About Us

Since 1992, CoCoDA has been connecting United States citizens, churches, service clubs, universities, and organizations with grassroots cooperatives and community development organizations in El Salvador. In 2016, we brought this same approach to Nicaragua. We have two simple goals…

To build such strong relationships between the people of the United States and Central America that the United States will never again subsidize the oppression of Central Americans.
To help rebuild the communities and infrastructure destroyed by United States dollars during the Salvadoran Civil War and Nicaraguan conflict.

In the process of accomplishing these goals, we also hope to transform the worldview of North Americans by helping them to understand both their privilege and responsibility as citizens of the United States and Canada

Our Partners

Our Team

Our Mission

CoCoDA is a non-profit organization devoted to the mission of cooperating in projects for democratic, community-based social and economic development in Central America, and promoting awareness and social responsibility in the United States for more just relations with Latin America.

Our Values

Grassroots Organizing and Ownership

All CoCoDA initiatives and projects begin as the dreams and desires of Salvadorans and Nicaraguans. They plan, organize and own these initiatives and projects.

Sustainability

All initiatives and projects must be sustainable using the resources and ingenuity of Salvadorans and Nicaraguans.

Fiscal Responsibility

Every dollar donated to CoCoDA is intended to improve the quality of life for Central Americans and should be used as efficiently as possible. Staff should be paid equitably, but never extravagantly.

Ethical Engagement

CoCoDA attempts to do every activity with a commitment to ethical collaboration and a commitment to fair trade that does not exploit our partners.

Relationship Building

People are more important than projects. All initiatives and projects are designed to allow North Americans and Central Americans to work side by side, to become friends.

Cultural Sensitivity

All CoCoDA volunteers and partners are expected to participate in a two day historical/cultural orientation upon arriving in El Salvador or Nicaragua. CoCoDA volunteers spend at least part of their visit living with host families

Centre College working in the Greenhouse, Santa Marta - CoCoDA

Wooster delegation working in a school, CoCoDA

500,000

BENEFITED PEOPLE

30

YEARS

30

SCHOOLS, COMMUNITY AND HEALTH CENTERS

2,500

TOTAL SUPPORTERS

10

COMMUNITY BASED WATER SYSTEMS

5

SOLAR POWERED SYSTEMS

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Our philosophy

CoCoDA projects are identified, designed, constructed and ultimately owned by our partner communities. The role of CoCoDA and our North American partners is to support these projects with financial capital and technical expertise. While there are often opportunities for delegations to physically work on these projects, this is an act of solidarity and not of charity.

CoCoDA projects, in order to be viable and sustainable, often take years to complete. Our primary goal is to nurture the capacity of the community, thereby enabling them to sustain the project upon its completion. In our experience, projects that are “gifts” from North Americans are harmful both to the recipients and to the donors. CoCoDA projects are true collaborations.

We ask every CoCoDA delegation to commit itself to furthering the progress of a project. First and foremost, each delegate contributes $200.00 to our project fund as part of their delegation fee. In addition, every delegation is given the opportunity to personally hear the hopes and dreams of the community, to work side by side with them, and – upon returning home – to raise dollars to support their efforts.

Our history

Yunior Gomez, current CoCoDA staff member, is pictured on the left as an infant refugee during the Civil War. Yunior was a CoCoDA scholarship recipient and graduated from the University of El Salvador before joining the staff of CoCoDA. — Yunior Gomez, former director of operations in El Salvador, is pictured on the left as an infant refugee during the Civil War. Yunior was a CoCoDA scholarship recipient and graduated from the University of El Salvador before joining the staff of CoCoDA.

These guerillas fought for freedom and democracy. Javier Martinez (third from the left) became the Vice Minister of Security for El Salvador and Morro (fourth from the left) became the Director of CRCC, one of our community development partners in Suchitoto.

The Peace Accords are signed in 1992, ending twelve years of war.

One of the first CoCoDA delegation helps rebuild the village of Consolacion in 1993

Timeline

CoCoDA was born in response to US sponsored violence in Central America. This timeline positions our work in that tragic history…

1979 The Sandanistas overthrow the brutal Somoza dictatorship

1980 Archbishop Oscar Romero is assassinated

1980-1988 The Contra War claims over 60,000 Nicaraguan lives

1980-1992 Salvadoran Civil War, claiming over 70,000 lives

1986 Building With the Voiceless (BVES) created to lobby against US support of the Salvadoran government

1989 Jesuits murdered in San Salvador

1992 El Salvador Peace Accords signed

1992 BVES becomes Companion Community Development Alternatives (CoCoDA)

1993 CoCoDA leads first delegation to Santa Marta, El Salvador

1993 – 2000 CoCoDA works on housing, land reform, public education and constructing schools

2000 CoCoDA begins to focus on water and sanitation as well as education and public health

2005 CoCoDA completes first water project in El Zapote, El Salvador

2009 FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes becomes President of El Salvador

2010 CoCoDA and Rotary International complete the first solar powered water project in Zacamil Dos, El Salvador

2016 CoCoDA expands into Nicaragua with first delegation to Zacataloza

2018 Archbishop Oscar Romero is sainted.

Why Central America?

This brick—tossed into the ocean when the Salvadoran Civil War demolished hundreds of buildings—has been worn smooth by the cycles of the tides. The injuries of war, natural disaster and poverty have likewise transformed El Salvador and Nicaragua into resilient cultures of strength and vibrancy; places of beauty and grace.

Partnerships

ADES

Asociación de Desarrollo Económico Social, Santa Marta (ADES) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, formed on April 15, 1993, to attend to the economic and social needs of marginal communities, particularly the communities of repatriated war refugees in the northern zone of the department of Cabañas.

The objective of ADES is to contribute to the integrated development of communities in the department of Cabañas for the purpose of improving the quality of life and developing the organizational bases that will empower the communities to influence the definition and implementation of social and economic strategies on a local level. ADES works in the areas of popular education, women’s development, community health, community radio, and community organizing, with programs in five municipalities.

CRC

The Comité de Reconstrucción y Desarrollo Económico-Social de las Comunidades de Suchitoto, Cuscatlán (CRC) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, founded in November, 1988 by 11 communities resettled by people displaced by the war in the department of Cuscatlán. CRC served as a representative organization for these communities during the armed conflict, to help generate social, economic, political and moral support.

Since 1993, the CRC has worked to support the development of 30 affiliated rural communities, coordinating, facilitating, planning, promoting, and executing projects for integrated development to bring about an improved quality of life in the communities. The CRC has active projects in the areas of women’s development, popular education, community health, community radio, sustainable agriculture, reforestation and environmental conservation.

REDES

Fundación Salvadoreña para la Reconstrucción y el Desarrollo (REDES) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization with the mission of contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of the economically and socially disadvantaged population of El Salvador. Since 1988, REDES has worked with displaced and dispossessed urban and rural sectors of the Salvadoran population for post-war reconstruction and for sustainable social and economic development.

Guided by the principle that people need to be subjects of their own development, REDES manages programs on a national level in the areas of micro-lending and business training, land reform, housing, agricultural and livestock production, disaster relief and environmental conservation. CRC and ADES are both member organizations of REDES.

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CoCoDA Intern Program

CoCoDA provides short term and long term internships for both Central American and North American students and young adults. These internships can be exclusively in Central America or in both the United States and Central America. Our internship program has several goals:

To improve language skills either in Spanish or in English.
To provide leadership and community development training.
To teach cultural interaction and collaboration.
To increase the capacity of CoCoDA to accomplish its mission.
Internships are not paid positions, but interns will have their living expenses covered for the length of their participation.

We are especially interested in interns interested in social media, communications, fundraising and website design.

Those interested in pursuing an internship should contact us at info@www.cocoda.org.