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Mike Boehm presents a lacquer box containing a small rock to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, Vice-Chair of the Quang Ngai Province Women’s Union. This rock was picked up from the riverbed of the Sumpul River in El Salvador by El Salvadoran women who had survived a massacre there. This rock was given to the women of Viet Nam as a symbol of the suffering shared by women from both of these countries which were devastated by war. For the complete story click here.
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Mission Statement
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This project will bring together women of El Salvador and Vietnam; women who have each survived the experience of the devastation of war, and today are working to re-build their lives, their families and their societies. In response to an initiative from the women of Vietnam for "an opportunity to visit, communicate, exchange the experience in the work and establish friendship," through meeting and sharing together. And, from the women of El Salvador "to promote an interchange of experiences, and come to know gains, projections, and how we have dealt with the principal problems we have been forced to confront."
We want to work with these groups of women by providing funding and facilitation as they strengthen, learn from and support each other to go beyond bearing the burden of reconstruction and healing alone. In addition, we want to support this as a pilot project with the larger goal of involving groups of women in similar circumstances from other countries. We, as North Americans, can also gain great benefit from this experience of sharing and building a true people-to-people bond of friendship.
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Goals
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- To advance understanding and peace by learning together from the personal experiences of individuals and groups engaged in the healing process.
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- Sharing resources and skills on a practical level between our three countries.
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- Initiating and developing models of people-to-people friendship and reconciliation.
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Objectives
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- To develop a consultative process and an exchange of delegations between El Salvador and Vietnam.
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- To produce a video documentary to be used a future education and fund raising.
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- To share the lessons of this exchange with women in other communities around the world.
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