We arrive at the Carrizal School, everyone’s feeling slightly nervous as this was our first school talk and we were unsure what the response was going to be. Getting the children´s attention was not a problem as all eyes were on us from the moment we stepped onto the playground, carrying giant paper trees, litter costumes and hats.
When was the last time you found yourself out of your comfort zone? When did you last push yourself and end up having one of the best experiences of your life? This is what happened to Luis Hernandez, a 20 year old Londoner whose parents had emigrated from Chile.
Currently, Luis works as a freelance graphic designer, but a couple of years ago he was going through difficult times. “I was lost; didn’t know what to do with my life so began to go out with the wrong crowd and do bad things”, he reveals.
Analysing the group’s dynamics, I feel that I can safely say every team member has adapted as a member of the Nuevo Gualcho community. To reach this conclusive state of mind, the journey has included a mixture of both similarities and differences with ways of living back at ‘home’.
Progressio's London-based Policy Officer, Fatima Haase, reflects on what she learnt about youth participation on a recent visit to El Salvador.
Ordinary people involved in determining the world they want to live in. That’s what comes to mind when I think about ‘community engagement’. It’s essential. If people don’t care about their world or speak out about their concerns, then politicians will not have cause to respond to their constituents.
After a week of orientation we said farewell to the energetic city of San Salvador for the unknown environment of Nuevo Gualcho. The different ways of life we were eager to encounter were almost portrayed to us during our journey, various road-side stalls selling fruit showed us the reality of the struggle to generate an income. Stepping onto Gualcho ground, the sense of wanting to make a real difference was amongst us all.
Lizzette Robleto reflects on the recent summit held in London focusing on how to End Sexual Violence in Conflict...
Here in the UK we have relative peace, access to support for survivors, health and social services and a robust and reliable judicial system. But women and girls still find it difficult to speak about rape or sexual abuse due to strong stigma, shame, and a culture of blaming the victim.
Since signing the peace agreements in 1992, after a brutal civil war, the population of El Salvador has become divided in terms of their political stances. This is closely related to their personal experiences and livelihoods. Election Day therefore, is a big deal in this country, an opportunity to see these divisions come to the surface.
International Citizen Service volunteer, Mudabbir Khalid, writes about the risks of deforestation and urges people to respect nature's most fundamental resources.
El Salvador’s President of the Legislative Assembly, Sigfrido Reyes, has expressed his support for post-2015 development goals on good governance, women’s equality and water access for all – especially small farmers – at a meeting with Progressio Chief Executive Mark Lister.
“Will you be able to learn some Spanish before you go? “ The answer came easily, “of course I’ve got 8 months”. And that was it, I was committed to volunteering in Spanish-speaking El Salvador with the inability to say anything other than ‘Gracias’. Gracias being the only word I knew because I thought it was ‘grassy ass’ as a child.
