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Mission Complete!Joya Grandes 1st Childrens Emergency CommitteePREPARED for the next Disaster

CONSTRUYENDO ESPACIOSCONSTRUYENDO ESPACIOSCONSTRUYENDO ESPACIOSCONSTRUYENDO ESPACIOS

INTEGRALES PARA EL BIENESTARINTEGRALES PARA EL BIENESTARINTEGRALES PARA EL BIENESTARINTEGRALES PARA EL BIENESTAR

Constructing Integrated Spaces forConstructing Integrated Spaces forConstructing Integrated Spaces forConstructing Integrated Spaces for

Environmental WellEnvironmental WellEnvironmental WellEnvironmental Well----BeingBeingBeingBeing

Joya Grande

Lives! one

year later...

DECEMBER 2010DECEMBER 2010DECEMBER 2010DECEMBER 2010

Nov. 7 2010 Santiagueos walkedfrom the pueblo to the community, a

2-hour hike through mountainousforest down to Joya Grande by thelake.

Youth from Joya Grande Beth: showing and selling theirpainting in a youth entreprenuership fair

in Soyapango.

frien

dsofsantamaria.b

lo

gspot.com

www.ceibaelsalvado

r.org

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Disaster Relief becomes Development, Art Therapy

becomes Entrepreneurship

CEIBAs own Dany

Portillo knew he had to

do something. Althoughhis youth project with

CEIBA ended, and his

last paycheck came No-

vember 19th, he had to

keep the momentum go-

ing. He turned the heal-

ing, the self-esteem, and

the newly acquired artis-

tic abilities of the youth

into a business. Dany

embarked on an intense

project to perfect products designed by youth in Joya Grande, minimizing inputs by recyclingeverything.

The results are below- one-dollar wire puzzles, 25-cent flowers, 3-dollar Christmas trees, and 5-dollar

paintings. Dany kept going to Joya Grande after his project finished, and organized the youth to sell in

Christmas fairs across the country. How much did they make? The chips arent all in yet on the profit ra-

tios, but one things for sure- just like disasters are an opportunity for development, therapy is an opportu-

nity for entrepreneurship. If youth can overcome disasters, maybe they can overcome poverty as well by

turning their new confidence into creativity. What does Carlos plan to do with the money he made from his

paintings? Buy high quality paintbrushes Invest! Carlos has learned to invest in his skill to continue his

craft, and to save a little for college, because he wants to be an agronomist.

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International Day of Disaster Reduction

Every 2nd Wednesday in October has

been designated by the UN as the In-

ternational Day of Disaster Reduction.

This year was particularly difficult;

225 million were affected by disasters,

and 236,000 died. Since the majority

of these people live in cities, this

years theme was Resilient Cities,

undoubtedly in reference to incredible

urban vulnerability seen in Haiti this

year. 1 in every 595 Affected Chileans

died in the Earthquake, but 1 in every

15 Haitian did. It is obvious that death

and disaster have more to do with lack of development than natural events.

We decided to plan an event around the UN theme, and hold a local panel in our city, Santiago

Texacuangos, inviting the police, the mayor, local community leaders, and the Civil Protection Municipal

and Departmental Delegates, and the Red Cross, to name a few. Each invited panelist spoke about the work

their institution has done in Santiago, and notably the community leaders focused on the work still left to

be done. The open mike time was hot with local community members asking the mayor why the govern-

ment has failed to do the major mitigation works required to make Santiago resilient, including the fail-

ure to build walls, find housing for families still in shelters or living at high risk, and total lack of attention

given to reconstruction of Joya Grande. Santiago is far from being a resilient city on almost every account;

but the resilient citizens are pouring the heat on the local government to make some quick changes before

the mayoral elections in 2012.

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Mission Complete! Joya Grandes 1st Childrens Emergency Committee PRE-

PARED for the next Disaster

Total Amount Needed: $5,000

Total Amount Raised: $400 CEIBA, $1,200 CIP-JES

HOW DID WE DO IT: Volun-

teers+Creativity+Recycled Materials+LOVE

CEIBA knows how to run on volunteer fuel, but still,

we AT LEAST provide bus fare, water, and sometimes lunch. Not this time. This project was underfunded

and successful. How? Love, Donations, Ingeunuity etc. This one month pilot project trained 25 children

ages 6-12 in Disaster Risk Reduction in just 10 workshops. The workshops, designed by Fredi, childrens

music specialist, Norma, childrens public health specialist, Jonathan, trained in childrens trauma therapy,

and Beth, who drove them there and back. This project was for children like Connie, 8-years old and un-

able to keep her black mary janes snapped shut, who was so traumatized from the landslides that she cov-

ered her ears everytime Jonathan poured water into our shoe-box sized landslide simulator. She always

paints rain black. Now Connie can treat a burn, split a broken bone, and build a natural water filter. When

we asked the kids to draw a safe place to

evacuate Joya Grande, Nicole, a chubby 8-

years old who has eaten one too many chur-

ros, was wise enough to note, Beth, we dont

have any safe places in Joya Grande. Sigh.

OK Nicole, you win. You live trapped be-

tween a river and a loose hillside. You have

no safe place to go. Cant say that!!! So I

smile and tell her Well if you leave your

house before the river rises, you could make

it to the soccer field right?! She nods her

head and continues to draw her risk and safety map.

The Civil Protection Committee, organized by CEIBAs Mercedes Monge, helped design our disas-

ter drill, complete with pregnant women, elderly men, asphyxiating girls, and men half buried in mud. The

kids had to figure out what to do in each situation in teams of 5 (which they did VERY well generally

speaking). The adults evacuated each child across the raising river to the field, where we practiced yoga

and meditation to calm our selves before boarding the helicopter.

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When we got to the shelter, each child was

handed a diploma, pinned with foto id, offi-

cially sworn in as the childrens civil protec-

tion committee, and equipped with an emer-

gency back pack (first aid, ropes, flashlight,

shovel, raincoatall the basics). After the

piatas, candies, and kids going home, we

drive back to the city with dust in every nook

of our bodies. And then it hits us-its Decem-

ber 11. Its the 29th anniversary of the El Mo-

zote Massacre, when 1,000 innocent women

and children were burned alive in the Salvadoran Civil War. Most of our friends made the pilgrimage out

to Mozote to light a candle with the thousands of other pilgrims who remember the atrocity. Instead, we lita candle for the children of El Mozote in the children of Joya Grande, shining hope into the darkness with

the determination of a child. Victims become agents of change as the children who survive tragedies trans-

form their realities with some first aid training and an emergency backpack. Thank you donors, for allow-

ing us to light another candle in Joya Grande.

My Favorite Moment with

CEIBA. BY BETH

All of the community characters in their bril-

liant moments. From Don Ramons (El Sauce)

sometimes indecipherable saying and riddles, to

Don Pablo (Joya Grande) always saving me the

best fish for lunch; from getting drenched

with 65 year old Don Luisito in Shaltipa to de-liver house-saving plastic to at-risk homes, to

Don Cletos Mr. Clay spunky speeches calling for greater

cross-religious and political unity to Joya Grande; from Yanet

(El Sauce) courageously condemning the mayors corruption in

front of him and his own governor after Hurricane Matthew to

watching 15-year old Joceline run a makeshift hurricane shelter

all alone in Joya Grande after Tropical Storm Agatha, I have a

thousand beautiful stories to tell about a thousands of dynamic,

colorful, and lovely people.

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New Alliances- SSPASS, Los Texacuangos Vivos, Direccion Nacional de

Juventud, Pacto por la Vida, and FESPAD

SSPASS- Servicio Social Passionista or Passionist Social Service, works in the parish

of San Francisco de Asis in Mejicanos, El Salvador. SSPAS specializes in leadership

and political participation, training and employment, health, and Prevention of and At-tention to Violence. SSPASS funded an exchange between community leadership in El

Salvadors marginal urban microregion Melida Anaya Montes, with leaders from

Santiago Texacuangos on October 24 2010 in Joya Grande. Over 100 people spent the

day in Joya Grande discuss environmental issues and community strategies to confront them.

FESPAD- Fundacion de Estudios para la Aplicacion del Derecho, or Foundation for the Study of Applied

Law, has included CEIBA in its human watch rights network. FESPAD monitors the

human rights situation in the country, and has identified environmental activists as

especially vulnerable and in need of protection. Thus, CEIBA was identified as an

organization that needed to be included in such a network and receives human rights

security alerts.

Pacto por la Vida/Pact for Life is a Central American Environmental network sponsored by the IUCN

(International Union for the Conservation of Nature). In El Salvador, the network is

managed by JuxVida, or Youth for Life, which is a network of youth environmental

groups. CEIBA was invited to join the network, allowing us to help plan and par-

ticipate in national environmental events such as Earth Day and the Recycled Art

contest ReciclArte.

Direccion Nacional de la Juventud/National Youth Department invited CEIBA to participate in the for-

mation of the National Volunteer Initiative of El Salvador, which took place in Chalatanango Dec. 12-14.

CEIBA sent 7 youth from communities in Santiago Texacuangos to discuss the project and network with

over 1,200 youth from across the country. It is essential that CEIBA be included in government initiatives

such as these and adds sustainability to our organization.

Los Texacuangos Vivos/The Live Texacuangans are a group of local artisans and painters from Santiago

Texacuangos who have agreed to set aside 30% of all profits from Art Sales to projects supporting the arts

in Joya Grande. These local artists such as Henry, have given free art workshops to youth in El Sauce with

donated CEIBA supplies. This art collective also designed and bought half the paint for the Joya Grande

Vive mural. They are also designing projects for ecotourism in the area. We are excited to unite with local

people who share our vision of sustainable local development.

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The Future of CEIBA

So now what? Initial social reconstruction

projects completed with our closing cere-

mony Dec. 5 2010, and the pilot program

for Childrens Disaster Program was done

and over Dec. 11 2010. As our bank ac-

count dwindles, and the hype of the disaster

passes, we cannot start fabulous new pro-

jects and keep full employment of our fabu-

lous team. So then We must wait for offi-

cial NGO status, a process which we de-

cided to slow down to make more participa-

tory, including over 30 community mem-

bers and leaders to sign CEIBAs founding charter. In El Salvador, NGOs have a General Assembly, the

high power of the organization, which elects both the board of directs and approves annual budgets and hir-

ing decisions. Once we get NGO status approved, we can apply for more money and bigger grants. But un-

til thenCEIBA needs to take some time to reflect and re-tool what we do. We were founded as disaster

relief and reconstruction, but what Santiago Texacuangos needs now is sustainable development, and

CEIBA must define its role within this new development model Education, Employment, Small Busi-

nesses, Greater Democratic Participation, Violence Prevention- these can only be defined and prioritized

with new community diagnostics and greater participation. So its back to the planning phase for us- rede-

fining social needs in our dynamic communities. Weve already started a bit of fundraising down here- my

house turns into CEIBAR once a month- opening a bar with a cause to raise beer by a quarter and gener-

ate discussions about social reality based on a movie showing. We have been selling arts and crafts with

youth from Joya Grande at fairs around the country, and playing human statue with a collaboration hat to

at least earn the gas we need to take the kids from the community to the fair (at $4 bucks a gallon here, itreally adds up! And we earn about $40 a night being statues)

MY FAVORITE MOMENT WITH CEIBA

BY RAFAEL FLORES

Looking at the eyes of Ericka when she was receiving con-

grats from an American student in the art exhibition during

the august delegation. She actually bought the painting from

her. I saw hope in a beautiful pair of green eyes that day.

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My best moment with CEIBA By Jonathan and Dany

There are various interesting

things to tell but maybe the

most important to tell is when

Carlos, a young man who lost

his house in Hurricane Ida and

still lives in a community buil-

ding in a community near Joya

Grande where drugs and gangs

are a daily threat. Carlos came

and stayed in my house one

night, and after dinner started a

conversation and he told me

"Jonathan, I dont want to be a

gangster, I want to travel the

world painting and helping my mom and my little brothers so they can go to school...

My best experience with CEIBA was to find the

name and create the slogan, it took me a while toimagine the name, until one morning I imagined

my daughter (who was yet to be born) and I

thought of one of the names my wife Alma came

up with. The name was in nahuat (indigenous lan-

guage of El Salvador), Yaxche, which in nahuat

means Ceiba or the tree of knowlege. And I said to

myself, If my daughter is growing in her mother's

womb, and this organization is growing with the

heart of these communities, where the Ceiba tree

grows everywhere surviving climate change and

deforestation the organization should be called

CEIBA. Then I thought what this name could

mean for the Collective and each member of the Collective and what we wanted for these communities.

This is how CEIBA became "Constructing Integrated Spaces for Environmental Well-Being" This is my

favorite moment because all that is named becomes its name. If its name is bad it will be bad and if its

name is good it will be good.

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Its been a yearCaminata JOYA GRANDE VIVE

Nov. 7 2010 Santiagueos walked from the

pueblo to the community, a 2-hour hike

through mountainous forest down to Joya

Grande by the lake. A remembrance of the

18 local citizens who were buried under mud

exactly one year earlier. They walked not

just in remembrance of death, but also in

celebration of the life and hard work of re-

construction undertaken by communities

over the past year. CEIBA organized the

event along with local artists from Santiagos

House of Culture. The walk made us retrace the same steps we took one year previously with backpack

full of food, water, and medical supplies. Yet the local artists have decided to dedicate that same path to

ecotourism, and to celebrate the local cultural and environment. What has been tragedy has also been made

beautiful.

Though we invited many NGOs and all local institutions, the only institutions that represented in

large numbers were the two competing political parties, FMLN and ARENA. From one angle, the fact that

these two parties came together to walk the same walk is a historic event in a politically divided Texacuan-

gos. People once at work walked together to remember this not so natural disaster. From another angle, it

was just two political parties that tried to gain free publicity from an event, as each competed with who re-

ceived the first news of John Carlos death, or who built more water tanks. Whatever the real intention of

either political party are, their presence proves that CEIBA and its communities have firmly placed disaster

prevention as a priority on the political map of stuff that matters to win votes here. Either way, the poor

get more plastic to cover deforested hillsides. If only this moment could spur real change instead of emptypolitical promises

Our arrival at Joya Grande was met with a beautiful mural, designed by local artists from Los Tex-

acuangos Vivos and young artists from CEIBA art therapy school in Joya Grande. The community chanted

Long Live Joya Grande while children placed flowers below the mural to remember the 4 childrens

lives lost just one year ago. The battle cry of Joya Grandes survival is the youths message to all of El Sal-

vador that their community is NOT uninhabitable; that they will NOT sell their land to 5-star hotel Porto

Pango and that they are NOT going anywhere and darn proud of it. Joya Grande Lives, and the mural

shouts it for all to see.

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Items Total

Gas $ 4,149.00

Salaries for 5 Staff $ 16,825.00

Technology ( boombox, external harddrive,computer)

$ 598.96

Workshop Materials $897.02

Communications $ 1,015.00

Vehicle Maintenance $ 2,224.00

Emergency Food and Water $4,850.00

Emergency Equipment ( flashlights, ropes,

poncho, radios, tarp)

$4,090.05

Volunteers $746.00

Transportation (gas for cars not Beths) $ 750.00

Paperwork (copies, printing, office stuff) $383.69

Website $50.00

Workshop with Equipo Maz $450.00Mural $ 125.00

Paypal Transfers $ 258.04

Joya Grandes 1st Childrens Emergency Com-mittee

$ 400.00

other $ 4,883.43

Total Spent 42,695.33

Total Cash Available 1,157.58

Financial Report November 4 2010 to January 7 2011

Organization Item Value

CIPJES Childrens first aid kit, flashlights,ropes, shovels

~$1,500

SSPAS 25 Kids Backpacks $50

SSPASS Leadership Exchange in JoyaGrande

~$3,000

El Salvador Government Youth

Department

Campout Conference for Youth Vol-

unteers

~$1,350

Fundacion Maquilishuatl Riesgolandia Game ~$25

Dany Portillo Youth Entrepreneurship Project,donation of materials and services torun the project

~$700

TOTAL $6,625

Donations in Kind October-December 2010

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Tim MuthNate Funkhouser and FamilyJanine SheppardFelipe Witcherabby reedcrssawyer greenberg

diane whitetom counsellCEIBA indy tripnotre dame delegationconnie tellmanjanine sheppardCounsell FamilyGrace NixonAngulo Familycathy oliveriJustice Clark in honor of Isaiah ClarkShealah EasterdayLaurie RedelmanCatholic Relief ServicesSACDELVoices on the Borderariel wongmarisha WickremsinheBrebeuf Immersion GroupRobyn Caponijefferey greenbergCatherine Melfijohn hawnTom LaughnerMarta LanglandJill Weaver in the Honor of Kristin FroehleBridget KoseneAnonymous French WomanAnmu Tsipical

Leah WinnikiePatients of Dr. William TellmanLinda and Clarence HirschValerie GiesSeton InstituteCARECEN SFHariharan DhandapaniLeslie GrayThe Coffee Emporium at Xavier University,CinncinatiRuthelen BurnsBrebeuf Jesuit Preparatory SchoolNotre Dame University SOA GroupToby Capion

Froehle Familyrachel blantonCarley KnappJennifer FrontkowskiPaul KnappCarrie ClarkMichelle BezansonErin SchlittsThomas CounsellBilly Sladekkimmanleyort.combradley coffmanBud FrutkinJennifer MoyanoChristopher Wahoff

Jaclyn DittrichLeslie GarrisonBrain BirdAmanda SkinnerChristopher Proctor

Share FoundationMrs. Laura Halls Sixth Grade Homeroomand K-8 Students of St. Peters CatholicSchool in Kansas City, MissouriCatherine FordXavier College Preparatory School, Cali-fornia

Janine SheppardCathy PlumpThe Caponi FamilyThe Knapp FamilyThe Ravizza FamilyMargaret WatersMyles MintonAshton EasterdayDenise KolenzThe Altemeyer FamilyBrebeuf Jesuit TeachersThe Angulo FamilyAlexis MielkeKatherine Gerlich

Richard BelcherVictoria SheltonKimberly CoppinBrian BelcherThe Belcher FamilyEmma CordesKatie PowerDave Graf/ Power of TouchN. Karen DemingPatrick SchweigerGrace NixonMary LynchChris and Dale CollinsBill Easterday FamilyJim Forest

Lisa EnrightJenna KnappEmory LynchKaty ErkerFrancesca McKenzieTay House Christian Community NewOrleansSam BakerSadie BeauregardAdrian SandstromFrances LobergAshton EasterdayCheryl DieterlyMr. and Mrs. King

Beth TellmanOlga KudinovaNana and Papa TellmanParvaneh AngusKira HarveyCarol CounsellAllison FordBecky DieschbourgMichelle ReillyMary Ann WallaceMarkus SchaufeleErin WhinneryElizabeth FatoutJulie King

Marta PetersenDebbie SahmThe Mancher FamilyTessa WestonNatali RodriguezShintaro Doi

Castleton Family DentistryKennedy FamilyAmy FisherMike and Annie MartinBob and Karen DietrickEmily Pollomthe Pollom Family

Inner Peace Yoga StudentsLinda HegemanWynn McShaneJanie Shumakerthe Sapp Familythe Brumleve FamilyAllie DunnePat FlajoleMegan RaimondiBetsy Purnerskander and tracy nassermeredith swinehartshelece easterdaykatherine gerlichmartha lehmannicholas sanchezanna kolhedeolivia amadonnick klingerjesuit community brebeuf jesuit preparatory schoolnicholas sanchezjulie walkerg paul petersondavid decosseemma jehleallison stohllara brandstetterkimberly carbaugh

mallory schwarzmary wolfalicia quirosronald meadeddie alexandermaria eduarda cardosomandy sobrepenaallison rauschcharlotte karneyjohn hawnlaura redelmanau soleil healing inc.jason parrymandy liebscher pearson

kyle ozawaJohn MarrinAnne SchaufeleJoe and Liz KulesaLauren TroutThe Hupomone FundMaggie HargraveJim LochheadThe Tellman FamilyMichael TellmanMatt TellmanCarol CrenshawStafford and Clara PileTessa BrownLauren Rossi

The Sullivan FamilyJoeseph HeithausJL KatoThe Jesuits of the University of CentralAmericavarious anonymous families...

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