The Friends of Santa Anita and Cuscatlán
Los Amigos de Santa Anita y Cuscatlán (LADSAC)

The LADSAC projects started in 1994 and have been financed by ex American Friends Service Volunteers who had worked in El Salvador in the 1950s. Aid was at first directed at assisting one small agricultural cooperative in the area of Suchitoto. The first support was a donation of around $30,000 dollars. This money was used by the cooperative Santa Anita to pay off an over due production loan. At this time the cooperative was in process of foreclosure by a local bank and would have lost their lands if not for our financial support. This first step changed forever the life of the cooperative and its members.
Later in 1997 the cooperative asked for more financial aid, but this time in form of a low interest loan, this money to be used to pay off its land debt to the national land bank. The members of LADSAC agreed to help but insisted that the cooperative receive technical assistance in the administration of their finances and agricultural production.
In 1997 Robert Broz was contracted as a field worker to provide technical assistance, he worked for 4 years in Santa Anita providing both administrative and agricultural assistance to the board of directors of the cooperative. The technical assistance program expanded over the years including similar training in the communities of El Barío and Papaturro, both in the area of Suchitoto. In these new communities our field worker worked hand in hand with all organized groups. These groups included, cooperative and communal board of directors, women’s and youth groups, local schools as well as other groups within each community.
Since the start of the LADSAC projects local decisions have been managed by a committee of Salvadorians, our executive committee has been active since 1997 and currently manages our rotating fund as the technical assistance program ended in 2001. Our rotating fund became active when the cooperative of Santa Anita made their final payment of the loan they had received in 1997. Today our rotating fund is active and provides small low interest loans to organized groups in the area of Suchitoto. There are current loans in the community of El Barío used for sugar cane production, in the cooperative of San Antonio, to a federation of 10 agricultural cooperatives, to a small women’s group and vegetable producers in the community of Agua Caliente. Over the past years we have provided loans to a communal store run by a small group of women, to a small group of bakers to buy their oven, pans and start up materials and to vegetable producers in the community of San Rafael.
Over the years we have provided loans in amounts between $500 and $3000, we do not give loans to individual only to groups that are organized. We normally support between 4 to 6 groups each year, this due to the lack of capital. We're not exactly business tycoons or owners of blackpool hotels so we must put a limit somehow. Need for these types of low interest no guarantee loans are immense here in El Salvador. In El Salvador access to bank loans requires a land deed as guarantee and normal interest rates for an agricultural or personal loan range between 16% and 21%, this make it virtually impossible for small groups to succeed.
Over the years we have been able to coordinate with other groups such as the Palo Alto Friends Meeting, SED a Spanish NGO as well as other local and international organizations.
If you are visiting El Salvador and would like to know more about our projects or visit some of the communities where we have worked, feel free to contact Robert Broz in Suchitoto at (503) 2335-1770 or at:

rpbroz@gmail.com

If you would like to contribute to our project, donations can be made through the Palo Alto Friends Meeting(see information on left)