Canadian Mining in El Salvador

Mining and exploration done by Canadian mining corporations working in poor countries such as El Salvador, where people already face enough obstacles to a decent standard of living, have created (and still do create) huge problems for individuals and communities. Problems linked to our country's poor mining practices include not only unjust working conditions and treatment, but environmental destruction and human rights violations and violence. According to an article in the Toronto Star, compared to other countries' firms, Canadian companies are more often engaged in community conflict and unethical behaviour (http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/877438--canadian-mining-firms-worst-for-environment-rights-report).
Although the incident happened almost two months ago now, I thought I would share this story with you, so you can understand another part of El Salvador's current context, and how as Canadians we are connected to it. Here are some excerpts from a KAIROS article I read recently:

KAIROS is deeply saddened and concerned to learn that another environmental and community activist has been murdered in El Salvador. We join civil society organizations in El Salvador and Canada in calling for a full investigation into the murder of Juan Francisco Durán Ayala. This is the fourth murder in two years that local organizations believe are linked to the presence of Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining in the department of Cabañas.
On June 2nd, Juan Francisco Durán Ayala, a thirty-year old linguistics student at the Technological University in San Salvador, was hanging posters in the city of Ilobasco, in the department of Cabañas. The posters were part of the Cabañas Environmental Committee (CAC) campaign which calls for the approval of a law against metal mining in El Salvador and for Pacific Rim Mining to leave the department of Cabanas. The next day, Juan left for classes in the capital city and was not heard from again.
Juan Francisco’s body was found shortly after midnight on June 4th. He had been shot twice in the head. When the Medical Examiner declared his body ‘unidentifiable,’ he was buried in a common grave in San Salvador. The following week, the Environmental Committee determined the whereabouts of Juan Francisco’s body, and on June 14th, Juan Francisco’s father positively identified his son. 
Background:
Juan Francisco’s murder is part of a pattern of violence in Cabañas which community members believe is linked to the presence of and ongoing dispute with Pacific Rim Mining in the department of Cabañas. His death comes two years after the murder of community leader and activist Marcelo Rivera. At that time, KAIROS issued a statement and urgent action. In December of the same year, Ramiro Rivera and Dora Alicia Sorto, who was pregnant, were also assassinated. In recent months, local journalists at Radio Victoria in Cabañas have received persistent threats. Francisco Piñeda, chair of the Cabañas Environmental Committee and winner of this year’s Goldman Environmental prize, now lives with around-the-clock armed guards to ensure his safety.
Civil society organizations in El Salvador have been engaged in a national debate over mining for the past several years. The “Mesa,” or National Roundtable on Mining, has brought together churches, community representatives, human rights and environmental organizations to advocate for an outright ban on metal mining throughout the country. While there is a bill being debated in Congress regarding such a ban, it has not received enough support to be passed. The current President, on the other hand, has placed a moratorium on extending mining exploration and exploitation permits until the completion of a National Strategic Environmental Assessment.
Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining has filed a $77 million lawsuit against the Salvadoran government, arguing that the government’s failure to issue a mining exploitation permit in 2009 due to environmental concerns violates the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Recently, the United States government supported El Salvador in the trade dispute, which is currently being heard by an international tribunal at the World Bank.
This full article, and more information about KAIROS, can be read here: http://www.kairoscanada.org/kairostimes/special-11-06-JuanFrancisco.html
Although these problems are overwhelming, and the solutions to the effects of our mining practices are not easy, it is important to be aware of what is happening.
If you are interested in reading more about this, Mennonite Church Canada wrote an article about this in their newsletter at the 2011 Assembly (see page 2). http://www.mennonitechurch.ca/files/events/waterloo2011/EpicNewsMonday_web.pdf
This is also a really good article from MiningWatch Canada's website.
http://www.miningwatch.ca/article/water-gold-el-salvador

Now, on a happier note!! In two weeks, I will have all my bags packed (hopefully!!) and will be leaving Canadian soil! Can't believe it's almost August already!! Lots of people have been asking about my itinerary, so here it is: August 10th my parents will be driving me to Akron, Pennsylvania for a week-long SALT orientation with MCC. Then on August 18th, I will fly with the Guatemala SALTer, from Philadelphia to Guatemala City, where we will have more SALT orientation (for a few days or so) with the MCC representatives for Guatemala/El Salvador. After that, I will finally be headed to El Salvador to start my volunteer work with ANADES, which I am getting more and more excited about!

I still have a few more preparations to do before I leave on the 10th, including finish my fundraising for MCC. If you are interested in donating, and have not done so yet, you have until August 5th (at the very latest!) to donate. Call or email me for more info.

Thanks for reading my second blog post! Hopefully my keenness (is that a word??) to update my blog won't wear out once I finally get to El Salvador...I hope to make updates at least once or twice a month, so check back in again in a few weeks, once I'm all settled in, in my new home in San Ramon!

MCC SALT 2011 - 2012

As some of you already know, in August I will be leaving for an 11 month volunteer assignment with MCC’s (Mennonite Central Committee) Serving and Learning Together program, also known as SALT. A few Sundays ago I had a Commissioning Service and soup lunch fundraiser at my church, where I talked about what I would be doing with MCC. For my first blog post, I thought I would share some of what I said.  

My volunteer placement will be in San Ramón, El Salvador, a city just outside the capital, San Salvador. El Salvador is a Spanish speaking country located in Central America, on the Pacific Ocean, bordering Guatemala and Honduras. It’s the smallest but most densely populated country in Central America, with a population of about 7 million people. Approximately 35% of the population lives below the poverty rate, and there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor. This small country gained international attention during its brutal civil war in the 1980s, fought between the Salvadoran military government (backed by the United States), and guerrilla groups. During the 12 year war, over 75,000 people were killed, and thousands more fled the country. After the signing of Peace Accords in 1992, El Salvador began the difficult task of building peace and restoring their country. This has been difficult due to the inequalities between the rich and the poor, the huge traumas that virtually every Salvadoran citizen experienced during the civil war, and the violence and gangs that are still prevalent today.

I will be volunteering with MCC’s partner organization in El Salvador, called Asociación Nuevo Amanecer de El Salvador, or New Dawn Association. It goes by the acronym of ANADES. Here is the link to their website: it's in Spanish, but there are some pictures you could look at. http://www.anades.org/

ANADES is a Christian-based community organization in El Salvador that promotes the comprehensive development of poor, marginalized families and communities in both rural and urban areas, helping them to become able to change their own reality by working together to achieve a life of dignity. ANADES was created during the civil war, by Salvadoran women who had lost their sons in the war, and wanted to convert their pain and sadness into strength and hope, and to stand up for the rights of women and children. They were inspired by the Christian liberation theology movement in Latin America, to follow Jesus’ call to action against poverty, oppression and violence.  

Today, the mission of ANADES is to create the necessary conditions to improve the quality of life for the poor and marginalized, by providing education and health care, and to strengthen the people’s skills, abilities, hopes and critical consciousness, and change their present reality. The organization runs projects all over the country, including pre-schools, education for women & youth, health clinics, sustainable agriculture and organic farming, and community development projects such as organizing and empowering the poor, and caring for the environment.

My main job will be working every day at a pre-school, or early childhood education centre, in San Ramón, which responds to the needs of education and nutrition for young children from poor families in the city. I will be developing educational activities and programs that teach peace and social justice and foster values of respect, solidarity, cooperation and love. I will also be helping the children with healthy nutrition and personal hygiene. Once my Spanish is a little bit better, I will be conducting meetings with the parents of the children, and doing home visits with the families. I am also hoping I will get to be involved in other aspects of ANADES as well, because they seem like they are doing a lot of great work!

Lastly, I just wanted to talk a little bit about why I decided to volunteer with MCC and SALT. In April, I graduated from University with a major in Social Development Studies, where I took courses in social work, psychology and community development, and I also completed a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies. I loved learning in classes and group discussions, and felt that my beliefs were really challenged and my worldview was widened.  Although I had a great time in school, my life was mostly focused on myself, and my own life, and my family and friends around me, so I really wanted to take a year off after graduating to intentionally focus my energies and passions on acting out what I had learned in university, and living out God’s love. I am hoping that a whole year of spending every day intentionally living out God’s love and learning from the people around me, will help me when I come back home again next July to continue serving others, and not get so caught up in my own individual life. When we are wrapped up in our own individuals lives, it is so easy to forget Jesus’ call to be his hands and feet in the world, and to just sit back and wait for God’s Kingdom to come, instead of actively working to bring it about today.

One of the things I really like about MCC is that they take the time to get to know the people they are helping and working with, and that way they can know what they are doing is actually helping, whereas sometimes organizations working overseas just provide band-aid solutions, or even solutions that cause more harm than good. The SALT program seemed like a perfect fit for me, because I think 11 months will be enough time for me to really feel a part of the community that I will be living in, and to be able to develop my skills and make a contribution at my work placement at the pre-school. Also, I like that SALT is not just a service trip, but also a learning program. I am blessed to be matched up with a placement that shares my interests and passions, and I have skills that I feel will be able to benefit the children, staff and families that I will be working with. But I know that I also have a lot to learn, and I am not going with all the answers, if any! As rich and individualistic North Americans, we have so much that we could (and should!) learn from people of El Salvador, and all over the world, and I am hoping to be a sponge and soak up as much knowledge and experiences as possible, and bring them back to Canada to share with others. Which is partly why I have set up this blog!

On August 10th, (only a month away!!), my parents will be driving me to Akron, Pennsylvania, where MCC will hold a week-long orientation for all the SALT participants. After orientation, I head straight to El Salvador, where I will start my SALT adventure! SALT participants volunteer in numerous countries all over the world, and I will be the only SALTer headed to El Salvador, which is a little bit scary for me. But at the same time it is exciting because it will force me to build strong relationships with the Salvadoran people and be fully immersed into the culture and Salvadoran way of life. 

Phew! I think that is all I have to say for today - if you actually read this whole post to the end, then good job, I'm impressed! I promise my next blog posts won't be so lengthy...but I do have one more thing to shamelessly add to today's post...in order to participate in this volunteer assignment, I need to fundraise money for MCC, so if anyone feels so inclined to donate some money (any little bit will help and would be MUCH appreciated), talk with me to get details of how to go about donating!

But way more important then money, I would REALLY appreciate your emails (my email is mariasteinman@hotmail.com ), letters, thoughts, prayers, blog comments, etc. (and even visits, if you're feeling adventurous and want to escape the cold!), while I am in El Salvador, and in this next month, as I do my last-minute preparations before I leave. 

Hasta luego, amigos!

Maria :)