Together in Hope, in conversation with our El Salvador team and local community leaders, has been exploring partnerships to create a better future for communities in post-war El Salvador. Together in Hope is working to provide education, healthcare, job-training, and other leadership and community development opportunities for the Alta Mira Flores squatter community in San Salvador.
The La Rosa Blanca School works in the Alta Mira Flores community. The school was created to respond to the educational needs for disadvantaged children of this community. It originally had 15 students, and has grown to 225 in the last 15 years. The La Rosa Blanca School provides education for grades one through six. It is currently full and the school facility does not have the capacity for more students, despite the growing list of students waiting for enrolment.
Additionally, education for grades 7-12 is also needed as there is no affordable educational alternative for these children once they finish the 6th grade. The government has donated a plot of land for a new school building and Together in Hope is seeking to purchase an adjacent lot to build a larger school and community center, which will also house a medical clinic, job-training, adult education programs and other community services, as well as housing space for teams coming to share their expertise and work in and with the community.
The children who attend this school lag behind in academic performance because of the lack of basic nutrition. In 2010, Together in Hope conducted a program that built a kitchen, to facilitate nutritional needs, in the La Rosa Blanca School. Today, 225 children now receive one meal a day at the school, helping to address the issue of malnutrition. More nutritional support is needed.
Together in Hope has established a child sponsorship program with this school. This will ensure each child has the necessary school supplies, such as a back pack, uniform, school books and stationary. We would like to sponsor all 225 children.
A university student sponsorship program has been created within the Alta Mira Flores community. The goal is to send at least 10 students from the community to a university to train to become teachers. Students receiving scholarships will commit to returning to teach at the La Rosa Blanca School.
Together in Hope is supporting teacher training workshops in this community. The goal is to help teachers reach their full potential. Four main workshops will be conducted throughout a one year period in 2012 for over 100 people, including the local community. Each participant will be able to train a group of 20, after she receives training. This makes it a long-term self-sustainable project.
Together in Hope is seeking to begin to address the healthcare needs of this community. In January 2012, Together in Hope brought the first ever medical team to the community of Alta Mira Flores. In a population of 30,000 people, there is only one doctor to address the major issues of parasites, malnutrition and various mental health probelms. In one week we were able to provide free medical and dental care to 500 patients. Our work does not stop there.
Not only do the members of this community live with hunger, unemployment and inadequate housing; they also live in a place of extreme violence and intimidation from local gangs. For the parents, there is a constant worry that their children will become victims of the violence or even become gang members. For many parents this is their reality; they have lost their children to the gangs and have no way to get them back.We can help change this.
Together in Hope wants to build a larger school that will allow children the children attending La Rosa Blanca to finish their schooling all the way through high school, increasing their opportunity for a brighter future and a better tomorrow.
Not only are the children at risk in this community, but the adults are also. Together in Hope has just returned from a medical/dental clinic and community outreach trip where interviews were conducted with 12 families. The main problem that the adults face is unemployment and many have no educational background to help them gain employment or sustain it. Our goal is to build a community center that will have adult education classes and job training programs.
In the post war era, many people from this area suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In this society, psychological illness is swept under the carpet and there are few resources to address these illnesses. This has a devastating effect on families and society as a whole. One of Together in Hope’s goals is to build the community center to help provide counseling free of charge to this community, especially for women and children who are the victims of abuse and domestic violence.
For the majority of people in Alta Mira Flores, the cost of education, medical services, and job training programs is beyond their reach! What if we could change that? What if we could give each child a brighter tomorrow? What if these people didn’t have to live in poverty, or with disease? We can be that change. You can help us make it possible by giving whatever you can to help us build a larger school, a medical clinic, and a community center. You can be that change! Every cent counts and will bring us closer to our goal.If you would like to help please visit: Help-Us-Build-Our-Community-Center-In-El-Salvador
