What CAN You Do?

Posted on December 12, 2011 by writeherewritenow

The problems that fill the news these days seem so vast, so overwhelming that they can make us feel powerless. We can spiral into endless rounds of rumination, so caught up in the problems that we cannot see our way to any solutions, an attitude that psychologist Martin Seligman has called “learned helplessness” (1991). Yet in order to move forward in our lives, to stay sane in what often seems an insane world, we have to believe that we can make a difference.

Actually, we are always making a difference. Our actions either reinforce or redefine the status quo. As Frances Moore Lappé has said, “the choice we have is not whether, but only how, we change the world.”  She encourages us to find “entry points,” small openings where we can begin making a difference (2010, pp. 118, 184).

We can begin looking for entry points by asking “What CAN I do?” With all the news of the big banks refusing to make loans and refinance mortgages, this month I transferred my savings from a big bank to a community credit union because it lends to small businesses and gives mortgages to low-income citizens, reaching out to rebuild our economy.

Over Thanksgiving, I heard about the “knit-in for the sit-in,” a creative idea from Maxina Ventura of Occupy Berkeley, who invites knitters to affirm solidarity with the Occupy movement by making hats, gloves, mittens, and scarves to send to people camped out this winter. This week I knitted my first  stocking cap for a brother or sister in the movement.

When we reach out in hope, we are never alone. On the wall of my study is a quote from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

In her new book, Ecomind, Lappé tells of a small group of citizens in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the air quality was so bad in the 1960s it made national headlines. In the 1980s, 50 citizens came together to search for solutions. By the 1990s, the smog was gone with greenhouse gases reduced by 29% by free electric buses, a new riverside walk had transformed the city, crime was down, and tourists were coming to see the new aquarium. Affirming creativity over the status quo, the citizens are now planning a zero-emissions industrial park and a green convention center (2011, p. 185; 2010, p. 123-24)

The next time you feel overwhelmed by national and global problems,
ask yourself, “What CAN I do?” and begin to make a difference,
right here, right now.

References

Lappé, F. M. (2010). Getting a Grip2. Cambridge, MA: Small Planet Media.

Lappé, F. M. (2011). Ecomind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want. New York: Nation Books.

Seligman, M. E. P. (1991) Learned optimism. New York: Knopf.

For information about the “knit-in,” see http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/11/26/crafters-organize-knit-in-in-solidarity-with-occupy-berkeley/.  Knitted and crocheted items may also be sent to Occupy Berkeley, c/o Maxina Ventura, 2399 E. 14th St. No 24, San Leandro, CA 94577.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on What CAN You Do?

Los Olvidados

Posted on December 6, 2011 by writeherewritenow

Dice un proverbio chino que “la experiencia del pasado, si no cae en el olvido, sirve de guía para el futuro”,  eso lo han aprendido diferentes comunidades en el oriente de El Salvador, pero muy poco los gobernantes. Los habitantes de zonas como el Bajo Lempa, en el departamento de Usulután, han entendido ciertas lecciones tras vivir inundaciones en cada estación lluviosa durante muchos años. En esta área, las casas se edifican sobre bases de más de un metro, en los techos se guardan pequeñas  balsas y las comunidades, con el apoyo de alguna ONG, mantienen un plan de emergencia. Medidas básicas, que mientras brilla el sol alguien ajeno a la zona resta importancia, pero de vital importancia ante la amenaza de lluvias intensas.

Albergue

La naturaleza  no siempre es compasiva, intensas lluvias sobre zonas vulnerables pueden provocar grandes desgracias. Tal como sucedió con paso de la depresión tropical el mes pasado. La lluvia arrasó con varias zonas y nuevamente el Bajo Lempa vivió días de zozobra y destrucción. La depresión tropical dejó daños en 180 municipios (el 70% de El Salvador), 56,000 personas fueron llevadas a refugios y 34 personas murieron a causa de las inundaciones y deslaves. El gobierno salvadoreño calcula que las pérdidas materiales alcanzan los US $840 millones. El informe oficial de los daños asegura que el país no había sufrido “un acontecimiento de este tipo en los últimos 40 años”.

Demasiada tragedia para un país tan pequeño y vulnerable. Con más de la mitad del país golpeado, la atención en el Bajo Lempa –donde las inundaciones se esperan cada año- se reduce a casi nada. No porque este año hayan tenido mejor suerte, sino porque es fácil desatender a quien se presume es más experimentado.  Tras un par de semanas, de los damnificados por las lluvias poco se habla incluso en el mismo El Salvador. Pero el silencio no quita la pena de ese mundo olvidado. En zonas como el Bajo Lempa, los campesinos siguen intentando rescatar lo poco que queda, siguen contemplando las cosechas anegadas y siguen con muy poca ayuda, pero intentando organizarse para salir adelante.

Como si fuera poco al perro flaco siempre se le pegan todas las pulgas. El estancamiento de agua se convierte en foco de muchas enfermedades infecciosas como diarreas, enfermedades respiratorias, afecciones cutáneas, etc.

Los patios se han quedado vacios por miedo a las infecciones

Pero en los últimos días, Usulután ha vuelto a atraer la atención de los medios por razones sanitarias más complicadas,  el ministerio de Salud confirmó la primera muerte por leptospirosis (infección bacteriana grave y poco común provocada por la bacteria leptospira). Las autoridades de Salud confirmaron la muerte de un joven de 18 años que colaboró fuertemente en las labores de evacuación de personas en riesgo en su comunidad durante el desastre provocado por las lluvias. Presumiblemente en esas labores habría contraído la bacteria que provocó su muerte. Tras esta lamentable noticia la zona ha vuelto a la vista pública, pero esto no se traduce necesariamente en ayuda a todos los afectados por las lluvias. Existen ONG trabajando en la zona, pero ante las grandes necesidades los esfuerzos aún no son suficientes. Ante un país devastado, la zona de las eternas inundaciones queda olvidada. La falta de obras de prevención en las orillas del río Lempa y la mala regulación de las descargas de la represa garantizan que el próximo invierno las inundaciones se repitan y por unos días se recuerde a esas tierras olvidadas.

Clara Villatoro
Periodista
ProgramaVelasco.org

 

Posted in Education, Guest Blog, Spiritual Activism | Comments Off on Los Olvidados

A Sacred Encounter

Posted on November 26, 2011 by writeherewritenow

“Who are you?” said the five year old, looking at me as she firmly placed her hands on her hips. Her eyes were deep and dark.

“My name is Juan. What is your name?”
“I am Brenda. Do you want me to tell you a joke?” She laughed openly even before the joke was over. I could see how open her heart was.

Children at the School Presidio Liberado

The sun was shining again over El Salvador. The devastating rains were over. The land was slowly beginning to dry. People have returned to their communities but children like Brenda are still struggling. After the joke Brenda looked at me seriously.
“You know what?”
“What?” I asked.
“You are not going to believe this,” her face was intense and filled with mystery as if trying to understand the story herself.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Well, there was this old man in the community. He was always around here. He used a little stick to move around. Then, another man stole the stick, and you know what?”
I looked at her. I knew she was trying to tell me something but, as always, in indirect ways. I shook my head.
“You are not going to believe what happened,” she repeated.
“What happened?” I asked. She got closer to me.
“He died…of hunger.” Her eyes searched inside my soul to find my reaction. I shook my head again. She did the same. Hunger in the community is something she was probably seeing a lot.

When I joined the “medical brigade” for a trip to Bajo Lempa, I wasn’t expecting those communities to still be in such a bad shape. In the Bajo Lempa, the low-lying farming area near the Lempa River, the communities were completely flooded, destroying most crops. At the school Amando Lopez, where Brenda found me, I saw many families left to survive on their own, with many children and adults underweight, some severely malnourished.

“Brenda, do you like school?” I asked. She nodded.
“But you know what?” she added immediately, “you are not going to believe what happened.” She paused and looked at me, again searching to see if I was interested in this new story.

Lack of Transportation at Bajo Lempa

“What happened?” I asked, impressed with her storytelling techniques.
“Well, the rain came…and you know what?”
“What happened?” I asked patiently.
“There is no transportation!”  She screamed it, with the exasperation of a five-year old, reporting the absurdity of that kind of news.  We were both quiet again. She looked at me. I wondered if she wanted me to say something. But Brenda was not interested in pity. She wanted me to know. She wanted me to hear, to really listen.

After spending the day together, on my way back home, I was thinking that for those living a more comfortable life (like me), it was easy to pretend the situation has gone back to normal, but for Brenda’s community the situation would be dire for a long time. I checked the stories Brenda told me with a couple of teachers and they confirmed the one about children not being able to go to school. Others were just Brenda’s efforts to make sense of the hunger and the difficulties of life through stories she could share with us.

Children Fighting Malnutrition

At night, however, I couldn’t stop thinking about that little child. My dream was that someday we would be able to offer scholarships to bright, feisty children like Brenda. Teaching at the program Casa de la Solidaridad for a semester, I wondered if solidarity could ever be a comfortable “home.” The situation in the rural communities in the Bajo Lempa is extremely difficult, now more than ever. What is it we need to become so we can embrace and understand solidarity and the suffering of this world? I was thinking about the encounter with Brenda. Later at night I thought that maybe solidarity is not about you becoming something. It is about something much simpler. Like Jim Harrison says, it is about “everything and everyone becoming you.” I was inspired to act by the sparkling laughter of Brenda and her courage to tell the stories. Maybe a little bit of her is still with me. That beautiful child helped me to understand a little bit better the long road home, the road to solidarity.

Take a few minutes of mindful breathing to reflect on meaningful and sacred encounters in your own life. What people and conversations have moved you  and change you in powerful ways? What kinds of stories do you need to tell and share with others?  Write for as long as you can.  Enjoy it!

Juan Velasco

 

 

Posted in Spiritual Activism, Writing | Comments Off on A Sacred Encounter

The Power of Water

Posted on November 20, 2011 by writeherewritenow

“Nothing on earth
Is more gentle and yielding than water
Yet nothing is stronger.”

(Tao Te Ching 78 )

Water nurtures all life on earth. Falling from the sky to the ground as precipitation—rain or snow—it flows as surface water through rivers into lakes and oceans, or percolates deep into the earth through layers of sediment, becoming aquifers, vast underground lakes. With the sun’s heat, surface water evaporates, rising as vapor to form clouds, and the cycle begins again. There is always the same amount of water on earth. We drink the same water that the dinosaurs drank. The golden wheat fields of the American Midwest are irrigated by water from the Ogallala Aquifer, a massive underground lake that dates back to the Pleistocene era

Throughout its cycle, water takes many forms–from snowflakes, tiny lace mandallas from the sky, to shimmering icicles, to a summer’s day heavy with humidity, to the rapids of a roaring river.

Water can be beautiful or destructive. A few weeks ago, violent rain storms flooded El Salvador, washing out roads, trapping a group of students on a mountain top, destroying crops, leaving many people homeless and hungry. As the water cycle connects us all, so in the cycle of life, we are all connected. Many of us are reaching out to help, sending our thoughts and prayers and contributing what we can to Programa Velasco to help the disaster victims at http://programavelasco.org/diaster-relief-?lang=en

All contributions, large and small, are welcome.

The water cycle includes us all, and there’s a powerful parallel between water and the energies of our lives. Some energies are creative, life-sustaining; others, destructive streams of fear or greed. Each day, we contribute to the collective energy of the planet, the cycle of life within and around us.

Living creatively means becoming more mindful of our energies. Take a moment to ask yourself:
–Am I adding to the currents of fear flooding our planet?
–Or does my heart open in currents of compassion, loving kindness, to nurture and create?

Whatever challenges you are facing in your life,

Take a deep breath.
Breathe out fear.
Breathe in love.
Connect with the eternal cycle of life

Right here, right now.

Diane

References:
For the Tao quote, Dreher, D. (2000). The Tao of Inner Peace. New York: Penguin Putnam.

To contribute to disaster relief, http://programavelasco.org/diaster-relief-?lang=en


 

Posted in Spiritual Activism, Spiritual Practice | Comments Off on The Power of Water

Bajo Lempa: A Forgotten World

Posted on November 6, 2011 by writeherewritenow

The sun is shining once again over El Salvador after October’s devastating rains. The land is beginning to dry, and people have returned to their communities to begin the clean-up effort. President Mauricio Funes reported this week that the storm caused about $840 million worth of damages.

When the “medical brigade” from ANADES (our partner  Salvadorian NGO) invited me to join them at 6:00 am next morning for a trip to Bajo Lempa, it didn’t take too long for me to say, “yes.” I was curious to know how the rebuilding efforts was taking place in one of the most affected areas of the country.  In the Bajo Lempa, the low-lying farming area near the Lempa River, the communities were completely flooded, destroying most crops. Even though most people have lived through floods before – something more and more common due to climate change – the situation there is extremely difficult. When we arrived at the school Armando Lopez around 9:00 am, there were already around forty families waiting for the doctor, a natural medicine expert, a medical student, and three volunteers coming with us.

There were heavy floods in the three pre-school communities
we visited— Amando Lopez, Presidio Liberado, and La Canoa.

Children Can't Play Outside Yet--Too Dangerous

My impression of those communities was that of a forgotten world, with families left to survive on their own, with many of the children and adults underweight, and some severely malnourished. We were able to give some food to each family that came through; and to the children with the most serious undernourishment, we gave a bag of powdered nutritional supplement.

Is it enough? For those living a more comfortable life, the situation looks like it has gone back to normal, but the loss of the crops in those communities  means that the majority of families have lost their main source of income for the year. In an already poor region where the people stretch each dollar they earn to provide for their families, the coming weeks, months, and year will be extremely difficult.

Programa Velasco is seeking to reinvest in the future of these communities – both by supporting immediate needs like food, clean water, medicine, cleaning supplies and hygiene products and long-term needs like reinforcing the levee (which broke during the floods) and the replanting of the crops, so that the people can begin to generate income again. We also believe that education is the most powerful tool for self-empowerment, and we would like to expand our scholarship program next year to the rural communities in the Bajo Lempa where the economic situation is extremely difficult, now more than ever.

Please join us in support of this work – make a one-time donation to buy immediate needs like food and medicine; become a Compañero/a to support long-term projects in San Ramon and in the rural communities, or sponsor a child for the 2012 school year.  Learn more at www.programavelasco.org

In gratitude and hope,
Juan and the Programa Velasco Team

 

Posted in Education, Spiritual Activism | Comments Off on Bajo Lempa: A Forgotten World

The power of self-compassion

Posted on October 30, 2011 by writeherewritenow

Do you have a nagging inner voice that says you’re “not good enough,” lashing out critically whenever you make a mistake? If so, you’re not alone. As creative artists, we have the gift of shining ideals—but this gift often has a shadow side: whenever we fall short of our goals, we can sabotage ourselves with harsh self-criticism.

Most of us are kinder to the people around us than we are to ourselves. We give our friends kindness and support when they make a mistake but often blame ourselves when we’re in the same situation.

We treat ourselves this way because we’ve been sabotaged by competitive consumer values, internalized the critical voices of our parents, or grown up blaming ourselves for family patterns of alcoholism, neglect, or abuse. Haunted by a deep sense of unworthiness, we develop a pattern of harsh self-criticism that assaults us when we’re down, increasing our suffering and blocking our path to higher creativity.

University of Texas psychologist Kristin Neff, Ph.D., has found that we can stop this painful pattern with the power of self-compassion, a lesson drawn from thousands of years of Buddhist practice. As she explains in her new book, Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind, this means to “accept ourselves with an open heart, to treat ourselves with the same kindness, caring, and compassion we would show to a good friend.”  Neff, the leading researcher in the field, has inspired over a thousand scientific studies that show how self-compassion helps overcome anxiety and depression and leads to better psychological and physical health, including emotional intelligence, happiness, wisdom, curiosity, optimism, autonomy, competence, social connections, life satisfaction, resilience, initiative, and the ability to learn, grow, and overcome challenges—qualities that nurture our creativity.

Self-compassion involves three steps.

  1. Mindfulness.  The next time you’re feeling down, instead of blowing things out of proportion, ask yourself, “What is this?” “What am I feeling?” Name your feelings to yourself—“I feel sad, scared, hurt, angry, confused.”
  2. Common humanity.  As the Buddha taught, suffering is common to all humanity. Tell yourself, “It’s OK. No one’s perfect. Everyone makes mistakes.”
  3. Kindness to yourself.  Then actively soothe yourself with kind words, even giving yourself a hug, as Neff suggests in her book, by crossing your arms over your chest and squeezing your upper arms, saying, “Poor dear, you’re really hurting right now.”

You can build self-compassion with this loving-kindness meditation.

  • Take a deep breath, close your eyes and visualize someone for whom you feel unconditional love—a loved one, a dear friend, even a beloved pet.
  • Say, “May you be filled with loving kindness. May you be well. May you be peaceful and at ease. May you be happy.”
  • Cross your arms over your chest and breathe deeply into your heart, saying for yourself: “May I be filled with loving kindness. May I be well. May I be peaceful and at ease. May I be happy.”
  • Then send loving kindness to other people you know, ending with a blessing for all beings: “May all beings be filled with loving kindness. May all be well. May all be peaceful and at ease. May all be happy.”

You can find out more about self-compassion, including more self-compassion exercises in Kristin Neff’s book and on her web site, http://www.self-compassion.org.

May you be filled with loving kindness right here, right now.

Diane

 

 

 

 

Posted in Insights from Positive Psychology, Spiritual Practice | Comments Off on The power of self-compassion

Dean Brackley, S.J.–Teaching Solidarity Through Love

Posted on October 23, 2011 by writeherewritenow

On Sunday October 16th, after a struggle with pancreatic and liver cancer, our friend and mentor Dean Brackley, SJ was called to be with God.

Dean Brackley, S.J.

Dean was a courageous and passionate seeker of social justice and truth. In 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were killed at University of Central America. Shortly thereafter, with deep faith and hope, Dean volunteered to work at the UCA and accompany the poor of El Salvador. He described the calling to go to El Salvador as “a fast pitch down the middle” … and he had to swing.

Over the years, Dean became the pitcher on the mound, throwing fastballs down the middle to us -the international community- inviting us to take a swing at engaging in the Salvadoran reality, letting our hearts be broken and discerning our vocations, what it means to be privileged in an unjust world and to be disciples of Christ and the Salvadoran martyrs.

Communities from Jayaque and Las Palmas at the UCA's Chapel

In many ways, how the Programa Velasco staff came to know
El Salvador was because of Dean’s influence. His visionary gifts led him to initiate the creation of the remarkable Santa Clara University’s Casa de la Solidaridad study abroad program. The Casa has changed our lives and given us the opportunity to experience the reality of El Salvador through, as Dean led us to do; accompany and learn with the Salvadorans poor.

 

We are forever changed and inspired by you, Dean.
We Thank You, We Love You,

~~~
Have the courage to lose control.
Have the courage to feel useless.
Have the courage to listen.
Have the courage to receive.
Have the courage to let your heart be broken.
…Have the courage to feel.
Have the courage to fall in love.
Have the courage to get ruined for life.
Have the courage to make a friend.

~Dean Brackley, SJ

Programa Velasco Team
programavelasco.org

Posted in Spiritual Practice | Comments Off on Dean Brackley, S.J.–Teaching Solidarity Through Love

Update–El Salvador

Posted on October 22, 2011 by writeherewritenow

The past two weeks in El Salvador have been very difficult with an extreme tropical depression dumping more rain on the country than 1998’s devastating Hurricane Mitch.

The Bridge to Sonsonate

Over 52,500 people have been evacuated, 48,723 are in shelters and at least 32 people have died. In all of Central America, 700,000 are displaced and 90 people have lost their lives due to landslides and flooding.

Details:

  • Centro Hogar is located in San Ramon, at the base of the San Salvador volcano and is at extreme risk of landslides. Many Centro Hogar families and children have evacuated and are in shelters. The police and Civil Protection are on consant alert.
  • In th Bajo Lempa, a low-lying area next to the Lempa river, where our partner organization ANADES has three other pre-schools, has becometotally devastated because of extreme flooding. Water as reached to the roofs of homes and businesses. There were many families trapped in their homes until Tuesday and the majority have now been evacuated into shelters indefinitely.
  • Much of the catastrophe in the Bajo Lempa is a result of human iresponsibility. According to VOICES on the Border , the September 15 dam, one of 3 hydroeletric dams has dumped water at the highest rate of 12,000 cubic centimeters per second, 2,500 cm/sec is a cause for alarm. The intense rain fall would have caused the communities to flood but the intense extra water from the dam has created catostrophic flooding.
  • The heavy rains have destroyed much of this season’s crops. There will be an increase in the prices of basic food staples including vegetables, beans, and rice.
  • Public health concerns rise: cantminated water, animal carcasses and mosquito borne diseases spead as fast the flood waters.

How YOU can HELP

In this crucial time, we need to do everything we can to help our communities and families facing critical dange and in need of reconstruction. Programa Velasco is trying to raise funds for:

  • Basic Needs: portable water, food, underwear
  • Cleaning-Up: bleach, soap, boots, shoes
  • Resources: gasoline, tools, construction materials
  • Health: pyschological attention, mosquito netting
DONATE SAFELY: http://programavelasco.org/Thank you so much for your solidarity!

VELASCO TEAM

Posted in Spiritual Activism | Comments Off on Update–El Salvador

Crisis en El Salvador y Centroamerica

Posted on October 21, 2011 by writeherewritenow

Queridos amigos:

El Salvador está viviendo un momento muy difícil. Una depresión tropical ha afectado el país por más de una semana.

Carretera

La lluvia ha sido tanta que ha superado el impacto del devastador Huracán Mitch en 1998. El presidente Funes declaró “estado de calamidad” esta semana.  Oficialmente, las lluvias han dejado 34 fallecidos y 55,976 personas evacuadas por el riesgo de deslaves o derrumbes, albergadas en 638 refugios. La situación ha afectado a toda Centroamérica, Guatemala confirmó 38 personas muertas a causa de las lluvias, Honduras 15 y Nicaragua 13. En San Ramón, donde está localizado el Programa Velasco, hay un riesgo extremo  de deslaves debido a que está ubicado en las faldas del Volcán de San Salvador.

Muchas comunidades de la zona han sido evacuadas, la Policía
y Protección Civil están en constante alerta.  Pese al riesgo, afortunadamente no han habido deslaves pero la lluvia sigue. El  Bajo Lempa, una zona baja en el sur del país, está totalmente devastado y es ahí donde nuestra organización hermana ANDES tiene tres centros de desarrollo infantil. En muchas comunidades el agua ha cubierto las casas hasta los techos, muchas familias quedaron aisladas, aunque la mayoría logró llegar a refugios en donde permanecen indefinidamente.

Estas fuertes lluvias han destruido también cerca del 70% de las cosechas de esta temporada. Esto incrementará los precios de la canasta básica, incluyendo los frijoles, el arroz, el maíz y los vegetales. Por lo que les invitamos a colaborar con fondos de ayuda.

Las donaciones pueden hacerse a través de http://programavelasco.blogspot.com/ “Voices on the Border” con atención a ANADES, la ONG salvadoreña trabajando con las comunidades más afectadas.

Muchas gracias por su tiempo y su solidaridad,
Equipo Velasco: www.programavelasco.org

Posted in Spiritual Activism | Comments Off on Crisis en El Salvador y Centroamerica

Worse than Hurricane Mitch

Posted on October 20, 2011 by writeherewritenow

Dear friends,

This is a very difficult time for El Salvador. A tropical depression has poured rain over El Salvador for more than a week now, dumping more rain on the country than 1998 ‘ s devastating Hurricane Mitch. Yesterday, President Funes declared a State of Calamity throughout the country, higher than a state of emergency. According to the most recent reports, there have been 38 deaths and 32,243 refugees, forced from their homes because of flooding or risk of landslides (La Prensa Grafica). The situation is affecting the whole Central American region with 29 deaths in Guatemala, 13 deaths in Honduras and 8 deaths in Nicaragua.

Children in a Refuge Center

In San Ramon, where Programa Velasco is located, there is extreme risk of landslides, since we are located at the base of the volcano. Several parts of the community have already been evacuated, and the police and Civil Protection are on constant alert. Thankfully, there have been no landslides so far, but the rain continues.

In Bajo Lempa, a low-lying area where our partner
organization ANADES has three child development centers, is totally devastated. In many communities, the water has reached up to the roofs of homes and businesses. There are many families trapped in their homes, but the majority are currently in shelters indefinitely.

The heavy rains have destroyed much of this season’s crops.

Puente Ateos

There will be an increase in the prices of basic food staples including vegetables, corn, beans, and rice. To get relief funds to people right away, please make your tax-deductible donations  on the Programa Velasco web site, directing your gift to“Disaster Relief.” Click on http://programavelasco.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your time and solidarity.

Juan Velasco
ProgramaVelasco.org

Posted in Spiritual Activism | Comments Off on Worse than Hurricane Mitch