Once upon a time, Chencho Alas, one of our Peacemakers in Action, was relatively unknown. He promoted education and land reform in El Salvador, challenging those in power. For his efforts, he was kidnapped and beaten.
As a Tanenbaum Peacemaker, Chencho’s story and case study is a part of our Peacemakers in Action book. That book was picked up by a professor at Emmanuel College, Pamela Couture, and used as a basis for a religious peacebuilding course.
We connected Pamela to Chencho (and other Peacemakers) and now Emmanuel College has a course that travels to El Salvador. The most recent session of that course just concluded and Pamela has a great blog post about the trip.
An excerpt of what one student shared in the blog post:
With no words to span the experience, the silence was complete unto itself. We then walked back to our beach house, home to us for five days now.
And the new leaf of life had just turned over…
And another:
Somehow the chapel was peaceful, women arranging freshly cut flowers in the lazy sun of the afternoon. No screaming or gunshots, no sign of what had transpired other than some words over the altar. Nothing seemed wrong, and yet in that chapel the history of a country changed.
This is the type of outcome we envision when we select our Peacemakers. To Pamela, thanks for putting together this incredible course and thank you to Chencho and all of the Peacemakers for being the change we need in the world.