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Central American youth send united anti-violence message
By Jennifer Brookland
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Aleyda Méndez was a newly minted teacher working in rural El Salvador when she realized her country was in serious trouble. When she asked her 10-year-old students what they wanted to be when they grew up, several of them told her, “murderers.”
Mendez was stunned. But she understood. Drug and gang violence in El Salvador had made it common for these kids to see dead people lying in a public street, and for parents to bury their children. Killing had become normal.
Shocked at how drug and gang violence was rending communities like her own, Mendez started looking for ways she could get involved in prevention. She heard through Facebook about a fledgling youth campaign and went to a meeting.
“We decided we no longer wanted to be victims,” she says. “We wanted to be the solution.”
Mendez and her compatriots founded the Youth Against Violence movement with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development and Creative Associates International, whose Alianza Joven Regional program reduced at-risk youth’s vulnerability to gang recruitment and crafted national and regional policies for violence prevention.
“Youth has a reputation as always being part of the problem,” says Mendez. “The goal is to raise public awareness, advocate for violence prevention policies and to tell Salvadoran citizens to listen to the voices of youth who really want to participate.”
Less than three years later, the movement had spread to all seven Central American countries, and this year, Mendez is serving as the rotating regional president of the entire network.
“The impact is reciprocal. The Movement has given me the opportunity to reach my dreams and elevate my spirit and heart to believe in a cause. The Movement has not only enabled me and given me tools for my work as a volunteer, but also it has given me the opportunity to keep reaching for my dreams, knowing that everything is possible if we are passionate in our beliefs. Thanks to all these benefits, now I can also teach and replicate my lessons learned through the motivation that I now possess. This motivation is contagious to others in the fight against violence and for love and prevention of violence. The Movement has given me the opportunity to support the opening of the Youth Movement Against Violence Nicaragua chapter and to work to create a public policy for violence prevention at the national and regional levels. ”