VALLEY OF PEACE

Elizabeth Pridgeon

Thirty years ago, El Salvador was in the early grips of a crippling civil war which had been stewing for years, and hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans were increasingly desperate to seek refuge in nearby ‘safelands’.  Following the coup of 1979, Belize realised the urgency of assisting its regional ‘friend’, and committed to offering a solution for a lucky handful of Salvadoran refugees: Valley of Peace (colloquially referred to as Valle de Paz).

The first influx of Salvadoran refugees to Valley of Peace in 1980 consisted of five families, each of which was given a substantial acreage of land to establish agricultural production, plus a plot upon which to build a house.  Shortly afterwards, a ‘second wave’ of immigrants colonised the village, greatly boosting both the demographics and agricultural production of the area.  The undocumented agreement was that, as more Salvadorans settled in the village, more land would be made available to Belizeans who were equally seeking a ‘new start’ in a ‘new village’.  However, Belizeans were somehow less successful in the local agricultural sector, and many left the village within only a couple of years of arriving; today, Valley of Peace is home to only two of the original Belizean families who settled in the village in the early 1980s.

Although the concept of Valley of Peace seems idyllic, the village has suffered numerous physical impracticalities and social conflicts over the years.  The first problem to present itself was social aggravation as various sized lots were donated to different families: whilst some early immigrants received 50 acres to establish agricultural production, other ‘second wave’ migrants received less than half this land area, which was deemed ‘unjust’ by many residents.  Another problem to plague all residents was the aridity of the area, and the lack of nearby streams, rivers, creeks or reservoirs which exacerbated this situation.  It is only in the last decade that piped water has been made available to residents through the combined support of the UN, Help for Progress and WASA, which established the village’s first and only water tank.  One water tank may seem sufficient according to statistics, but Valley of Peace is one of the largest villages according to land mass in the country, comparable to the sprawling layout of Shipyard.  Thus residents of Valley of Peace may find themselves living several miles from their counterparts, and farming hundreds of acres apart.

The agricultural ambition for Valley of Peace, however, proved itself attainable from the start, and guidance from resident and nearby Mennonites assisted the Salvadorans to establish some of the best salad-growing farms in the region.  Sweet and chile peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, cabbage and carrots are some of the most prevalent products, all of which are sold on the nearby Belmopan market, and surpluses are taken to Belize City for sale.  Despite international agricultural advisors being employed for the area in the early years to encourage diversification and non-reliance on one staple crop, much advice was not heeded, which has resulted in people competing in the same products, creating unimaginable surpluses (resulting in the dumping of literally tons of produce on occasion).

The infrastructure of the village also causes problems on occasion.  In the 1980s, it was hoped that each farm would maintain its own access roads through the provision of maintenance grants, but the proposal never reached fruition and the village now suffers poorly maintained roads, particularly during the rainy season, when heavy rain creates torrents of overland flow in the hilly surroundings. Valley of Peace does, however, have the natural resources for road repair, as a large limestone quarry within the village boundaries produces as much material as could ever be required by one village.  The excess of this quarry, which until now has always been considered a communal village asset, stimulated the current UDP village council to sell the limestone product to external construction companies and material suppliers; villagers complain that this extra revenue for the village has never benefitted the residents, and remains tightly controlled by the Chairwoman and her councillors.

However, external support in recent years (which continues today) looks set to assist the village into the future far more than the current government is willing to.  A group of exceedingly proactive Canadian Scouts have been participating in community development proposals of Valley of Peace for the past three years, having funded and helped build the community hurricane centre, worked on the school, and this year, having helped fund and build the Community Health Clinic.  Five group leaders alongside twelve youth sought support from the Scout Brotherhood Fund, the Rotary Club and the Canadian Embassy to provide building materials, whilst labour was donated by numerous villagers to assist the group.  The health provisions for Valley of Peace have been especially neglected over recent years, and it is hoped that the Ministry of Health’s most recent promise to provide a nurse and doctor five days a week for the community will be fulfilled: it will certainly be closely monitored by numerous parties (the Belize Times included).

Valley of Peace literally represented a haven of safety for distraught campesinos forced to flee their Salvadoran homeland in the 1980s, and even today a steady stream of immigrants arrive in Valley of Peace seeking a new opportunity – a new hope.  There are concerns that the continued exhaustion of the village’s resources to cater to these new arrivals will deteriorate the quality of life that residents have spent three decades establishing.  Perhaps it is time for a new ‘Valley of Peace’ to be proposed before this one loses its peaceful namesake?

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