El Salvador in the Time of COVID-19

 

You are Invited to Join…

A collaborative virtual presentation of the Rochester Committee on Latin America (ROCLA) and the Latin American Solidarity Committee (LASC), Buffalo, NY

“El Salvador in the Time of Covid-19: A Rights-based Analysis of the Drivers and Triggers of Forced Migration.”

September 2, 2020, 7 PM – Register below to reserve your spot!

Guest Presenters:

Magda Lanuza

Magda Lanuza

Central American Manager of the Canadian Private Foundation - KENOLI

Magda Lanuza is a noted expert on both El Salvador and Nicaragua and a feminist specializing in sustainable development who currently lives in San Salvador. She has worked with DAWN – Development Alternatives for Women in the New Era – since 2009.

Between 2009 and 2012, she assisted the preparations and attended the Annual Sessions of the United Nations of the Commission on the Status of Women. She now works as the Central American Manager of the Canadian Private Foundation – KENOLI. She is also the Director of the Maternal Health project in El Sauce, Nicaragua sponsored by the Matlin Family from Rochester, New York. Her work is focused on sustainable development from a human rights-based approach.

She recently penned the introduction to a publication, The Revolution Won’t be Stopped, a review of the recent history and development of Nicaragua since the 2018 coup attempt, which was published in July 2020. Magda holds a Masters Degree in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University.

Jeanne Rikkers

Jeanne Rikkers

Director of the Center for Research and Learning, Cristosal, San Salvador

Jean Rikkers moved to El Salvador in 1992, arriving in the country at the signing of the Peace Accords. Jeanne became engaged with youth and community issues that focused on human rights-based violence prevention. She first served as Country Coordinator for Christians for Peace in El Salvador (CRISPAZ), and eventually as Citizen Security and Criminal Justice Coordinator at the Foundation for the Study and Application of Law (FESPAD).

In these positions, Jeanne was able to develop research and learning approaches to an ever-growing problem of violence in the country. “I try to challenge the tendency in human rights to look for ‘innocent’ victims, this duality of good and bad, that we should only identify with the suffering of ‘good people,'” Jeanne says of her research on youth and crime. “All victims are victims regardless of what they are involved in.”

At Cristosal, Jeanne guides the Center’s research agenda using a participatory-action philosophy. This approach emphasizes collaboration over direct observation, with the ultimate goal of facilitating transformative processes in communities.