla) that will multiply knowledge gained through weekly

workshops and trainings.

Work with educational tools to build capacity in community members that will make change

at the municipal level. Groups are sustainable, and that they continue to meet, grow, and apply

for their own funding and projects after our intervention

The Programs

Community Organizing: Mercedes meets weekly with each of her 3 groups with the objectiveof strengthening communities to confront climate change and future disasters. Activitiesrange from community risk mapping, to collective work of building walls and drains to reduce

risk, to discussions of human rights during disasters. Mercedes hopes to build solidarity,

citizen democracy, empowerment, and problem solving. The final product will be a disaster

prevention proposal presented to the Red Cross.

Sustainable Agriculture: Vladimir meets with groups of farmers weekly with distinct projects

in each due to the diverse nature of communities. In Joya Grande, he has been doing participatory crop damage assessment and will focus on soil and water conservation, crop

diversification, and mitigating soil erosion. In El Sauce, he will work animal husbandry anddeveloping fertilizers from animal waste to reuse on damaged soils and crops. In La Cuchilla,Vladimir works with one group of coffee farmers to teach them organic processes, and a

group of youth in vegetable gardening and nutrition.

Social-Cultural Animation: Dany uses theatre, dance, art made out of recycled trash andnatural objects, games, music and just about anything creative you can think of to turn youth

(14-24yrs) from victims of disasters to agents of change. By having too much fun, he formsyouth into social justice activists that identify community risk factors from gender violence, to

gangs, to environmental pollution, to inadequate housing. After three months of formation,youth will be broken into groups of 3, each designing a community project based on observed

needs.

Art/Art Therapy- Rafael works in Joya Grande with youth 12-18 using painting as atherapeutic tool. He hopes to form his painters into artisans (look for stationary in the next 6

months!) and turn this into an economic project. Other volunteers, Jonathan and Fabrizzio willwork with poetry and writing in La Cuchilla and El Sauce to give a creative outlet for youth.Jonathan is also working with art therapy for small children in Joya Grande with our project

partner Amnu-tsipical.

WHAT ARE WE DOING NOW.

Social Intervention Plan for Reconstruction Post Ida Feb-Nov 2009

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Jim Lochhead

The Tellman Family

Michael Tellman

Matt Tellman

Carol CrenshawStafford and Clara Pile

Tessa Brown

Lauren Rossi

The Sullivan Family

Joeseph Heithaus

JL Kato

The Jesuits of theUniversity of CentralAmerica

various anonymous

families...

Norma and Juancho are pretty much the coolest Salvadoran power couple Ive met.

Together they founded the Amnu-tsipical Collective (which means our little homein nahuat), which works with youth-based and creative environmental free-lance

projects. Norma is the identity coordinator for CIPJES (Pro-Youth Coordinating

Body in El Salvador), andworks with youth groupscreated by indigenous

Salvadorans, LGBT youth,deported youth, and MUCH

more. Norma and Juancho,graduates in community

health and biology, weretrained in trauma therapy

crisis intervention andworked as volunteers in a

shelter in Santo Tomas afterHurricane Ida, and dreamt

up their current project oftraining Salvadoran youth

leaders in trauma therapy, a psycho-social intervention

These visionaries made it happen, and weare proud synergize efforts and hope to

work together in the future to rebuild theemotional lives for all suffering from trauma in

Santiago Texacuangos.

We heard from a friend the CIPJES was giving free training to youth in trauma therapy, and Jonathan signed

up for the 2-week process. The project trained 20 young people to work in four communities affected byHurricane Ida, one of which is Joya Grande. Since there are no NGOs working in the area, Norma contacted

us as the only organization working in the area. Ever since, Beth has been coordinating logistics andtransportation with Norma to plan Art Therapy in a Psycho-Social intervention program for 100 children in

Joya Grande ages 6-12. 10 youth (2 of which include Jonathan and Mayra, Mercedes daughter) willundertake the intervention from March 27-May 15. Since community members have built relationships and

trust with Friends of Santiago Texacuangos over the past 4 months, it makes Amnu-tsipicals work smootherby entering the communities as our partner, and it widens the scope of our work to include trauma therapy for

children.

PROJECT PARTNER IN ART THERAPY: AMNU-TSIPICAL

Norma Vaquero and Juancho Paises Normita y Juancho

HOW ARE WE COLLABORATING?

we are proud

synergize efforts

and hope to

work together in

the future

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DAYTON UNIVERSITY working with the community

of Los Cruces to build drainage systems, stairs, andliving fences of bamboo to prevent more soil erosion

in this extremely vulnerable community. All houses aremade out of sheet metal and perched on an eroded

hillside. Thanks to CRISPAZ and Jenna Knapp for that

connection!

BOSTON COLLEGE on a tour of damages in JoyaGrande, led by a member of the community board ofdirectors, Don Patricio. Don Patricio led us around

and told us the story of each fallen house and familymember buried alive. Mercedes and Beth helped

analyze the infrastructure issues of this not-so-natural disaster through Q and A. Thanks to

FUNDAMEHR, Jenna Knapp, and Olivia Amadon.

ALEXIS MIELKE volunteering physical therapy in

Santa Maria while visiting El Salvador. MarvinGutierrez, member of Quino Caso Foundation offers

translation.

CONNIE TELLMAN teaching a yoga class in

Santa Maria to women.

Internat'l Conx'ns

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CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL for children

in Santa Maria. Dance entertainment provided by Karla (Salvadoran

Mexican), Linda (Italian) and Sarah(Salvadoran). Sarah brother, Doctor

Miguel, provided free consultations forelderly with donated medical supplies

from Dr. Wu and other NorthAmericans. Jonathan and Fabrizzio

performed poetry written focommunity (Song for a Dead

Mother featured in December

Newsletter).

THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY

inspecting territory to build houses inSanta Maria and Joya Grande. We hope

for 10 in each! Thanks for Vince Caponifrom St. Vincent DePaul hospital and

Gene Smith from the Seton Institute for

that connection!USAID called me for a tour of Joya Grande thanks to a letter

Dr. William C. Tellman wrote to Indiana Senator Evan Bayh.

Jenna Knapp arranged a skype interview between her Peacebuilding

class at THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME and Friends of

Santiago Texacuangos about Trauma Therapy in the real world

with Beth and Jonathan, who has been trained in psycho-social

intervention models for children and is working in Joya Grande.

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WE DO WE WANT TO DO IN THE

FUTURE

We are currently talking about become anofficial NGO under the name of

Foundation CEIBA. In spanish, CEIBAmeans Construyendo Espacios Integrales

para el Bienestar Ambiental, which meansconstructing integrated spaces for

environmental well being. A ceiba is a treetypical of Santiago Texacuangos. In fact, the

team meets weekly underneath a ceiba treeand to continue to make sure our programs

are integrating themes, organize delegations,talk about the state of the communities,

climate change in El Salvador, and more.

Vision: Be a foundation that promotessustainable community organization that

manages the natural resources, well being,and social development of Santiago

Texacuangos

Mission: Gives community members the

tools to organize themselves in order togenerate: environmental consciousness,

alternatives sources of income, foodsovereignty, risk management, mental

health, and gender equality.

Legalization: We think the process will takeanother 6 months to become a legal non-for-

profit. Perhaps then you can finally write off

donations on taxes!

Financial Overview

FINANCIAL REPORT AS OF 3.5.10

TOTAL REVENUE (donations) 27,944.51

EXPENSES: $8,690.70

Food $4,478.95

Water $415.00

Communication (Calling Cards) $220.00

Housing Repairs $220.00

Gas and Transportation $1,446.24

Clothes/Art Supplies D

Blankets/mosquito nets $362.50

Medicine $301.29

Human Resources $675.00

Workshop/Therapy Supplies $194.38

Copies $25.50

Paypal wire transfer fees $120.00

Computod@s Computer $178.98

Other $52.86

Total Expenses $8,690.70

CASH AVAILABLE $19,253.81

D = donated

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DearFriends of Santiago Texacuangos:

It has been a wild ride. With a shift from emergency relief to long term reconstruction planning

we have been busier than ever! Giving away food and water was perhaps more physically taxing, since

required weeks if sleepless nights and days of never-ending hikes, but we have new challenges.

We quickly learned that no other NGO was going to intervene, and the few we found that woulcharged so much $$ per person that we would really make no impact. We do not want to help just 1

farmers, but accompanying the entire municipality of Santiago Texacuangos was unrealistic. We CAN

make an impact in 3 communities, supporting nearly 2,000 people.

After watching other NGOs fail to respond to community needs, or whose response wa

charitable but stripped agency of the Salvadoran people, we knew we had to create something new an

revolutionary. We also knew we did not have the cash to rebuild infrastructure, like roads, houses, o

schools. We do, however, have the inspiration to EDUCATE and EMPOWER communities to do i

themselves.

Our team continues to inspire each other; we need to keep the fire burning. People lining up fo

food and water is much simpler than trying to teach illiterate adults what their human rights i

disasters are! The fact that some adults could not read or write did not surprise, but the fact that th

MAJORITY ARE ILLITERATE does. We must implement popular education tools, learn by doing

become facilitators of community knowledge, and draw pictures and play games. Our groups grow

every week. I am torn between the fact that we might run our of art supplies because of the problem o

TOO MUCH PARTICIPATION! What a fantastic dilemma! Thank goodness we have people like Dan

who turns trash into education material. We buy cheap paint in bulk and store it in coke bottles. Ou

blackboard and chalk are sometimes newspaper and a red permanent marker. Our office is Mercedes

porch. An NGO with our scope of work should have a budget of $200,000, and we pull it off wit

$20,000. How the (*%&^ do we do this? With the inspiration of the martyrs, a great love for projechumanity, and a heck of a lot of generous friends we call for favors ).

We need more money, but I dont have the heart to ask for it. Please donate to Haiti and Chile t

people and organizations on the ground (email me for suggestions, I have friends both places). Thes

disasters affect us too; World Food Program is cutting off aid due to stretched resources; USAID canno

do anything in Joya Grande cuz its budget must go to Haiti.

HUGE thanks to the Seton Institute for a $6,500 donation that gave us the boost we needed t

hire professionals. It has revolutionized our work. Thanks to Connie Tellman for donating her Yog

Class profits to hire the painter. We would have cut the Art Therapy program without you

encouragement, inspiration, and donation. At the risk of embarrassing my parents, thanks for the ca

upgrade. Having a 99 Isuzu Rodeo rather than a 93 Ford Pick-Up NOT ONLY means that we hav

4x4 to still get to Joya Grande when it starts raining in May, but it means that I no longer get strande

on the side of the road once a week. Thanks to all of you for your support financial and spiritual, an

personal. I believe in El Salvador because you believe in El Salvador.

Paz

Beth Tellman

Coordinator, Friends of Santiago Texacuangos (soon to be Collective CEIBA)

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