Dec
Get Involved, Sister Cities
End of the year appeal
Dear Friends of US-El Salvador Sister Cities,
Happy holidays to you and all your loved ones. We hope you are all staying safe and healthy! We thank you for your continued support throughout the years and especially during this tumultuous 2020 in which, with your help and the always inspiring organizing of our sister communities in El Salvador, we have tackled the challenges of Tropical Storm Amanda, the COVID-19 crisis and the longstanding fight for social and economic justice in the Salvadoran countryside.
In order to continue this vital work of solidarity and community across borders we have built between communities in the United States and El Salvador for 35 years, we need your continued financial support!
Please consider a generous tax-deductible contribution to US-El Salvador Sister Cities this holiday season.
Your contributions have helped us stand strong with CRIPDES and our sister communities to win the Peace Accords, to ensure the lands were transferred to the CRIPDES communities after the war, to build schools and homes and health care clinics, to organize to stop water privatization, win a historic moratorium on mining and to fight “free trade” policies that threaten people’s livelihoods in the countryside. We and our Salvadoran sisters and brothers thank you for accompanying us on this journey for justice across 35 years!
2020 has presented special challenges for all of us. We thank you for your support to respond to our call for emergency aid earlier in the year to support our sister rural communities facing the COVID 19 pandemic. This situation has also hit US-El Salvador Sister Cities’ own budget directly as we’ve been unable to raise funds as we usually do by organizing delegations to El Salvador and visits from our Salvadoran partners to the United States. The pandemic has left us $6,000 short for the year.
Meanwhile, in El Salvador, our friends from CRIPDES have a special request for us. The large conference room and adjacent offices at CRIPDES’ office in San Salvador have for years served as a vital center for the organizing of the Salvadoran social movement. CRIPDES’ hundreds of communities and many other allied groups use it as a space for training, planning, meeting and hosting press events. But the years of wear and tear have taken their toll and it is time to rebuild this critical space. CRIPDES has requested $6,000 from US-El Salvador Sister Cities to ensure this vital organizing space is there to host trainings, organizing and press events for progressive groups for years to come.
So, we are counting on all of you to help us raise $12,000 before the end of the year! We know this is a challenge, but we also know that, as always, with everyone doing their part, together we can do this!
You can count on US-El Salvador Sister Cities, CRIPDES and our sister communities and committees to keep doing the great work we have been doing for the last 35 years. We will keep you informed of events on the ground in El Salvador and provide analysis to understand what’s happening. We will facilitate opportunities for organizing and exchanges across borders that move us all towards justice and dignity. We will participate in efforts in the US to fight for racial justice, economic justice, health care for all and a healthy environment. We will accompany our Salvadoran partners in their fight to do this same work in El Salvador. We’ll do all this in partnership with CRIPDES and through our work groups organizing for immigrants’ rights, historic memory, popular education, a healthy environment and racial justice. And we will continue our decades of work holding the US government accountable for its policies that negatively impact Salvadorans fighting for social justice. Despite the challenges, with your support, we will be moving forward. Adelante!
We depend on gestures of generosity both small and big from a broad network of supporters to continue engaging in this work that is more crucial now than ever as we face the challenges ahead. We invite you to make a tax-deductible donation to US-El Salvador Sister Cities today. You can contribute via enclosed envelope or online. Your donation will contribute to the transformation of our society into one that is built on human rights, human dignity, and solidarity across the globe. Thank you for helping us continue this critical work and, again, we wish you happy and safe holidays with your loved ones.
Sincerely,
Willie Marquart
U.S. Coordinator
U.S.- El Salvador Sister Cities
