More projects

So here is one more blog to finish giving the overall run through the projects we´ve got going on. Hold on tight!

ALPIMED is a great organization that HELP has been working with for several summers. They are the head organization of 9 other microfinance institutions.....or organizations who give loans out to poor microentrepreneurs to help them grow their own small business and get out of poverty. This summer we taught a business class at ALPIMED to several of these microfinance institutions using a business simulation called ¨The BEST game¨. The idea is that after having learned the basic business principles taught through the business simulation game, that they would then be able to better consult and help the microentrepreneurs that they work with out in the feild. It is a fun game where they are challenged to buy raw materials, produce hats, and sell for the highest profit before the end of a month cycle, where their bank loan is due with interest. Below are some photos of our facilitating the four game modules.




Emiliani-

Hospital Zacamil

Balsamo-



ASEI village bank

Fun times- disco tecas, karioki, bungee jumping, Guat and Pacaya, Ruins in Honduras,

Our Day to Day Work

SO, here´s a brief run-down of most of our current projects (we try to add more good ones all the time!) First, the government orphanages, where we work 3 times a week. We work with CISNA an orphanage for street boys, and CIPI a place for abused preschoolers-toddlers, teenage girls, young mothers, special needs children and abandoned babies. The following pictures show some of the wonderful children and the good times we´ve been having with all of them!

A carnival at CISNA, framing baby pictures at CIPI and teaching the preschoolers about brushing teeth. It is a wonderful experience being with all of the kids; boys, girls, toddlers, babies and teenagers. Our volunteers who don´t speak spanish (right now 2/3rd of them, or 10) have learned quickly that it isn´t very impossible or hard to communicate our love to the children. We had an amazing carnival at CISNA for the boys about a month ago. To check out pictures see our teams blogspot at http://help-elsalvador.blogspot.com/


We also enjoy teaching some english classes at the LDS Employment Center. We have beginning, intermediate and advanced classes three times a week for an hour each class. Our students are motivated and very appreciative. It is always a joy to be with them. The first day of classes 54 people showed up to sign up for the classes! We didn´t have enough chairs! Each student pays a $5 fee for the class that lasts all summer, which is a steal of a deal. The small fee is to help them feel ownership of the class and also to pay for materials. We love our english students!

Once a week we travel out to the state (or department as they call states here) of Santa Ana to the west about 1.5 hours, to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. It is always a good days work and one of the volunteers favorite projects.

We also work with a organization called OEF which tries to improve rural women´s lives. Once a week we travel north to Chaletenango department to walk door to door with the local community health worker, and share health messages. Our first message was about water purification. It was well received and all the families really liked what we taught them, ask questions for clarification, and thanked us for making the effort to teach them in their home.

HELP International

Dear family, friends, supporters and fans,

Now that I´ve been here in El Salvador for almost 2 months (!) I thought it was about time for a juicy update which I´ll be giving in a series of blogs. To review, I got a job this summer as a co-country director with an NGO called HELP International. The acronym stands for Help ELiminate Poverty. Its mission is ¨to provide a life-changing experience through service to the poor.¨ With the great volunteers who come to us, and the cool projects and partner organizations we work with down here, that is exactly what happens.

The organization is not religiously affiliated but most of its volunteers are from Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University. Groups from HELP go to El Salvador, Guatemala and Uganda. The volunteers come in three groups or waves (lasting 6 weeks) throughout the summer and pay their own way. Right now there are 15 volunteers in our three bedroom, one story house. We LOVE it! We´ve got two bathrooms. Enough said. We already sent home some of our first wavers and are going strong into our second wave! A few volunteers stay for more than one wave and a few stay all summer. We live in a very nice home, walled in, with a night guard, an alarm system, and in a safe part of the city. In fact, we live next to one of the large malls they have here Metro Centro! Sorry about the garbage bags in the picture of our house below. But with 16 people living here, garbage happens. (We still are finding a way to get the city to pick it up on a regular basis).

Next, let me introduce you to my co-country director, Blanca Gloria Rodriguez. As you can see from our picture below, we are easily mistaken for twins. I LOVE working with Blanca. We are partners in action and have had a great time finding a house, contacting partner organizations, managing project budgets, setting up projects for the volunteers, working with our team and facilitating their experiences here in El Salvador. We are passionate about helping our volunteers to experience and learn about poverty, third-world development, the beautiful people of El Salvador, their country´s history, and some of the tools or interventions that are used to fight back poverty and improve their life conditions.

To give you an idea, about 80% of El Salvador´s population lives on less than $4 a day. The wealth of the country (and it has great wealth) is enjoyed by 20% of the population. For a long time, its main export was coffee. But since the coffee market has downed here, they have had trouble finding other valuable exports. Shockingly, one third of El Salvador´s population lives in the USA and send money back home to their families via remittances. El Salvador had a 15 year civil war from about 1980 until 1992, which of course, was horrible. The people became so tired of all the fighting and deaths. It´s been 15 years and the scars of the war have largely healed over. El Salvador tries to make its way forward progressing, but there is still a lot of poverty. It is also a country that has suffered many natural disasters such as earthquakes and sometimes hurricanes. El Salvador is filled with many good people. Many humble people, who love their families and love peace.

The reason for the great inequality? As I have tried to sort it all out and piece together the history of the country, I basically sense one main reason: A long history of the wealthy and powerful being unwilling to share. Things are slowly getting better. There is a lot of history to overcome and complex challenges to deal with. But they are making their way to a better future and we are here to help them where we can.