Reflecting on El Salvador, Creating Change!

When I made plans to visit El Salvador before starting my ServiceShip in Panama, I thought it would be great to have 3 weeks of vacation before going into "serviceship mode" for the next 8 weeks. However, my visit this time around was so different than any other. I was unable to disassociate myself from the injustices I saw around me, and just view El Salvador through the eyes of a visitor or a tourist. I’d like to share two experiences I had during my time in El Salvador that deeply impacted me. These experiences helped me decide that, as I am about to spend 2 months helping citizens in Panama, I should do something to help those in my home country…

In El Salvador, it is not unusual to see children working in stores, selling things on the street, or in other places. Although there is a recent government campaign aimed at eliminating child labor, it is easier said than done for many families who struggle with the sometime 1000% increase in prices since the U.S. dollar replaced the colon as the official currency in 2001. I came face to face with this issue when my family threw me a graduation party. It was an amazing experience- my dad rented a trolley bus and decorated it to the max, and my entire family came. The bus carried a trailer with a live band, called a “batucada”, and we drove around the city for a few hours decked out in full mardi gras-like gear and making all sorts of noise. 

my cousin, me, and my dad (yup, in the pink wig)

me and my cousins!

the live band playing on the trailer attached to the bus

Around midnight, the bus stopped in front of a club and my cousins and I went inside while my aunts, uncles, and my dad and his wife got dropped off to go home. After the club, we walked outside to hail a cab. It was about 3am at this time. A little girl came up to me and asked me if I wanted to buy a flower. Her face was dirty and you could see she had been crying. I asked her why and she told me her mom hit her because she hadn’t sold enough flowers that night. I could not believe that this girl was working selling flowers at 3 o’clock in the morning. I asked her who her mom was and she pointed at a woman standing nearby. I then walked up to her and yelled at her for a good 10 minutes. I reminded her that, out here at this time of the night, her daughter could be kidnapped, raped, run over by a drunk driver, and she was putting her in danger. She told me her daughter wanted to be here, and she didn’t force her. The taxi arrived and we left. I wish there was something more I could have done, but there is no such thing as child services in El Salvador to take that girl away from that environment. I saw that girl numerous times since that night, selling flowers during the day at an intersection near the fairgrounds. Every time I saw her, I thought about that night and her tear-stained face…

one of the girls selling flowers

The second experience wasn’t just a single event, but rather a constant presence during my time in El Salvador- gang violence. El Salvador is the birthplace of the most dangerous gang in modern society, the Salvatruchas. The U.S. government has deemed them the most dangerous gang currently operating in the U.S, and their activities are no better in El Salvador. Gang extortion is so common it referred to as “rent”. All businesses are affected- from large national stores to mom and pop stores. They even affect buses and microbuses (small, van-like buses). If you don’t pay your rent, the gang members threaten to kill your children. Almost every day in the newspaper there would be a story about one more student killed. A child killed in the playground, a university medical student killed while boarding a microbus to school- it seemed all too common. Two days before I left El Salvador, there was a huge protest of students who wanted protection from being killed if their parents did not pay “rent”, joined by microbus drivers who were tired of being killed when the owner of the microbus did not pay “rent”.  They blocked the only road to the airport, halting any passengers from reaching their flights. The government has the most ineffective campaign against “rent” that I have ever seen. They created a cartoon character that supposedly refuses to pay rent. They distribute stickers with the character and underneath it says “I don’t pay them rent”. You’re supposed to put it on your door to let gang members you will not comply with their demands and to look elsewhere. However, to me it just seems like a giant target symbol. Thoughts?

newspaper about a university medical student shot while getting on the microbus

The black box with the 25 on it says that so far this year, 

25 students have been killed in similar ways.

The cartoon character that says "I don't pay them rent. This is a sticker. 

There are banners, posters, and billboards all around San Salvador

with this message.

While those experiences were the most gut wrenching of my trip back home, I also saw a number of needs in the nonprofits I worked with while in El Salvador. All of the nonprofits suffer from a lack of volunteers, because there is no culture of youth and college-aged volunteerism like there is in the U.S., and youth rarely volunteer. The orphanage for disabled children, El Hogar de Padre Vito Guarato, needed help repairing cribs but could not find volunteers to make simple repairs. Un Techo Para Mi País, an NGO much like Habitat for Humanity, can only build on the weekends because people do not want to volunteer during the week. The rehabilitation center for incarcerated youth gang members expressed a dire need to have volunteers who are the same age as the inmates come and spend time with them and show them there are other ways to live. The government agency that protects the rights of children and youth, ISNA, told me in a meeting that they have a hard time building public support for ending child labor like what I witnessed outside of the bars, because people have become so used to seeing the children there they don’t think anymore about it. They need a lot of volunteers to spread awareness about what is happening to these children before a law that is enforceable can be finally passed.

Mi dad has volunteered at the orphanage for disabled children for decades, and together we decided to start a new umbrella nonprofit in El Salvador that would help the orphanage and other nonprofits find volunteers. Together, my dad and I are creating an umbrella organization that will promote the needs of NGO’s in El Salvador. We will link NGO’s in El Salvador with international volunteers. We will collect, assess, and promote the needs of the NGO community in El Salvador to volunteers in the U.S. and abroad. For volunteers, we will provide safe transportation, lodging, and meals which will make service travel to El Salvador a reality for many. My dad owns a few businesses, and he knows a lot of people in the business, government, and NGO fields. I was able to meet with a number of nonprofits and they were all very eager to be a part of the new organization. We’ve got the website almost complete, and have received a number of proposals from attorneys to begin the registration process in El Salvador. I am very excited about this! If you would like to help somehow, we’d love your input. Especially those of you who have gone on international service trips (like 99% of those of you reading this :D )

Although a lot of work needs to be done in El Salvador, it is a beautiful country filled with amazing people! I will miss my country dearly! See some fun pics below:

relaxing on a hammock :)

Lake Ilopango were I took golf lessons

locals fishing near the beach

view of the coffee plantation from mountain cabin

Horse in the town of Juayua, very friendly!