Aug
Advocacy
Kansan Salvadoran Solidarity Action Update, August 2008
Consistently voiced was the need for a group with a deeper, more sustained commitment, with more continuity than had been possible with a student group. And thus, a new organization was born. It was an opportunity for many of us who had been intimately transformed in our shared experiences in El Salvador to take up the task of committed solidarity work as well as for new interested community members to incorporate themselves into this struggle for social justice. We began by taking direction from our allies, conducting more direct communication with El Papaturro, the USESSC network, and Salvadoran NGO’s. Since late May, we have been meeting weekly in people’s homes, cafés and the ECM. We are a small collective of 6-10 core members, of diverse ages, consisting of students as well as other individuals from the community. We have decided to operate on a horizontal basis, making decisions by consensus and taking responsibility for different roles as they are appropriate. We recently named our organization Kansan Salvadoran Solidarity Action [KSSA].
Most broadly, our goals are first to strengthen our bonds of friendship and mutual cooperation with El Papaturro and second to enhance our effectiveness in working for human rights and social justice in El Salvador. We have also been working closely with the Lawrence-El Papaturro Friendship Committee as a coalition for many projects.
We have simultaneously been developing specific objectives and planning projects focused on El Papaturro and El Salvador, while attending to the structure of the KSSA organization so that it can be enduring, robust and effective in the long term.
Members Tara (Ann) Gallagher and Jennifer Kongs have given presentations in university classes and local churches on the story of the people of El Papaturro, the struggles of farmers in El Salvador, water privatization, the trials of the Suchitoto 13 , among others.We are organizing a delegation to travel to El Salvador for election observation in January 2009 through Sister Cities. Another delegation for the Presidential elections in March 2009 will also be formed.
We in the process of organizing a benefit concert to raise money for projects in El Salvador as well as increase awareness of social and political issues related to neo-liberalism, CAFTA and the effects of US foreign policy.
We are planning meetings in Washington DC in early October with the staff of selected Members of the US Congress to alert them to potential threats to fair elections in El Salvador. We are hoping to enlist their general support as well as prime them for a quick response should the need arise.
We are working to develop alliances with like-minded local and state groups, as well as establishing relationships with national organizations with overlapping interests and goals.
Many of our members will be attending the National Sister Cities Gathering in the State of Maine in the US in mid-October. At these meetings, we will exchange information and discuss plans with delegations of Sister Cities throughout the United States, many of whom are paired with cities in El Salvador.
We are in the early stages of engaging El Papaturro in exploration of the type of relationship they might like with our organization, what projects we might work on together, and what resources we might exchange.
Although we are young as a group, it is our hope that our collective, diverse experience and dedication will result in an effective and enduring organization for human rights and social justice in El Salvador.
