Who are we?
Program Areas
Campaigns
Salvadoran Associates
Board of Directors
Activities
Companion
Community Development Alternatives (CoCoDA) with associate organizations
in El Salvador promotes "community to comunidad" cooperation in
projects for community-based, democratic social and economic development
in
El Salvador. Funding and other forms of participation
in these projects come from independent affiliate groups in the
United States that we call "CoCo Groups", as well as from foundations,
other public and private organizations, and non-affiliated grassroots
groups
and individuals in the U.S.
In
2002, CoCoDA has cooperated in projects in four rural regions of
El Salvador with four associate organizations:
6a
Calle Pte.#43
Carlos Bonilla, President of ADES (right) talking with Ulises, former Mayor of Ciudad Victoria and presently Director of the 10 de Octubre School in Santa Marta. ~~~~~~ ADES is
a non-profit, non-governmental organization, formed
on April 15, 1993, to attend to the economic and social
needs of marginal
communities, particularly the communities of repatriated
war refugees in the northern zone of the department
of Cabañas. The
objective of ADES is to contribute to the integrated
development of communities in the department of Cabañas
for the purpose of improving the quality of life and
developing the organizational
bases that will empower the communities to influence
the definition and implementation of social and economic
strategies
on a local level. ADES
works in the areas of popular education, women's development,
community health, community radio, and community organizing,
with programs in five municipalities. • High
unemployment • Lack
of opportunities and alternatives for agricultural production • Pollution
of rivers and ravines • Roads
in bad condition • Alcoholism,
drug abuse, common crime • Youth
organized in gangs • Lack
of recreational areas and healthy public spaces The
principal form of organization in the communities is the
ADESCO (Community Development Association), as well as
committees organized to respond to specific needs, such as
youth organizations,
water and health committees, an Agro-production Cooperative,
Education Committee, Women's Committee, etc… |
Comité de Reconstrucción y Desarrollo Económico-Social de las Comunidades de Suchitoto, Cuscatlán (CRC) Calle
Central No. 45  Wendy Wallas translates for a CoCoDA delegation, while CRC President Manuel Ortega explains their strategies for supporting community development. CRC Board members Nelson Ayala and Wendy Sarmamiento look on. ~~~~~ The CRC, a non-profit, non-governmental organization, was founded in November, 1988 with 11 communities resettled by people displaced by the war in the department of Cuscatlán, to serve as a representative organization for these communities during the armed conflict, to help generate social, economic, political and moral support. Since 1993, the CRC has worked to support the development of 30 affiliated rural communities, coordinating, facilitating, planning, promoting, and executing projects for integrated development to bring about an improved quality of life in the communities. The CRC has active projects in the areas of women's development, popular education, community health, community radio, sustainable agriculture, reforestation and environmental conservation. The municipality of Suchitoto is located in the Department of Cuscatlán, 47 kilometers from the capital city of San Salvador. Suchitoto has pre-Columbian origins and in 1994 was declared a Cultural Patrimony by the national Legislative Assembly. Of the nearly 30,000 residents of Suchitoto, 69% live in rural areas, in 28 cantones and 77 communities. The dispersion of the population leaves many families without basic services such as clean drinking water, health care, education and transportation.
|
Fundación
Salvadoreña
para la Reconstrucción y el Desarrollo (REDES) Calle
Cerro Verde 3028 
~~~~~ REDES is
a non-profit, non-governmental organization with the
mission of contributing to improving the quality of life
of the economically and socially marginal population
of El Salvador. Since
1988, REDES has worked with displaced and dispossessed
urban and rural sectors of the Salvadoran population
for post-war reconstruction, emergency disaster relief,
and for sustainable social and economic development.Guided
by the principle that people need to be subjects of their
own development, REDES manages programs on a national
level in the areas of micro-lending and business training,
land reform, housing, agricultural and livestock production,
disaster relief and environmental conservation. CoCoDA's most recent cooperation with REDES was a disaster mitigation project funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Bajo Lempa region of southern Usulután, where 30 rural communities (6,580 people - 1,555 families) are located in eastern El Salvador, in the municipality of Jiquilisco, Usulután province. Residents of these communities live in conditions of absolute poverty, with minimal productive capacity. They are living in a high-risk geographical area (homes, livestock and crops were lost in the floods caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, then again by floods in 1999, then many homes and roads were damaged by the January 13, 2001 earthquake). |
Last Revised on 1 April 2007