Week Three - Serving in El Salvador

So I am making some exceptions to the rule with this one.  Since I was still out of the country this week, it was difficult to make sure my service plans for my kids were carried out (they were to busy having fun without me).  But since I am spending two weeks serving and I will be sharing the many stories with them, I think this counts for at least one project. 

To give a little background . . . I am on the Board of a non-profit called HELP International, which trains volunteers to do community development and humanitarian service in less developed countries. This year, in addition to El Salvador and Uganda (where I went last year), we are also working in Thailand, India, Fiji and Belize. Volunteers will be there May through August and my job is to visit their projects, support the Country Directors, give them advice (if I have any), and make sure things are running smoothly. I also get to meet with our in-country partners, as all our projects are done in conjunction with a local organization, making what we do more sustainable. For an idea of some of the projects, you can click here, but it really varies every year depending on the abilities of our volunteers and the need of our partner organizations.

So here's a very brief rundown of some of the projects I participated in this year while in El Salvador . . .

--We taught Square Foot Gardening(SFG) in a rural community. This included gathering rocks from the river, digging, and getting really sweaty and dirty. The women who came to the demonstration were to go home and set up their own garden and if they did, we promised to bring chicken wire and seeds next time we come.   SFG uses less water and less space and one of the main purposes of its use in the developing world is to help the participates to raise more of a variety of foods for better nutrition.

--We teach English classes on four different levels. This will help them get better jobs and give them a leg up here in the city. Our advanced class is being trained to continue teaching the classes after we are gone for the summer.

--We work at an "orphanage" that is kind of like a foster home. It is for kids and teens who have been taken out of bad home situations, who were abandoned or some were pulled off the streets. It is supposed to be temporary (2 mos) but many of them have been there for over 6 mos and some are there indefinitely.  It is a government supported facility, so it has very low funding.  But the new director is absolutely amazing and she loves the kids.  She knows all their stories and always takes time to listen to them.  I hope that good things will soon be happening there.  Our main goals were to help the residents build confidence and self esteem and to model appropriate social behaviors.  We did this by teaching art, dance, literacy and by doing recreational therapy type activities.

--We partner with an organization called Fudem that does visual acuity testing and screening, provides glasses, and surgery if necessary. It is very similar to what I did in Uganda last year, but in addition to their office in San Salvador, they do these outreach travel clinics everyday, and they are very good at it. Also, because of recent donations of dental equipment, they have started occasional dental outreach clinics and we got to participate in that as well.  In this partnership, we our mainly giving service so that they can do what they do for more people.  By us being there, they can serve almost twice as many people in one day.  We are also working with this organization to create some educational materials, which will be the more sustainable part of the work.

--We work with a special needs orphanage doing recreational therapy, communication boards and other activities.  The residents there range very widely in their physical and mental capacities, so one on one work is very critical.  Their needs are very well taken care of, but the caretakers lack the time to give them the stimulation and education that they need and that could really improve their quality of life.  HELP actually has two volunteers that live here year-round and our summer volunteers are able supplement and step up the work that is already being done.

--We are working with the biggest children´s hospital in Central America to re-do their signage, which has been incomplete and ineffective for years. It will include a system of symbols and colors since so many people can´t read. We also volunteer there, playing with the children and doing small tasks. Some children are there for months and have no family nearby.

--We work with Habitat for Humanity helping at the work sites and we are also putting together a basic first aid training program for the site managers. This will include putting together first aid kits for each site and showing them where to but the materials so they can keep the kits updated.

--We will be teaching basic business classes with a game called the BEST game with an organization that gives micro loans and wants to move more into the social development realm.

Though I have been out of the country many times and worked with poor people all over the world, I learn things every time.  There is always someone that touches my heart in a new way.  There are new experiences that I will remember forever.  I have and hope that I can continue to share these with my children so that they can have the desire to serve and give to those less fortunate.

If you would like to keep up with and read more about the HELP El Salvador Team's work this summer, you can check out their blog here.  And you can find links to the other teams' blogs by going to the HELP International homepage and clicking on the tab that say "blogs".  Or if you have specific questions, feel free to contact me!  servcemindedkids@gmail.com