November 17, 2004

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador/GENEVA - Cecilia Alfaro has seen too many faces to remember them all. It is 12 years since civil war ended in her country, leaving more than 75,000 people dead and over 1 million displaced and homeless.

The 52-year-old Lutheran pastor and mother of two shared her testimony with Lutheran World Information/Latin American News Agency when the president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Bishop Mark S. Hanson, his wife Ione and leaders from Latin American Lutheran churches visited El Salvador's Faith and Hope community, which sheltered scores of internally displaced persons (IDPs) during the 1980-1992 conflict.

Alfaro was one of the first Salvadoran Lutheran Synod (SLS) volunteers who welcomed hundreds of IDPs who arrived in San Salvador terrified, hungry and defenseless, fleeing persecution and death by the military. "I still think of the faces of young people, of people with whom I went to school, and members of Bible study groups who are no longer with us."

The guerrilla Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) launched its armed struggle against government forces early 1981. Its operations aimed at crippling the economy included such actions as destroying bridges and coffee plantations, cutting down electricity lines, and killing livestock. The military responded by attacking villages and killing the inhabitants. Death squads set up by the extreme right in 1982 to eliminate suspected leftists and trade union members, left thousands dead. In 1989, a major FMLN offensive on the capital San Salvador failed, and this prompted both the government and rebel forces to begin peace negotiations under the United Nations' mediation. An agreement reached in January 1992 provided for military and political reforms.

A Healing Community Built on Faith and Hope

Alfaro, who grew up in a devout Roman Catholic household vividly recalls one major blow of the military repression - the March 1980 murder of Monsignor Oscar A. Romero while he celebrated mass in the La Divina Providencia Hospital chapel. With his death the "voice of those who have no voice" in the largely Roman Catholic country was silenced, and "the link between grassroots sectors and the government was broken," she told LWI/ALC. One of the military's tactics was to target entire populations it suspected of being linked to insurgents.

Alfaro was studying sociology at the national university in San Salvador when the government shut it down, considering it to be a subversive focal point and bastion of opposition groups. At the university, she got to know one of the lecturers, Victoria Cortez Rodriguez, a social worker and active member of the Lutheran church. "Victoria invited me to be a volunteer with the church's social work and I accepted."

Meantime, the Roman Catholic Church's shelters were overflowing with IDPs * mostly elderly men and women, and sick and hungry children. Someone mentioned the SLS' La Resurreccion Lutheran church in the city. Soon Alfaro and other volunteers met with Rev. Medardo E. Gomez Soto to discuss the best way to care for such a large number of needy people.

Although the church could only offer shelter for 25 people, it needed to take care of a much higher number. The Salvadoran Lutheran Aid was created, run by Alfaro and Cortez, among others. Faced with the urgent task of offering practical and immediate responses to the IDPs and with ecumenical support, the SLS purchased a piece of land at Galera Quemada in Nejapa, some 24 kilometers from the capital city. With precarious structures set up by the displaced themselves, the "Faith and Hope" (Fe y Esperanza) shelter was established, a name that reflects the spirit that motivated the church.

Everyone Put Their Gifts at the Community's Service

The first 400 IDPs arrived on 5 May 1982 from San Vicente and San Sebastian, rural areas close to San Salvador. Faith and Hope eventually housed between 1,500 and 1,700 people. The center somewhat developed itself. The inhabitants put up a bakery, made shoes for the IDPs, everyone put their gifts at the service of the community. Years later, Cortez, now LWF Vice-President for the Latin America and Caribbean region, would open a Lutheran project in Managua, Nicaragua, with the same name.

Vilma Rodriguez, a psychologist, explained how difficult it was at first for the children and the elderly to share their traumatic experiences and to grieve. As a result, a crisis intervention program and post-traumatic therapy for the IDPs was developed. The SLS became a therapeutic and healing community.

But the war and displacement also left indelible marks on the church and Faith and Hope community. The center's kindergarten was attacked, and Bishop Gomez and Dr Angel Ibarra were kidnapped and later released.

Today, the SLS continues to carry out its pastoral and social work including speaking out about social problems, poverty and exclusion that are perpetuated by economic globalization. Each Monday, Gomez offers a press conference to address current concerns and give pastoral advice.

With 12,000 members, the SLS joined the LWF in 1986.

Lutheran World Information
By Peru-based LWI correspondent, Fernando Oshige.
This article is part of the ongoing LWI Features on Healing, focusing on the LWF Tenth Assembly theme, "For the Healing of the World."