El Salvador Refugee Receives Award For Community Service from Heifer International

Heifer Project International
Thursday, 1 November 2001

CHICAGO - Mrs. Neris Amanda Gonzales, a political refugee from El Salvador, recently received Heifer International's WiLD (Women in Livestock Development) Award for her service to the Pilsen community. Heifer International is a world hunger organization based in Little Rock, Ark., that donates gifts of livestock, microcredit and agricultural training to poor families in 47 countries, including the United States.

With the help of Heifer International, Gonzalez founded Eco-Vida, an urban agriculture project that promotes vermiculture (worm farming), aquaculture and gardening. Her efforts have helped to lift this low-income community, which has been vulnerable to gangs, drugs and crime for years, into a thriving grassroots example of self-reliance through urban agriculture. Gonzales now has over 40 youth involved in growing chili peppers, and selling dried chili pepper garlands as well as worm casting fertilizer for organic gardening.

Known in El Salvador as an "eco-theologian," Gonzales was a target of military torture and rape because of her powers as a healer and her desire to empower the poor at a grassroots level. Escaping these horrors, she arrived in Chicago in 1997, with little more than the clothes on her back. Despite these setbacks, Gonzales saw a great need in the mostly Latino Pilsen community, both for residents and refugees who were also victims of torture and poverty.

She almost single-handedly persuaded her community to participate in what the Chicago police call a miracle. By involving men, women and children in the urban agriculture program sponsored by Heifer International, there has been a drastic reduction in gang and drug related activity. In addition, Refugees who have experienced post-traumatic memory disorder from torture are healing through being in touch with the earth on nearby farms partnering with Gonzales and Eco-Vida.

Gonzales also provides classes in nutrition, daily life skills, and English for the residents of the Pilsen community. Her leadership training workshops promote positive thinking and self-confidence in those who have traditionally considered themselves helpless victims of poverty.

For more information, or to contact Heifer Project International, see their website at: www.heifer.org