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Following are some titbits collected from Starhawk's
posted letters. Here she mentions her colleague
Marta, her own trips to the area, and the projects
started to help Marta's community. Background and
details are in Starhawk's article for Reclaiming
Quarterly magazine, Summer '99 issue (soon to be
linked online). Also see her article Hermana
Christina's Well on the Activism Writings page.
January 2, 1997
In the morning, I'm leaving for El Salvador, accompanied
by Joy from Victoria and my stepdaughter Amie. We'll
be visiting Marta Benevides and some of the communities
that the Reclaiming El Salvador Friendship Fund
has been fundraising for. The Fund began at our
Mid-Atlantic Witch Camp when we learned that co-operatives
in El Salvador who have been trying to begin sustainable,
organic farming were in danger of losing their land.
Our dream was to raise $40,000 to help three co-operatives.
Since August, we have raised over $20,000! Part
of that came from a grant, and $6,000 came from
one extremely generous donation. The Mid-Atlantic
Reclaiming community organized a speaking tour for
Marta, including house concerts and other events.
I'm very proud of our community and hope that this
is just the beginning of a long and fruitful exchange.
December, 1998
Climate change is already here. Remember when people
first started talking about global warming--predicting
that the oceans would rise, and that climate would
become unstable with monster storms and hurricanes?
Why doesn't anyone seem to notice that it's happening?
As usual, the poor are suffering the most. Hurricane
Mitch has devastated much of Central America. While
Honduras and Nicaragua were the hardest hit, our
sister communities in El Salvador have also suffered
losses of crops and livelihood. In January, I've
be joining a small group of women from our Circle
of Love group to travel to San Salvador and offer
support. We'll be working at a Peace Fair, doing
some permaculture projects, and learning from the
work of Marta Benevides who directs the sustainability
projects we support. If you've been thinking of
sending some money down that way to help hurricane
victims, and want to support groups that aren't
on the Red Cross list, consider joining our Circle
of Love.
May, 1999
In January, I went with several of the women from
our El Salvador support group, the Circle of Love,
to visit Marta Benevides in Nahuizalco. We worked
at the Peace and Sustainability Fair in San Salvador,
visited some of the projects we've been supporting,
and I gave a half-day Introduction to Permaculture
course, in Spanish, at Marta's farm outside of San
Salvador. A full account of our trip will appear
in the Summer Issue of the Reclaiming Quarterly.
Copyright (c) 1997-99 by Starhawk. All rights reserved. This copyright protects Starhawk's right to future publication of her work. Nonprofit, activist, and educational groups may circulate this essay (forward it, reprint it, translate it, post it, or reproduce it) for nonprofit uses. Please do not change any part of it without permission.