Stories: Bridging Distance, Building Understanding

World Accord regularly visits its partners overseas. These are opportunities to review progress, check budgets, and plan for the future. Maybe more importantly, visits are times to listen and to share stories about the struggles and victories of the people our work reaches.

Canadians live in a reality that is very different from that of World Accord’s partners. It is hard for many of us to fathom the pride of a Mayan farmer when she reaps a good harvest, the delight of Honduran children to see the first school built in their community, or the sense of loss that overcomes a Pakistani father whose life’s work is washed away by a flash flood.

We all tell stories. It is a way of establishing understanding and bridging across differences. For people working to get out of poverty and build more just societies, sharing stories may be even more important. It affirms their experience and lives matter. Their stories often have things to teach about hope, selflessness, and working together.

In this article I share some of the stories I heard earlier this year when I visited World Accord’s partners in Central American – the land bridge the size of Canada’s Maritimes connecting South and North America.

When Studying is Dangerous – El Salvador

Manuel and Josue are rambunctious 10 year olds. Both attend ADCASMUS’s afterschool program in El Salvador. Their families struggle to cover the costs of keeping them in school. The work of ADCASMUS helps. It provides about 300 children with tutoring, food, and a safe haven after-school. Places like this are important because El Salvador is experiencing high levels of violent crime. Gangs extort money from the poor and wealthy alike. El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with around 10 killings a day in a country with a population of just over seven million.. Earlier this year, Manuel, Mateo and most of the other children in their community stopped going to the after-school program. Local gangs were demanding money for “safe passage.” The threats eased after Marina de Merino, ADCASMUS’ director, met the local gang leader and demanded that he “give kids the chance at a life he did not receive.” Mateo and Manuel are now back in the after-school program but safety remains an issue for them, as for all Salvadorans.

Let’s Work Together – Guatemala

In Guatemala, I also met an association of Maya women farmers named, “Let’s Work Together.” With the support they receive from Mujeres en Acción, this group is producing carrots, peas, broccoli and other vegetables for themselves and to sell for income. They are now growing enough produce that they are beginning to dream about buying a commercial fridge and establishing a company to sell directly to larger markets. This would allow them to bypass the middle-people who historically took too much of their profits and kept them living in poverty. Their story is an example of what a people can achieve when given an opportunity.

Singing for Joy – Honduras

Alex is a poor farmer in the community of Fatima, Honduras. Like his parents before him, he grows corn and beans. Over the last years, the rising cost of seeds and fertilizers made this way of life unprofitable. To put food on the table, Alex even considered leaving his family to look for work in the US – even if this meant making a dangerous, illegal trip. Alex’s outlook changed when PRR started working with him and some of his neighbours in Fatima three years ago. They received training on organic farming, planting alternate crops, and on improving the seeds they use. For Alex and the other group members, these changes have meant better diet and enough income to improve their lives. When I visited Alex and the group from the community of Fatima, they were so optimistic about the future that they had composed a song to the new harvest and to working together.

These vignettes offer a brief glimpse into the reality lived by the people World Accord and its supporters help. We will be putting up more stories in the coming weeks and months. Please check our website often or contact us to learn more.