Note that this blog post is not related to Oxfam America projects, but rather one individual's visit to personal contacts.
On August 17 I threw my bag in a truck and headed east of the capital, past a number of volcanoes, and uphill along the pitted road to the town of San Agustin, Usulutan. Here I reunited with friends I had worked with during my first visit to El Salvador some 24 years ago.
San Agustin remains a tranquil community despite the national surge in crime, thanks to its people and leadership. But the drought remains an urgent threat, as this season's corn harvest has dried up to nothing. (Pictured below is pasture for livestock.) Here, when people speak of climate change you hear the anger in their voices.
San Agustin remains a tranquil community despite the national surge in crime, thanks to its people and leadership. But the drought remains an urgent threat, as this season's corn harvest has dried up to nothing. (Pictured below is pasture for livestock.) Here, when people speak of climate change you hear the anger in their voices.
Daily you hear birdsong, the footsteps of cattle passing by, the clucking of hens and crowing of roosters.
The former mayor remains a pillar in the community (and behind him the patron saint)
The former mayor remains a pillar in the community (and behind him the patron saint)
The current mayor is raising funds for the youth soccer league and education program.
Credited with keeping gangs and crime at bay, the soccer field in the town square is always busy. There are nightly soccer tournaments in the town square. The missed shots hit the fence with a PRAP! and we jump out of our seats.
Such recreation is a distraction from the central worry that grips this town: the long-standing drought that has disrupted their farming cycles and ruined their crops. On a visit to one livestock cooperative, which decades ago was a coffee plantation of a US landowner, a rain-fed cistern was dry (below, left). One associate, Juan, spoke about how his coffee crop in the highland hills had failed to produce any fruit due to the drought and associated brushfires near his crop. (lower right) Using the land as pasture for livestock presents a more resilient alternative.
This second round of government assistance was highly unusual. Three months prior, there had already been distribution of one sack of corn seed and one sack of fertilizer to each household in San Agustin. In a typical year, that would have been the end of the annual assistance to the list of communities designated as being in extreme poverty. But the drought caused the corn plants to wither and stunted their growth and the corn harvest was lost. So the unprecedented news of a second round of fertilizer and seed - either corn or bean - had residents buzzing. Although one sack of seed only amounts to a fraction of what's needed for each family, it nonetheless gives farmers a little push, or "un empujoncito" in the words of a local resident, and could mean the difference between eating or going hungry.
Neighbors and family members checked in with Anita (below) a member of the local community development association, to verify that their household was listed to receive assistance.
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So midday on this particular Sunday, truckloads of farmers - women and men - bounded down the hill in a festive mood. Beneath the laughter, though, remained the knowledge that the seeds' promise of food would only be delivered if the drought relented and rain fell. Thus each farmer faced an agonizing choice: to plant the crops now in hopes of rain, or to wait to plant later in anticipation of a wetter tomorrow?
In this way climate change grips the town of San Agustin, disrupting seasonal patterns and upending the farming customs established over generations. All over the world similar farmers in similar towns are facing the same distressing options. My visit to San Agustin reminded me why our efforts to hold governments accountable are so urgent, and why in the lead-up to the COP21 climate talks we must urge governments to support the Green Climate Fund to build resiliency for the communities most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
You can take action by clicking this link https://secure3.oxfamamerica.org/page/speakout/green-climate-fund-congress
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