Exciting News from Chilama

Today Sarah Bishop, one of Sister Cities’ El Salvador staff members, and I visited with the Directiva in Chilama, the Sister City of Friends of Chilama in Crystal Lake, Woodstock and Cary. The Directiva has 11 members--7 women and 4 men. Francisco Trujillo is the president again after taking a year off because of a work obligation. Marleni Guadalupe Menjivar is the vice-president and Maria Teresa Flores is the secretary.

I'm extremely excited about what's happening there. In December the community finally received legal status from the alcalde (mayor). This enables them to receive support for their projects from the government. The mayor has promised the use of a machine that will be used to widen the road to the village and sand and cement to prevent the road from washing away. The road already is much better than last year at this time. A truck can drive down and back up the road!
They have also had the use of a machine to place rocks and boulders along the banks of the river to act as a levee and prevent flooding in the wet season.

Community members have received training from CORDES regarding gender issues and hygeine while others attended a political meeting on February 5 and will go door to door to campaign for the Presidential election. They have also received training on water and sanitation and disaster prevention.

They have a work plan for other projects as well. Last week they held an assembly and the entire community committed to work on the plan. Those plans include a small chapel so folks don't have to travel so far to go to a church (they already have the cement), a primary school, an agriculture project, continuing to work on environmental concerns, and bringing pure water to the entire community. They have met with the mayor who has agreed to support these projects.

The Directiva thanked us for supporting the scholarship program and for bringing medicine and school supplies. They asked about Libby and are excited that she hopes to visit in November or December.

They are encouraged by the Obama presidency and asked me what I thought. They wanted to know if I thought the US would not interfere with the election as it has in the past. That's a good question. I said there were many in the US who have been contacting their members of Congress and calling on the acting US Ambassador in ES to deny any claims that the US favors either party.

The reason they were finally granted legal status--politics! Most people in Chilama are supporters of the FMLN while the mayor is a member of the PDC party. In the election in January, the FMLN and the PDC formed a coalition meaning that a vote for the FMLN was a vote for the PDC so that the mayor could win. Without that coalition, the ARENA party would have won the mayorship. Since the community members supported his candidacy, he agreed to grant legal status and support their projects. Let's hope these were not empty campaign promises and that he will follow through.