BANGOR – Peace through Interamerican Community Action will hold a live and silent auction 2-5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, at the College Center, 210 Texas Ave., to benefit people working to support their families in the mountain village of Carasque, El Salvador.

The beneficiaries of auction proceeds are members of the community’s sewing cooperative. The tiny village is used to thinking of the people of the Bangor area as their sisters and brothers. Bangor and Carasque have been “sister cities” since 1991.

The group initiated the sister project in an effort to help protect the human rights of civilians in Carasque and other villages that came under attack during the war in El Salvador. Now that peace has come, the relationship between the two communities continues to be an extraordinary path of learning and mutual support for both Carasque and Bangor.

Carasque’s strength was forged through its people’s learning how to keep one another alive during 12 years of war, to educate their children when the government abandoned their school, to provide themselves health care, to bring drinkable water to each household and to solve problems.

Delegations of Mainers visiting Carasque have returned inspired by the power of real community, and motivated to work together to seek solutions to problems that affect us all.

Each year the group hosts an auction that benefits a project chosen by the people of Carasque. The project for this year’s auction will support the dream of the sewing cooperative for a home of its own with plenty of space to work comfortably.

A truck loaded with treadle sewing machines gathered from Maine attics was the seed for the sewing cooperative. Bangor families and businesses donated the flatbed truck – donations to buy the truck were all the rage as Christmas presents that year. Three volunteers drove it to El Salvador.

The cooperative’s first home was the village’s old church, but damage to the building left the group without adequate space. Members now sew and embroider tote bags, aprons and T-shirts and stitch together wall hangings called “arpilleras,” which tell stories of daily life and history.

Cooperative members crochet shoulder bags and hats and weave brightly colored hammocks. Most of the items are marketed in Bangor by PICA, and also sold at Cityside Yarn in downtown Bangor. Profits from the sale of the articles are sent back to the sewing cooperative.

Co-op members have navigated many obstacles to develop a fair trade alternative to employment in the sweatshops that fill their country’s capital city. They run the co-op democratically, make big decisions collectively and divide the profits among members. The work provided by the cooperative for its 36 members, who are mostly women, is one of the only sources of income in the village of 325 people.

Proceeds from the Peace through Interamerican Community Action auction will support the sewing cooperative’s dream for a home that meets their needs. It also will benefit the group’s work for fair trade, the Bangor Clean Clothes Campaign and Youth Adelantando.

Carasque’s handmade goods will be available for sale at the auction, along with pottery, sweatshop-free clothes, spring perennials and services – including carpentry, massage and landscape design. In honor of the upcoming Valentine’s Day, a “sweetheart” section will be featured. To obtain more information, call Peace through Interamerican Community Action at 947-4203.