El Salvador: feelings of hope and despair 18-jan-02

El Salvador: feelings of hope and despair...*
John 10:10

Brothers and sisters:

Jesus was very clear that life, the life of the person, the life of the community, was essential to its message of salvation. Life and to defend life was the reason of his coming, o his death in cross, of his resurrection.

He was also aware that life was in danger, was threatened by evil forces. Life was under attack by powerful interests, whose main concern was to make profits.

In this framework, I want to share with you experiences of life in my country El Salvador, to share how my people live experiences of hope and despair.

The firs case: Salvadorans in Sweden. Last December around 600 persons went to Sweden under the assumption that they will be receiving political asylum in that country. To buy an airline ticket from El Salvador to Sweden is very expensive, and then this people have to sell everything that they owned. When they arrived to Stockholm they discover that there was not any kind of asylum program going on for Salvadorans. They have been deceived. Can you imagine this situation?

The second case: unemployment. At the beginning f this year 600 employees from different Government offices were fired. Te explanation by the Government was that it was part of the modernization process to become more efficient as a country.

Most of this people fired are old people. It will be difficult for them to find a new job. In their faces you can see the anguish, the sadness of feeling useless, hopeless, futureless, and also a lot of anger.

Life is very hard in El Salvador as is everywhere. But life is not only despair; it is also hope, dignity, and struggle.

Last Monday, we commemorated the first anniversary of last year earthquakes. We organized a march. It was called by the Civilian Society Forum. This is a coalition of social forces that include our YMCA. The objective of the march was to demand adequate, decent housing fort thousands of homeless Salvadoran families.

When we were walking on the streets of San Salvador, people from poor rural communities, with their faces dried by the sun and the wind, you can feel inside of your heart, the pain of all these people, but you can also almost touch the dignity, the will of change, the courage.

Also, this week was the beginning of the school year, and you can see the faces of thousands of children going to class, with their uniforms and books. There is always hope in the face of school children.

Life is full of experiences of despair and hope. Jesus calls us to be in solidarity with those that suffers and to promote dignity, to promote justice, to promote peace. Amen.

* Devotional given by Rev. Roberto Pineda on 18th January in International Meeting of the World Alliance of YMCA, held in Geneva, Switzerland.