Post by Tim Hollins - (second post in a series) 1 2 3 4 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...

One huge dilemma was how to manage the money – how could we discuss how they would invest it? Corruption is endemic within Central American societies, and solidarity is not immune. However the community’s decision to put women in charge of all project management (“they’re more honest than we men – they won’t go and drink it away like we might …….”) gave us confidence. In the end, it was a blind leap of faith – and it paid off.

The community eventually replied that young people from the community had taken on the job of setting up the school – under the trees. They would use our pitifully small sums for resources and pay a small community wage for each hour taught. They were well under way.

More slide shows, more letters, more arm twisting, £42, £52, £55, £70 a month. Within 18 months we made a return visit, and spent three weeks marveling at incredible progress, a vision intact and developing, and discussing the development of education with the young teachers, parents, and Junta Directiva (Executive Council). Suffice it to say that this gave us further inspiration to come back to Britain and carry on fundraising. Coincidentally during this visit we met a young Australian teacher, who’d been traveling in the region, and who had decided to stay and work in the school.

Good idea? Bad idea.

She had the best of intentions, however was totally unable to see that Australian solutions to Salvadorean problems were inappropriate. She would argue forcefully that “they were wrong and she was right”. When they disagreed she accused them of incompetence! In the end she had to go. This confirmed to us that our efforts were probably better employed raising solidarity in Britain, rather than staying to work in the community.

Back in Britain again, we continued with the slide shows, and the writing of news updates. Another example to learn from: friends in Birmingham had been supporting a rural school in Uganda with a monthly donation. They had heard nothing for 18 months, were not even sure if the school still existed. In the end, they cancelled their support, and doubled their contribution to Nueva Esperanza – “at least you keep us well informed of how they are getting on, you go and visit and bring back news, we trust your information – and your spirit of solidarity.”  

After 3 years we were up to £150 a month, a few had dropped out under financial pressures here, but more had signed up to take their place. There was no substitute for the hard graft of looking for potential donors wherever they might be, and “giving them the pitch”. For every one who said yes, there were five who said, 'maybe, maybe not, don’t think so, no'.  

Resolving Crises

In 1996 we hit our first crisis. The community, like many others, had suddenly been landed with a huge bill to “buy” the agricultural land they had been granted as the land reform part of the peace process. At the very same time a German organisation had just donated enough for the running costs of the school for a year. We proposed diverting our funds from education to land purchase. An emergency meeting was called, the teachers didn’t turn up. Tensions within the community between former refugees and former combatants were boiling over, the debate became fierce, our naïve thought to help in the crisis became a source of recrimination, the teachers sulked, and there was even a hint of violent consequences from the ex guerillas…  An uneasy agreement was reached, (without the teachers),  the matter settled for the time being, we escaped back to Britain, likening the experience to being caught in the middle of a bitter argument between Sinn Fein and the IRA…

On the same visit we had read (in Spanish) the recently published book of oral history of the members of the community “De La Memoria Nace la Esperanza”. We read it at one go, and immediately thought we ought to publish an English translation. This side project could have a whole article devoted to the twists and turns in a whole new area – publishing – about which we knew less than zero. Suffice it to say that “Like Gold in the Fire” was finally published in June 1999, and launched at the Central America Solidarity conference that year. Our involvement in ESNET (El Salvador Network) and previous conferences led to the conference organising committee agreeing to invite one of the teachers (now back to being best friends!!) to participate in the 1999 Conference. Santiago Vasquez Sanchez was elected by the community to come to Britain for a two week speaking tour which led directly to a number of new monthly donors.   

Music and Culture

Our good friend Katherine Rogers, at the time a recent music graduate, first visited the community and region (The Bajo Lempa –  Lower Lempa) in 1996, and also immediately decided to commit to solidarity. She founded “Music for Hope” later that year, raising funds to support youth music, drama and community leadership. Again this amazingly successful project has its own history. A youth band from Nueva Esperanza, who called themselves “Lluvia de Esperanza” (Rain of Hope) toured Britain in 1999 as part of a wider cultural project, and together we recorded, published and sold a great CD of their music live.

Natural Disasters

Late October 1998. News bulletins. Hurricane off the coast of Honduras. Next day, Hurricane Mitch over Honduras, next day Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua devastated, large parts of El Salvador flooded as massive rain waters poured through the rivers. Nueva Esperanza and the whole of the Bajo Lempa region flooded to a depth of 5 feet – all crops lost, most animals drowned, all wells polluted.

All solidarity networks sprang into action, raising monies as we’d never done before, using email to send and receive huge quantities of information instantly. This three month long emergency strengthened our links to the community (“you helped us out again when we’d lost nearly everything”), it’s a friendship through thick and thin.

January 2001. Severe earthquake.

Many dead, (though not in the zone of the Bajo Lempa) structural damage. Fortunately it struck on a Saturday morning when most people were out and about, not sleeping. More emergency fundraising, concerts, events. The link became even stronger – “You helped us out yet again. We hope one day we’ll be able to help you out...” Of course they do, all the time, they give us inspiration when things seem hard to get going in Britain, when politics looks depressing. They have never accepted defeat, just got organised again, and struggled on to the next victory.

In 2005, further flooding led to loss of crops and animals, again fundraising was the most practical method of support, allowing the community to prioritise and survive the immediate crisis, whilst investing for the future.