~ by Jessica Jenkins

Country:  El Salvador

Program: “Los Tamarindos” youth group (named for a particularly resilient fruit – a metaphor for the youth surviving, and flourishing, despite conditions during and after the war.)

Location:  Guarjila, El Salvador

            Rural village (pop. 3,000) in the district of Chalatenango

History/Background:  The district of Chalatenango was intensely mired in the Salvadoran civil war (1979-1992), and the current residents of Guarjila are survivors and descendents of a military massacre in 1980. In the early 1980s most of the people living in the region were forced to flee to refugee camps in Honduras, and in 1987, a popular movement arose to repatriate the towns, which included Guarjila. The Tamarindos youth group was founded in the early 1990s by John Giuliano, an American living and working in Guarjila, to address the specific needs of the children in the community and to help bring about healing and reconciliation.

Children involved:  Approximately 60-70, ages 6-20.  Most are boys, but a growing number of girls are becoming involved as well.  While none are technically homeless, most are from poor families, and some have suffered physical and psychological trauma as well. The group is an effort to mediate the negative effects of war and poverty on the children’s development by providing a healthy sense of community.

Recruitment/Selection: There is no formal recruitment process; the group’s reputation spreads by word-of-mouth, and members often bring their siblings and friends to join them. There is also an effort to reach out to the families of the youth as well.

Program Services: Though facilitated by John, the group is a self-run cooperative. The youth attend weekly meetings and play sports and games together in the “taller”, the two-room community center. They attend weekly mass and organize group community service projects.       To maintain the spirit of community, all of the group’s members are expected to participate in the activities, both recreational and service oriented.  (The time commitment has apparently discouraged many girls from participating as much as their male counterparts, because they have more daily obligations at home with their families, in addition to school, work and child care.) 

      The center also offers a safe, friendly place to just hang out, and also for younger kids to receive tutoring and homework help from older children on a regular basis. There are a number of community events held, such as dances and theatrical presentations, which seek to include the youths’ families as well.

       Ensuring access to education is a primary focus of the group. While there is an elementary school in the town, uniforms and books are not free, and so the group helps pay for these for students who need assistance. Membership in the group also ensures that all children can attend high school and college if they desire, which would otherwise be an impossibility for many of these families. (High school, in the neighboring town of Chalate, costs about $1200 a year, and university in San Salvador costs about $4000.) Currently the group sponsors at least a dozen high school students and several university students – including two at medical school in Cuba!

Financial Basis of Program: No specific budgetary information is available.The program is financed mainly by donations from churches and universities in the United States. John Guiliano, the coordinator, spends two months each year in the US to fundraise.

Philosophy/Approach:  The Tamarindo seeks to build community, and to offer youth healthy alternatives to the drugs, alcohol and violence that pervade many peoples’ lives in the area.

John Giuliano, the group’s founder, serves as a mentor and guide to their activities, but the group operates on cooperative efforts.  There is no president, but a smaller group of mutually agreed-upon leaders helps guide the group’s activities and decisions. 

     The founding philosophy of the group adopts from the liberation theology approach of conscientization, or raising social awareness among the poor, in order to make them agents of their own destinies. These youth face of significant challenges and pressures posed by their society, including unemployment, crime, addiction, violence, and gender discrimination. Los Tamarindos offers strong community support to counter these pressures, based on a spirit of cooperation, empowerment, mutual respect and love, .

~ For more information, stay tuned for John Giuliano’s visit to Stanford in November, 2001! ~