SHARE's Programs

Thank you for your generous support in 2005! We are proud to have been in solidarity with the people of El Salvador in a year of much destruction by Hurricane Stan and the eruption of the Ilamatepec Volcano. Thanks to your assistance and that of all our supporters, SHARE was able to deliver over $92,000 of emergency and reconstruction aid to affected communities.

We are happy to enter 2006 because we will be celebrating SHARE’s 25 th anniversary, as well as committing to another 25 years of walking with the people of El Salvador. We invite you to continue supporting SHARE in 2006 and the years to come.

We would like to share with you a reflection of one of SHARE's promoters about the delegation to El Salvador this December.

Jose Artiga

Executive Director

Monument to Memory and Truth Sylvia Diaz-Conde shares her story

Greetings to all,

The first morning of the delegation we visited the recently inaugurated Monument to Memory and Truth, the wall with some 35,000 names of citizens, mostly poor campesinos, killed during the civil war and some years leading up to it. Though over 75,000 people were martyred during this time, these names represent only those deaths which could be officially documented. Jose Artiga, Executive Director of SHARE, shared his personal story of fleeing El Salvador in 1980 – on the day four of his friends were abducted and killed. We all left a rose at the wall, and took down the name of one person inscribed on the wall, promising to keep that person in our memory.

The rest of the day was spent at Divina Providencia, home of Archbishop Romero and site of his martyrdom, and then later at the Jesuit University of Central America, site of the killing of the six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter in 1989.

We began the next day – December 2, the day of the murder of the four church women – with a press conference with at least seven papers and news agencies, including Reuters. Members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), co-sponsor of the delegation, expressed our common desire to honor and keep alive the memories of the church women and to give witness to the social and economic injustices that persist, denying most of the population the right to a dignified life.

We then traveled to San Pedro Nonualco, site of the murder of the four church women. From the location where their van would have been forced to pull off the highway from the airport to the site of the killings we maintained a holy silence, trying to connect with the experience of the women on that dark night. As the road narrows and eventually becomes a small dirt road one realizes that the women must have sensed that their lives were in serious danger.

Procession during service at Nonualco

At the site we had a very moving prayer service with testimonies from a variety of people. It was striking to meet and hear from many who knew Ita, Maura, Dorothy, and Jean personally. Several broke down in tears and could not continue. There was a spirit of celebration to the whole event, though, aided by musicians and singers from a nearby village. The evident love of the Salvadorans for these women was what moved me the most.

We also visited a community in Chalchuapa, the new target zone for several SHARE initiatives in the western part of the country. This extremely poor community of only 14 families is part of a cooperative growing, harvesting, and selling sugar cane. Their most recent proposal to SHARE includes requests for an adult literacy program, leadership training, and scholarship money. One of the women responded to a question about healthcare by saying that many times they simply don't go to the doctor when they have an illness or injury because they know that they cannot afford the prescriptions. They just live, or die, with it.

Saturday afternoon we heard testimonies from a niece of Ita Ford and from a nephew of Maura Clarke at an event sponsored by the Maryknoll delegation. They both spoke from the heart and gave us a good insight into the human as well as spiritual side of the two women. I was also encouraged and renewed a bit in hope by the words of Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and former senator and presidential candidate George McGovern. George McGovern had a hard time speaking at times as tears spilled from his eyes.

On Sunday we all went to the Cathedral for Mass celebrated in the crypt where Romero is buried. It was a joyous celebration with dancers dressed in colorful native dress. I was particularly moved by Sister Elena, about 65 years old, dancing the gospels to the altar. She has worked in the countryside for over 20 years and her love of the gospel came through her dance. I also loved the text and lively melodies of the music, where Salvadorans sang of their daily lives and of the God present therein.

Dr. Beatrice de Carrillo,

Ombudswoman for Human Rights

On Monday morning we heard from two powerful speakers, Monsignor Gregorio Rosa y Chavez and Doctor Beatrice de Carrillo, Ombudswoman for Human Rights, an office established as part of the 1992 peace accords. Doctor Carrillo has received numerous death threats and even been attacked by someone with a knife because of how outspoken she has been in her defense of the rights of the poor in regard to health care, land and water rights, civil rights, crime, prisons and other issues.

I then joined a group of delegates invited to meet with Ambassador Hugh Barclay at the American Embassy. We requested two things of the Ambassador: first, that he publicly state U.S. support for Dr. Carrillo and the office for human rights; secondly that he monitor the ILEA, International Law Enforcement Academy, which the U.S. is funding and establishing in El Salvador. Delegates later promised to contact our senators and representatives regarding both these concerns.

It is always difficult to pass on the meaning and feelings of such an experience. My wife, Lori, and I are very happy that we decided to be part of it. Hopefully it will energize and inspire us to do more in the future in our common solidarity work with El Salvador and all of Central America.

God's Peace and Courage,

Ralph Robers

SHARE Promoter, Great Lakes Region

The four U.S. church women

and Dorothy Stang, SSND.