News:

Newly Built Church in Teosinte

Arlington Massachusetts building a “Sister City” Curriculum.  Starting this fall the Arlington-Teosinte Sister City Project will be working with local schools to design and implement fourth grade curriculum units about El Salvador and their sister city of Teosinte, located in the mountains of Chalatenango.  The project aims at teaching about everyday life in Teosinte, Salvadoran culture, and proposes to reach beyond the classroom to facilitate interaction between students in Teosinte and students in Arlington.  The twenty-year friendship between the two cities provides a unique opportunity to give students an intimate look into daily life in a very different place, and an appreciation for the power of international friendship.  If all goes well, the pilot program would expand to fourth graders in seven elementary schools in Arlington.  More about the Arlington-Teosinte Sister City Project…

Bangor-Carasque Sister City Project, PICA launch “kNOw US and THEM” Program.  In Bangor’s sister city of Carasque, it now costs more to grow corn than Carasqueños can buy it for in the market. Young people have to leave the community to find work. Many make the dangerous journey to the U.S., looking for a way to support themselves and their families back home. In Maine, small farmers face many of the same problems as their Central American counterparts. While many Mainers now understand how “free trade” has devastated Maine manufacturing jobs, few see the ways in which international economic forces and trade policies connect their own lives with what is being experienced in the Central American countryside, and with the lives of Latino immigrants who are now arriving in Maine.  The kNOw US and THEM project looks to connect Individuals and organizations currently working in Maine on issues of trade to address concerns of immigration and immigrant rights to form broader alliances.  The project also aims to educate and engage in a process of reflection with residents of eastern Maine about these phenomena.  Read more…

Kansan Salvadoran Solidarity Action takes action in Lawrence, Kansas.  In May of 2008, a group of individuals met to discuss the future of relations with our sister community of El Papaturro. We met at the Ecumenical Christian Ministries (ECM), the sponsor of student delegations from Lawrence, KS over the past 4 years, site of the 2006 USESSC National Gathering, and prolific community center serving the community of Lawrence and the University of Kansas student body. Those in attendance consisted of past members of student delegations, representatives from the Lawrence- El Papaturro Friendship Committee, and community members with a concern for the future of our sistering relationship. The intended purpose of the meeting had been to discuss the feasibility of continued sponsorship for student delegations as an ECM program, but what developed was of a much broader scope.  Read more about KSSA...

Community-Based Sustainable Economies and Education.  Woven into many sister city relationships are 'sisters' working in the North to promote the goods created by co-operatives in our sistered communities in El Salvador.  Such co-operatives are a natural part of daily life in the organized communities of CRIPDES, part of an economic model that strengthens community life and sufficiency.   Learn more…

Stations of the Sturggle Exhibit in Madison.  This spring, in collaboration with several Madison churches, the Madison Arcatao Sister City Project (MASCP) presented "Stations of the Struggle," a traveling art exhibit during the 2008 Lent season. The Stations of the Struggle exhibit honors the fact that the people of our sister city of Arcatao, El Salvador do not have to look far in their history to see parallels to Christ's pain and struggle depicted in the traditional Stations of the Cross. Healing from a long and violent civil war, the people of Arcatao have undergone their own struggle and continue to stand up for their human rights in the face of oppression.  Read more…