At Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMM) we believe in "working together in a divided world." Our success is hinged upon partnering with other organizations to serve the poor. It's through these partnerships that we are able to bring justice to an unjust world. The following is a list of our current project partners.
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The SHARE Foundation
"VMM has provided the SHARE Foundation and its partner comunities with invaluable human resources needed to advance our work for long-term, sustainable solutions to poverty and under-development in El Salvador. The missioners VMM has brought to SHARE have been outstanding people both professionally as well as personally. Two, in fact, have moved on to direct our programs States-side and lead SHARE as an organization. Not only have these VMs left their imprint on SHARE's work for justice in El Salvador; they have also touched the lives of hundreds of people in the United States and in El Salvador through their warmth, commitment, spirituality, and strength of character. Thank you VMM!"
The SHARE Foundation helps to build economic, social and political justice and democracy in El Salvador by empowering civil society, especially women, and strengthening sustainable development alternatives. Since 1981, SHARE has worked with North American faith communities, Salvadorans in the U.S. and economically marginalized people in El Salvador to forge community to community links that cross the boundaries of gender, race, nationality, age and economic status in pursuit of
the vision of the martyrs of El Salvador for peace with justice.
To this end, SHARE accompanies the efforts of communities to create their own models for social and economic development, to reclaim basic human rights, fundamental civil liberties, and degraded environments. SHARE programs promote women’s empowerment, citizen participation, leadership development.
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FUNDAHMER
Fundahmer Fundación Hermano Mercedes Ruiz is a grassroots organization promoting social, economic, and spiritual development among ecclesial base communities in El Salvador. Rooted in the Christian faith and principles of justice, FUNDAHMER works to promote the social, economic, and spiritual development of these communities, which number 45, with about 1,900 families. With community members, FUNDAHMER fosters sustainable and economically sound initiatives that improve the lives of the poor, providing them long-term solutions to present challenges.
Besides education and eradication of poverty and respect for the environment, programs include development of alternative sustainable agricultural methods; development of micro-enterprises such as bee keeping and fish/shrimp culture; creation of small businesses; community organization and advocacy training, including faith and value formation.
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| Jennifer with the family of the coordinator of youth in San Miguelito |
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Friends of Batahola
The Centro Cultural Batahola in Managua, Nicaragua, is a technical training and holistic education facility for women and youth, founded in 1983 by Father Ángel Torrellas, OP, and Sister Margarita Navarro, CSJ. Over the past 24 years the Center has helped over 2,000 women and youth to defend their rights, find and develop new sources of income, and improve their living standards.
The Center currently offers a varied program of basic adult education and vocational training that is approved by the National Technological Institute (INATEC) and coordinated with the Ministry of Education (MECD). Approximately 500 students enroll in 11 different technical and domestic arts courses each year. The Center provides a rich environment conducive to learning, including a scholarship program to help young people continue their formal education and a 5,000-volume library. It also seeks to support the healthy development of young people through the arts, offering classes and performance opportunities in folkloric dance, music, painting and theatre. Since 1994, the Center has enabled more than 100 young people from poor families to finish their studies (primary through university levels) and become trained professionals. They have become lawyers, doctors, translators, social workers, journalists, business administrators, physical therapists, engineers, and musicians.
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| The Angel Torrellas choir performs at CCBN |
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CAPAZ
Capacitacion en Produccion Agropecuaria para la Zona, seeks to combat poverty by assuring a more diversified and wholesome food supply through an integrated, practical and tailored livestock training program, with emphasis on the active participation of the farmers. The CAPAZ organization has: 1) built a Training Center for the training and practice of managing livestock farms for rural farmers; 2) has built an experimental farm with eight lines of livestock; 3) developed a training curriculum; 4) provided specialized training and on-going support to other organizations and promoters (extensionists) who return to their own communities to communicate what they have learned; 5) trained students at two universities in Guatemala; and 6) produced manuals for further distribution of the knowledge and techniques learned at the Center.
In addition, CAPAZ has set up alternative energy generating systems of solar panels and, soon, a biodigestor plant. The Center is creating training programs for the farmers in these alternative energy systems and working with microcredit organizations so that these sytems can be available to rural farmers, saving energy costs and reducing deforestration and subsequent soil erosion.
CAPAZ works in areas where the indigenous Mayan population is concentrated - in Peten, Huehuetenango, Quiche, Alta Verapaz, San Marcos, Quetzaltenango, Solola, Retaluleu, Suchitepequez, Sacatepequez and Totonicapán, regions with limited resources, and the highest rates of illiteracy and mortality in the country. The inhabitants live in extreme poverty, with families surviving on less than $1 a day.
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| Pieter teaching a group of students about animal care at CAPAZ |
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| Maria Madre
Maria Madre is located in La Chacra. The La Chacra neighborhood, with a population of 30,000 residents, is one of the most dangerous places in San Salvador, plagued by gang activity, addictions, and extreme poverty. The population of young people (ages 10-17) totals about 6,000. By the time teenagers reach high school age (ages 15-16), many of their families can no longer afford to send them to school, or the youth themselves lose interest because they see no future possibilities for employment. Youth are tempted into destructive behavior such as drinking, drugs and involvement in gangs, leading to violence and hopelessness.
Maria Madre de los Pobres Parish is a safe haven and spiritual home in this unforgiving environment. They provide a medical clinic that includes services for dentistry and vision, as well as a pharmacy. They have a day care center and gradeschool for about 90 children from infants up to 3rd grade. A child sponsorship program provides scholarships from sister parishes in the U.S. to children in the parish so they can attend public school. A Community Bank has been created to provide microcredit loans to women to create small businesses. And the parish has initiated a social assistance program for the elderly in the parish, providing food, medicines, accompaniment and community.
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| Danny teaching at Maria Madre |
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Servicio Social Passionista
Servicio Social Passionista, or SSPAS, works in the parish of San Francisco de Asís in Mejicanos, El Salvador. There are four Passionist priests from Spain who work in the parish as well as a dozen or so seminarians from various Latin American countries.
SSPAS has four main areas in which it works. Prevention of and Attention to Violence, which also encompasses the youth programs and the women’s groups. The other sections are the Leadership and Political Participation Area, which works with the leadership of each community and encourages participation in politics; the Training and Employment Area, which encompasses the training programs which teach community members skills like jewelrymaking and cosmetology and also includes programs that help people find regular employment; and finally the Heath Area, under which fall the health clinic and various other preventative health care programs.
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| Maggie teaching a group of students |
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