Central America: The lights go on in Sitio Viejo

Vanessa Acosta turned her lights came on for the first time on June 7.  “This changed my life completely,” she said. “Now my kids can do their homework, I can charge my phone, and I store food so my family can eat.” As an act of gratitude, this community of Sitio Viejo held a religious celebration the next day.

Before joining COFOA, this community had been without electricity for nine years. It took Vanessa and her neighbors a year to get the mayor and the electric company to invest in the poles and lines to bring electricity to the 25 families in Sitio Viejo, San Salvador. Electricity also came to the families of Alta Gracia, Honduras because of grassroots organizing.

More versions of this story are being repeated in COFOA organized communities in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. In June, COFOA counted 2,235 leaders working in local teams to get roads, schools, a hospital, water and electricity delivered for 11,654 families.

Salvadoran President Bukele has reduced the percent of tax funds going to community improvement projects from ten to one percent. To counter the centralization of power in El Salvador, COFOA leaders are developing strategies to unite communities across municipalities, departments and the entire country to demand transparency and fair share distribution of government funds meant for community development.

For example, 80 community leaders from San Salvador Sur, delivered a letter to their Mayor Mario Vásquez requesting a meeting with him and his council to discuss the lack of investment in needed improvements in their communities.

At the end of June, 288 COFOA leaders came together to develop strategies to scale organizing for community investment from local communities, to municipalities to a national campaign. Over the coming months, COFOA leadership teams will meet with mayors and city council members urging them to join in a public demonstration by year’s end to pressure President Bukele and his New Ideas party to invest in local communities.

Click here to read more about COFOA work in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.