Everyone is invited to join us in conversation with this year’s visiting International Peacemaker, Erlinda Quesada, hosted by Presbyterian Women of the Presbytery in partnership with the Presbytery Mission Committee/Social Witness Committee. A light brunch will be served. Please notify Helen Burd at helenburd@msn.com if you plan to attend.

Erlinda Quesada has been an activist since her early twenties. She first became involved in the social ministry of the Roman Catholic parish in Guácima. Later she served as coordinator of women’s ministries for the Limon Diocese. For two years she coordinated a women’s training program for Catholic Relief Services. In 2000, she and other activists became alarmed by the negative impacts of the expanding pineapple plantations in the Caribbean region of Costa Rica. In 2004, she helped to found the National Front of Sectors Impacted by Pineapple Production (FRENASAPP). She is the coordinator and community promotor for FRENASAPP in the Carribbean region of Costa Rica. She served for ten years on the city council for the municipality of Guácima. Currently, she serves as president of the Environmental Council for the Tortuguero Conservation Area.

Accompanying Erlinda will be Karla Koll, Presbyterian Church USA mission co-worker, serving as professor of history, mission and religions at the Latin American Biblical University, San Jose, Costa Rica. Through her previous mission experience in Nicaragua and Guatemala, she has gained an understanding of the struggles throughout the region for greater justice and to protect the environment. In Costa Rica, she teaches women and men from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Among the courses she has taught recently is a seminar on eschatology in times of climate change.