New Year message from Puentecitos

Erasmo and the children of Puentecitos playing games at Christmas

Erasmo, field worker for JDS, writes about his Christmas and wishes us a happy new year…

I wish you a very happy new year and hope you achieve all the good things you have planned.

I want to let you know that from this year onwards, I will be supporting all of the economic projects in the communities to support our efforts to develop a focus of businesses based on solidarity. This means I will be accompanying the work in Puentecitos closely.  Read more about small businesses in Puentecitos>>

In my personal life, I am happy that my family and I have fulfilled our dream of sharing God’s Blessing during Christmas with some of the children in the villages.

Regards, Erasmo.

Remembering the life of Dean Brackley

We’re sad to share the news of the death of one of our Connect2 El Salvador narrators, Father Dean Brackley.

Father Dean was a Jesuit priest and theologian, working at long-standing CAFOD partner organisation the University of Central America (UCA).

He was an inspiration to many working in El Salvador and around the world.

We quote here from an article he wrote, expressing his belief that encounters with people in poor and marginalised communities can transform our lives and perceptions. A belief which also underpins Connect2:

““Superior technology and the communications media induce us to think of our culture and perspective on life as the norm, and basically on track. The encounter with the poor stops us short; it recollects us. When we come out on the other side, we realise that the marginalised are actually at the centre of things. It is we, in Washington and Paris, who are on the fringe.

These people shake us up because they bring home to us that things are much worse in the world than we dared to imagine. But that is only one side of the story: If we allow them to share their suffering with us, they communicate some of their hope to us as well.

… The poor usher us into the heart of reality. They bring us up against the world and ourselves all at once. To some extent, we all hold reality at arm’s length –fending off intolerable parts of the world with one hand and intolerable parts of ourselves with the other.

…. The victims of history – the destitute, abused women, oppressed minorities, all those the Bible calls “the poor” – not only put us in touch with the world and with ourselves, but also with the mercy of God.”

Read more tributes to Father Dean Brackley >>

New year, new life, new vision in Puentecitos!

CAFOD’s Tania Dalton has just returned from Puenticitos where new initiatives are springing up everywhere – and Fidel and Julia have something very special to celebrate!

For over a year, Sibia and her women’s group have been dreaming of building a bigger oven to meet the growing demand for their fresh bread and cakes.

Chatting over a delicious lunch at the bakery, Sibia showed me how a small grant from JDS has turned this dream into reality. They have built the oven and, once the cement dries, the women will be rising to the challenge of expanding their business!

But that’s not all.

From Liverpool to Latin America – and back!

Christmas is a time for keeping in touch with old friends, catching up on news and exchanging cards. 

We’ve received a very special letter this Christmas from Eliza in Puentecitos, in reply to letters from young people in Liverpool.

 

 

 

Karen: Growing a budding photographer

Karen doing her chores

In September’s update we talked about being young in Puentecitos and in particular, the life of Karen – a budding photographer. Here Karen tells us more about her life, how her family makes a living and her growing love of photography.

Rodrigo’s gardening tips

Rodrigo holds up some Mucuña beans which he uses to fertilise the soil. His t-shirt reads ‘Economy based on solidarity is the great hope of our people’

Now’s the time to get out in the sun and to work on your plants, flowers, veg and fruit. Rodrigo is a champion of organic farming and has decided to share his top gardening tips with us to ensure this summer yields a bumper crop for everyone.

Recovering from the floods

Rosa Idalia shows her pond of tilapias

As the people of Puentecitos work to make up for the loss of the bean, corn and vegetable harvests, ruined by the recent floods; Rosa Idalia tells us about some of the projects she has been working on to help sustain her family in these difficult times.

Easter Hymns

Julia Laguán from Puentecitos sings two Easter hymns.  Here she explains to us how her church community marks Lent and Easter.  

“On the six Fridays before Good Friday, people gather together in a corn field for the Stations of the Cross. They do this in the late afternoon. In the corn field, they erect fourteen crosses, including the one marking the calvary. Each cross is decorated with flowers and with images of the saints.

March 24: Remembering Archbishop Oscar Romero

Oscar Romero celebrating mass

On 24 March 1980, while celebrating the Eucharist in a small hospital chapel in El Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot dead for having dared to appeal for an end to the violence and repression in his country.

Catastrophic crop loss

 

 

Eramo Valiente addressing a community meeting

Erasmo Valiente, who works as the local coordinator for our partner the Jesuit Development Service (JDS) speaks about the terrible crop failure that has hit the people of Puentecitos and many other farming communities in El Salvador.

This year we have had an abnormally wet rainy season. There has been so much flooding and heavy rain that most people have lost all or most of their harvest. I have never seen things as serious as this in all the years that I have worked here. The corn has rotted and turned completely black. Most of the bean harvest has been lost.