Joining Hands networks continue to advocate for change despite the long and unpredictable road
By Doris Evangelista | Coordinator of Asociacion Red Uniendo Manos El Salvador, Joining Hands El Salvador
In August, I traveled from El Salvador to Peru to gather with Joining Hands leaders from Cameroon, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Bolivia, and Peru to share experiences with each other: campaign work, struggles and dreams.
While there, we travelled together to La Oroya to see firsthand the destruction and pollution of the mining industry there and hear from those impacted by the contamination. Seeing La Oroya was a first for me; my heart and my life were touched and it made me more conscious of how human hands can bring so much destruction and tragedy. Peru, El Salvador, and the ravaged threatened and contaminated earth itself cry out against this negligence and the destruction made worse by climate change.
In El Salvador, where political will does not exist to pass a law to prohibit the use of pesticides in agriculture, 99 percent of the water is contaminated. Economic profits carry more weight than the food security and sovereignty needed to provide adequate and healthy nutrition for all. Our reality does not differ much from other realities in the world.
Hearing the testimonies of the brave women of Filomena Tomaira Pacsi, a partner organization of Joining Hands Peru, gave me strength to not lose heart in our common ministry.
Through our struggle, together as one, we can make changes and continue being the voice of those who are not heard, the voice of the most vulnerable.
It pains me to see so much abuse of human life and nature and it makes me feel powerless. The problem is so big and finding a solution seems so difficult.
Despite the odds, as Joining Hands we move forward together trusting, like the people of Israel in the desert, in this journey to the land flowing with milk and honey. We see with eyes of faith the cloud that gives us shade during the day and the pillar of fire that gives us light at night.
As Joining Hands, we need to keep knocking on doors and doing the advocacy work for which we are all called. We are one community walking together, trusting that God is supporting us along the journey and walking by our side.
Although the road is hard, we must continue moving forward, and at some point, we will see the changes we are seeking and it will become clear that our efforts have not been in vain. The struggles are great, but together we will overcome.
This post is adapted from Doris’s article “We Do Not Lose Heart” in the Winter 2017 edition of the PHP Post