Housing CIS University students apartment

 

San Salvador, 20 de agosto de 2021

Dear Friends,

We are grateful to many of you who support CIS scholarship and leadership development program through your church, community organization, foundation, academic institution, or directly to CIS.  It is truly a miracle that students who are the first in their family and are from communities where no one had ever gone to university are graduating and making up the 4.6% of students in El Salvador who earn a university degree.   It is truly transforming lives, families, and communities.   I am asking you to give a special one-time contribution to expand our student housing program so that those most in need can graduate from university and bring their families out of poverty and become empowered leaders to work for change.  

Many students cannot travel back and forth to their community to university each day because of distance, expense, and security.  We do not have sufficient space for the demand for students who need housing closer to the university.  As plans for opening the universities to classroom learning, many new students have requested to enter already overflowing small apartments.  The overcrowding was lessened by the pandemic as some students were able to go home and study with CIS provided computers and internet.  Still, some stayed in CIS dormitories due to extremely inadequate internet connections in their village. We want to prepare for the 2022 cycle to have space for students to live and study.    For this reason, we are asking you for a one-time investment for the CIS to acquire an additional apartment for university scholarship students.

Our goal is to raise $ 80,000 to purchase and apartment that could house 10 University Scholarship Students.  This is to purchase a spacious apartment in a secure area by the end of the year. 

·         If 10 people committed to sponsor student housing for their 6 years at university, we would raise $6,000 x 10 = $60,000

·         If 20 people committed $1,000 or the equivalent of one year of a room rental, we would have the remaining $20,000 needed.  

Consider the impact in making your decision to donate to this important investment:

·         One student pays and average of $1,000 to rent a room in the vicinity of the university for one year.

·         $6,000 would be the expense for one student to rent a room for the 6 years of his/her university career.  

·         Currently, renting an apartment where 8 students could live in the area would cost between $5,000 - $7,200 per year which brings the cost down from renting an individual room.  Still investing in real estate provides long-term stability. 

·         Students pay for the water, electricity, and internet.  They also pool funds for meals.  They would spend more a bus fare if they had to travel each day, and so have more funds available for their studies.  It also means CIS does not have added expenses after the purchase of real estate and students learn economic responsibility.

·         The student apartments are a new learning experience for students.   Students learn to live in community with shared space, rules, and respect.   Many Salvadoran males learn to cook and clean for the first time.

·         CIS goal is to raise funds between now and the end of the year to have a space decided on for January 2022 semester.  

·         The most economically marginalized students cannot afford to study with the CIS scholarships without support for housing as well. 

CIS currently subsidizes student housing in different manners:   we own two apartments in San Salvador purchased in 2017 and 2018.  Sister relations pay for rental in San Salvador, San Miguel, and San Rafael Cedros.   Cinquera students receive a larger monthly scholarship to pay for an apartment in San Salvador.  Other students stay with relatives or travel back and forth each day.   Sixty-four of over 200 CIS university scholarship students rely on subsidized housing in addition to scholarships to be able to study.  Students from the following communities have benefitted: San Pedro Perulapan, Suchitoto, San José Palo Grande Isla Tasajera, Isla El Espíritu Santo, Estanzuelas, Llano Largo, Ita Maura, San Pablo Tacachico, Comasagua, Tamanique, Distrito Italia, Comunidad Ellacuria, Cinquera, and San Rafael Cedros.

Students studying in their home villages were under much hardship during the pandemic.

Please consider a generous contribution to CIS general Scholarship Fund with a donation earmarked for student housing.   I am asking you to consider donation between $6,000 and $1,000 which would cover the equivalent of housing for a student throughout their university career or for one year.   Your contribution will multiply because it will provide housing even after a student graduates to a new student if we purchase instead of rent an apartment.   Of course, no donation is too big or too small.   Below is the information or please contact me if you need more information. 

In Solidarity,

Leslie Schuld, CIS Director, LOS OLIVOS CIS Legal Representative in El Salvador

How to donate: Tax deductible donations can be made payable to and mailed to:

Los Olivos CIS (in U.S. dollars) / PO Box 76 / Westmont, IL 60559-0076, USA.

 

Debit/credit card donations can be made online:

https://www.cis-elsalvador.org/donate

PLEASE NOTE YOUTH SCHOLARSHIP AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FUND FOR ONLINE DONATIONS WITH A NOTE – STUDENT HOUSING OR EARMARK YOUR CHECK.

For more information: 

Toll free number in U.S.:  1-866-887-2665: El Salvador:  ++ 503-2226-5362

www.cis-elsalvador.org; info@cis-elsalvador.org

 

Building Community – Building Dignified Homes: CIS’s integral approach to work in solidarity is changing people’s lives and changing their community

 

San Salvador, June 2021

 

Dear Friends,

 

We hope you and your communities are healthy and coming out of the pandemic with strengthened solidarity and awareness of our inter-connectedness via health, the environment, technology, and community.   El Salvador, too, is slowly coming out of the pandemic with a mass vaccine program.  I am writing to ask for your support to continue building community and dignified homes and addressing the root causes of migration and gang violence.

Maribel is the sole breadwinner, sustaining her three children and grandchild.  She makes less than minimum wage, at a bakery, and would never have the means to build a dignified home. (Before and After)

El Salvador is going through a major shake-up, as results from the February elections gave the New Ideas Party a qualified majority (2/3) and, including their allies, an absolute majority (3/4) of the deputies in the Legislative Assembly.  The traditional political parties took a major hit with ARENA winning only 14 and the FMLN only four of 84 legislative deputies.  The population voiced a clear message for change. Some of the abrupt changes made since the new assembly was sworn in on May 1^st have caused discontent internationally, as well as within traditional power sectors and human rights groups in El Salvador. Nevertheless, according to polls, these changes are supported by the majority of the Salvadoran population. 

 

Independently of who holds political power nationally or locally, the CIS has always accompanied communities to ask local and national authorities for support. We re-affirm our mission of solidarity, transformation, and accompanying the most economically and socially excluded communities so that they can have the tools to build an El Salvador they believe in. These include the tools of education, clean water, respect for the environment, dignified housing, women’s businesses, democratic elections, and opportunities to be empowered actors in the construction of justice and dignity.

 CIS has addressed the root causes of migration since we were founded, first by creating markets for Salvadoran artisans who believed their only opportunity to build a dignified home was to go to the United States to work for a few years.  They persistently asked CIS for help getting a visa.   Once we started selling their products, they never asked again.  Then massive waves of migration began after Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and the 2001 earthquakes.  CIS was primarily focused on accompanying human rights struggles (denouncing assassination, forgiveness of the land debt, and non-privatization of public services), but the leaders of these struggles were leaving the country. So we consulted with the communities we worked with, explaining that we can accompany human rights struggles but CIS cannot be the motive force.   We explained that it is difficult to organize if all the leaders are migrating. The community members told us they did not want to migrate, but they could not afford to put beans and rice on the table. With that feedback, the CIS began to focus on social and economic rights – developing programs of scholarships, women’s enterprises, clean water, and most recently dignified homes.  Social programs and economic empowerment give Salvadorans the tools to be able to stay in their country and be active in community development and human rights. 

 

Community Building – Home Building – CIS as a solidarity organization

Romero Community Experience

CIS is not a home-building NGO.   We are a solidarity organization.   Our priority is to build communities most in need who are willing to organize and be actors in their transformation.  Building homes grew out of accompanying the Romero Community in their 10-year struggle to get title to the land.   They built their community without land security despite 10 years of getting the run-around and false promises.  The CIS accompanied this community-building effort first with a few scholarships.  Our CIS scholarship program traditionally covered only high school and university scholarships, but we realized that youth join gangs before high school if they do not have any other alternative.  St. Elizabeth got involved as a sister parish and took the initiative to raise enough funds to provide scholarships starting at pre-school.  As we got to know the community, we realized most of the mothers were heads of household and many could not read or write. CIS organized literacy courses and 15 women graduated from 6^th grade.   We worked with women to cultivate organic indigo and vegetables to generate income and food sovereignty.  In 2015, when they finally got the title to their land, we immediately began fundraising and getting permits to build 65 dignified homes, potable water, and a septic system in each home. CIS was able to complete the project with the support of generous donors, foundations, and a few miracles conceded from San Romero in 2017. The youth are not migrating or joining the gangs as new opportunities emerge and a new self-image of dignity is developed.  

            Clean Water                   Participation                Education             Art & Mental Health

Paso Puente Community –   A dignified home is a human right!

Before                           After

Then our solidarity partners began to ask us about the community Paso Puente across the street, a community of 153 families with similar deplorable conditions – no potable water; no sewage; houses made from plastic, tin, and bedsprings; single mothers who could not read or write; kids on the street instead of in school; and additionally, a community filled with gang members due to complete social exclusion.  The community was not organized and did not trust one another – much less CIS.   We also knew we did not have the ability to do this on our own, since the community is three times the size of Romero Community, and we did not have international relationships established there, like we did in Romero over the course of a decade.

 

CIS requires that communities be actively engaged in their transformation to build a partnership.   Because of their dire conditions, Paso Puente did not meet those criteria.  So, we decided to start with scholarships to build leadership, trust, and organization in 2017.  We accompanied them to form a community council and ask for potable water from the government, but like Romero Community, they were repeatedly denied. We organized art and mental health gatherings to build trust in the community and to get the youth to dream a different future.  The youth expressed to us that they saw their only options as migrating or joining the gang.  Just because of their address, they were denied dignified employment.  When a new government came to power in 2019, and CIS accompanied them again to ask for potable water, the new government immediately responded and visited.  Seeing the conditions, they agreed to work in partnership with CIS and Paso Puente – not only to provide water, but dignified housing, sewage, and streets. In October 2019 we began to build homes with support from the Salvadoran Government for the first time.

Sara, a single mother, and her 3 children need your support!

Since then, in Paso Puente, CIS has completed 85 dignified homes, provided 48 scholarships, organized literacy classes for the mothers, organized art and mental health workshops with over 200 participants, and gotten several kids in school who were roaming the streets or who had slight disabilities and were not previously welcome in the schools. 

 Still, this is just the beginning – We need your support to continue to accompany this community transformation!

·         CIS needs to raise $100,000 for the next 40 dignified homes!  Each house is about $8,000 (they have gone up $500 due to cost of materials). The Salvadoran Government is putting in $3,500 per home, plus water and sewage. Homes from the Heart has agreed to put in $2,000 per home. (Thank you!)  So the CIS needs to raise $2,500 per home!  You can provide a dignified home to a family for just $2,500! No donation is too big or too small: $1500 will build a complete bathroom; $600 will tile the floor; $400 will pay for electrical installation; and $50 will provide doors for the home.

 

·         With each home we build, we meet new children who are not in school for various reasons – the majority are economic; also disabilities; parents who cannot read or write often do not see the reason to send their kids to school; or the youth need to work.   When we started with a few scholarships in 2017, no one had been to high school.  Currently there are 48 students on scholarship:   one is in university, 6 are in high school, and 41 are in kinder–9^th grade, thanks to Holy Spirit Parish in Kansas City!!!   Still, with the number of students who want to study, we cannot cover the demand.  We need an additional sister relationship and/or individual donations:  $1,000 a year will provide a university scholarship (two will graduate from high school this year and aspire to go on to university), and we have 20 new students applying for pre-school to high school scholarships at $300 year.  If we raise $8,000 total, it will cover the need for new Paso Puente scholarships in 2022.   Education is the most powerful tool for the families to maintain their homes and to get out of extreme poverty.

Please consider donating to solidarity and transformation:

·         $2,500 builds a dignified home (combined with government and Homes from the Heart donations),

·         $1,500 builds a complete bathroom,

·         $1,000 for an annual university scholarship or $300 for an annual high school scholarship, and

·         $50 buys doors for a home or a 2-month high school scholarship.

Thank you for being part of this social transformation and addressing the root causes of immigration to give people the opportunity to stay in their own country!

 

In Solidarity,

Leslie Schuld, CIS Director, LOS OLIVOS CIS Legal Representative in El Salvador

How to donate: Tax deductible donations can be made payable to and mailed to:

Los Olivos CIS (in U.S. dollars) / PO Box 76 / Westmont, IL 60559-0076, USA.

 

Debit/credit card donations can be made online:

https://www.cis-elsalvador.org/donate

PLEASE NOTE DIGNIFIED HOUSING, SCHOLARSHIPS FOR PASO PUENTE ON YOUR CHECK OR ON-LINE DONATION, OTHER DESIGNATION, OR WHERE MOST NEEDED.

For more information: 

Toll free number in U.S.:  1-866-887-2665: El Salvador:  ++ 503-2226-5362

www.cis-elsalvador.org; info@cis-elsalvador.org

CIS CLEAN WATER AND ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM – SUPPORTING ORGANIC VEGETABLE PROJECT WITH THE COMMUNITY OF VALLE NUEVO IN TONACATEPEQUE

Today I visited the small community of Caserío Valle Nuevo, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of how resilient people can be. Driving the through Distrito Italia for the first time in almost six months with Don Luis and Yeny, I was struck by how normal everything seemed. Everyone was wearing masks, but the streets were as full as I could ever remember them. Ostensibly, the trip was to deliver some farming tools to a community agricultural cooperative in Valle Nuevo, but we stopped first for a brief meeting at the small clinic in Distrito Italia with some of the leaders from Romero Community. I was reminded of how close some of these communities are. Community organizers in Romero, for example, must necessarily know and work with any of the local health professionals. There is often little distinction between a business meeting and a social call here. 

   

We loaded up the tools at Romero Community—a few wheelbarrows and various rakes, shovels and other tools—and from there it’s only about a five-minute drive to Valle Nuevo. Quite a few community members were there to greet us, and it didn’t take long to unload, but by this point I had figured out that today wasn’t really about the tools. The people here wanted to show of what they’d built. Over the past two months, community members had taken a plot of unused and overgrown land and turned it into a huge garden with corn, squash, tomatoes, and other crops. And they’d done it by hand without so much as the proper tools for the job.

I met a woman named Carolina who owned the land in question. She told me how she was born here, in the community, and went away to study before returning a few months ago. She told me about her passion for sharing the things she has and the things she has learned with her community. The project she conceived of as a women’s cooperative when she arrived grew into a community-run agricultural project that will help the community be self-sustaining. She rents the land to the cooperative for $5. 

The community members led us down a side path to the huge garden. Esteban, one of the community leaders, talked proudly about how healthy and natural their produce was, singing the praises of the agricultural engineer that helped them design their methods. Carolina led me to the old well that will be crucial to the project’s future. The dry season is coming soon, and when it does, they will need irrigation. The well has gone unused for decades and the pump is broken, so the plan is to uncover it and draw water by hand until they can afford to buy a new pump. Here, Carolina told me about her vision for the future of the project, expanding to use the rest of her land, opening a bakery, and even teaching people craft skills that they can commercialize. The goal is to empower people in the community, particularly the women, and give them freedom and control over their lives.

It was good to be out of the city after so long. The women brought sweet bread and lemonade, and my tongue found itself remembering the rhythm of conversation and laughter in these rural communities that I’d forgotten after so many months in isolation. They sent us home with squash straight from the vine, a whole bag of freshly cooked corn on the cob, and the thought that maybe the world isn’t ending after all. We live in difficult times, but people keep moving forward despite everything.

BLOG BY CIS BVS INTERN CAMERON CLARK

PASO PUENTE-BUILDING HOMES-BUILDING COMMUNITY

CIS mission is to build relationships based on solidarity - mutual respect and mutual support. Our principle programs contribute to building communities and empowering women, youth, and those most marginalized to overcome poverty and to become advocates for social and economic justice, respect for the environment, and gender equality.

Our principal programs are youth scholarships and leadership development, women’s empowerment and micro enterprises, clean water and the environment, language and cultural exchange, delegations, and international election observation. We are also contributing to building dignified homes with partnerships with the local community and international partners. 

Paso Puente Community in the municipality of Tonacatepeque is made up of 150 families who were displaced by the 2001 earthquakes. They squatted on government land designated for economically marginalized families. They were granted title to their land in 2014. Still they lived in squalor conditions. CIS began to work with the community with the scholarship program and developing their community council. Still there was a lot of distrust toward anyone who came from outside. Only later did I learn that they had been swindled 3 or 4 times by people allegedly representing a foundation and asking for $50 - $100 each time from each family to develop a home building project. 

CIS was able to build off the experience of building 65 homes in Romero Community in 2016 after a decade long struggle to gain title to their land, and at the request of Romero Community and Paso Puente began to develop CIS programs in Paso Puente. In 2019, Holy Spirit Church in Kansas City became a partner with CIS and together with St. Elizabeth’s Parish are supporting scholarships and leadership development in the community. 

In 2019, CIS received a grant from the INTI RAYMI FOUNDATION for community support, but said we had to make sure everyone benefited equally. The leader of Romero Community, Raul Acevedo, asked CIS to invest it in Paso Puente. It was going to be a challenge with 150 families in need. We asked Raul to identify the 15 most marginalized families to start from there to contribute to dignified housing, and we would see how it developed from there. 

Then when a new government was sworn in on June 1st , 2019, we asked them to help CIS as we had the previous governments to support a transformation in the area and specifically to get potable water and homes for Paso Puente, and sewage and roads for the neighboring communities. To our surprise, they agreed immediately and visited the community on July 3rd, 2019 and have followed through on their commitment. Together CIS with the Salvadoran Ministry of Housing and FONAVIPO, Paso Puente Community, Homes from the Heart and international partners began to build and have now completed an additional 50 dignified homes.

Now, August 2020, there are 50 additional families in the community applying for support from FONAVIPO and CIS. The Salvadoran Government and the Ministry of Housing are committed to building dignified homes where they are most needed and have assured us that they want to continue the coalition with CIS and the communities. Homes from the Heart is one of CIS strategic partners raising funds for dignified homes.

This is part of an integral effort to transform the reality of an area stigmatized by violence, where youth have been accused of being gang members because of where they live, beaten up by authorities, and dismissed for consideration for a job application when they list their address; an area where the majority of the women could not read or write; an area where families lived in deplorable conditions, without basic services, and in shacks that cannot protect them from rain, pandemic, or crime. The CIS has worked with the women to get literacy classes. We now have over 50 scholarship students in Paso Puente and over 125 including the surrounding neighborhoods. We also include leadership and art and mental health workshops as many of the youth have been victims or witnesses to violence.

Now 65 more families have a safe place to guard quarantine and to be sheltered from the rain (130 total including Romero Community). We need your support to benefit an additional 50 families. The CIS contributes $4,000 per home. The Salvadoran Government is contributing $3,500 per home plus potable water, sewage and roads, invaluable infrastructure projects to complement the dignified homes. No donation is too big or too small.

• $4,000 will complete a full home
• $1,500 will build a bathroom with accessories
• $1,200 will build a roof
• $620 will pay for a tile floor
• $580 will pay for electric installation and the pila where Salvadoran wash clothes.
• $100 will pay for over site of the construction of each home.

This family is one of the new applicants for dignified homes in the Paso Puente Community.

This family is one of the new applicants for dignified homes in the Paso Puente Community.

We have lived for 18 years with many difficulties. A dignified home will mean better life and better studies. I have to study in deplorable conditions. My notebooks and important materials and books have been ruined and gotten wet in our shacks. We get sick from the humidity. The whole community has to share one water faucet, and it takes all day to fill a barrel of water. We sleep in fear because of the insecure nature of our shelter. We are marginalized by outsiders, who say only delinquents and thieves live in shanty towns. This project will improve our lives at all levels. We cannot afford to build our own homes, so this project is an enormous blessing.

-Community member July 2019.

We would like to thank all of you who have contributed to this project through Los Olivos CIS, Homes from the Heart, FONAVIPO, the Inti Raymi Foundation, Rainbow of Hope for Children, The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, St. Rose Convent, The Pierce Foundation, The School Sisters of Notre Dame Atlantic and Midwest Province, Bob Chaney and family, community members and many other individuals and foundations who have contributed. 

We want to clarify that CIS is not a home building NGO. The community builds the homes and we support the process of building community. This effort is solidarity and part of a process of building and empowering communities who are willing to organize and be partners in the process. 

Written by Leslie Schuld, the CIS Director

Emergency Survey COVID-19-Community San Pablo Tacachico

EMERGENCY SURVEY-COVID-19

Date: 17 April 2020

Municipality: San Pablo Tacachico

Communities included in report:

San Jorge, Las Arenas, Paso Hondo, Copinula, Barillas, Plan del Amate, Campanas, Los Rivas.

(Please try to provide details. If your program covers more than one canton or hamlet, please specify the differences in each community).   The San Pablo de Tacachico Municipality scholarship program is made up of various communities or cantons that were previously mentioned; there are eight communities in total.

STUDIES

1.      How have your studies been affected?

R/ Majority of young students have been affected due to the form of student work taken, since we are working on the subjects via online platforms, and many of us do not have sufficient financial resources to access the internet. My studies have been affected since we have started internships, and we’ve only had three days and the knowledge acquired can only be practical.

2.     Do you have access to the internet? Where and how? (telephone, computer, cybercafé, residential service, prepaid card)?

R/ Yes. Residential, but I get it this way because it is shared with a neighbour, and we each contribute a portion of the monthly payment. I consider that most of us are having problems in the way we connect to the internet, since it is via telephone which generates more costs, because the internet packages are expensive and give little time.  Due to the problem of the emergency, there are no operating cybercafes at the moment, and most of us young people cannot leave home.

3.     What are the young scholars doing in their spare time?

R/ Some are collaborating in their communities with sanitation campaigns, doing household chores, living with their families and enjoying every moment by their side. We take care of going out twice a week to buy food for our families, others do not leave home, and others have told me they are participating in collaborative sanitation activities for the wellbeing of their communities. I dedicate my free time to: doing homework, reviewing different materials in certain subjects, and exercise.

4.     If some scholarship students are involved in a social project or supporting something in the midst of the emergency, comment on it.  We understand that most cannot leave and have had to suspend their social projects; however, some have given us reports of help with disinfecting and support for security measures when entering their communities, helping families get the $300.00; helps young people with their studies etc. 

R/ I have been collaborating with ADESCO (community council) in the organization for sanitation of the community. According to young people, in the month of April, they have not carried out social projects since the emergency prevention measures do not allow groups of people and the recommendation to stay at home, which is respected, to avoid spreading the virus. If I consider all of us, we have helped people to see if they have benefited from the subsidy.

ECONOMIC

1.     How is it affecting families economically?

R/ The economy is affected quite a lot, because many families had income through informal sales, and the only businesses operating are pharmaceutical and basic basket sales, so there are people already running out of economic resources and food.  The families that are part of the scholarship program are all of limited resources, therefore we are all hurting economically, since in some families we do not have the income of someone who works and helps us meet needs.  It is a problem, because my family has had to suspend their jobs, we have no monetary income, since my mom worked in the school cafeteria.

2.     For the families that have milpa (corn harvest), will the be able to plant in May?

R/ It depends on how the situation continues to evolve, because if the virus spreads and the quarantine extends, it’s impossible to be able to plant basic grains, because doing it would imply risk for the health of the family and the country. Also that agricultural supplies are going to rise too much so if everything gets expensive, that means that we are going to be affected in agriculture. My dad will not be able to plant because he cannot go to the place where he grows the cornfield, because he cannot go that far and he has not been able to prepare the ground.

3.     Do you have access to supplies from the basic food basket? Are there difficulties in obtaining them? (explain)

R/ Yes. Yes, because you have to wait in long lines to buy them, since many of the businesses are closed due to the emergency. Another thing is that there is no income to be able to acquire them, there are too many difficulties to be able to obtain food, due to the lack of money and the situation we are experiencing due to the emergency (stores closed). Yes, there are difficulties because the prices are too high.

4.     The families in which they do not have a salary and social security, have they received the $300 government subsidy?

R/ Some families yes, but others have not benefited, since they do not have access to the internet and have not asked for the corresponding help from other people. Most of the people who have benefited are those who have a considerable income and the poorest families have not had anything.

5.     Have scholarship students helped coordinate access to the $ 300 for their technology skills? Explain who has helped, and how many families.

R/ Yes. To family members and people in the community. Most were supporting this, since it was a benefit for themselves and also helping other people, such as grandparents or people who cannot read or write.

6.     If families do not appear on the list, do students help fill out the form? Have they been successful?

R/ So far, all the people consulted have obtained the benefit. Of course, all the people who have not benefited have been helped to fill out the form.

HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT

1.      How is the current mental health of families affected?

R/ It is affecting a lot psychologically, since many people are not accustomed to being alone locked up and this causes a desperation or anxiety to get out and continue with the routine of before the virus will affect. Many families are also scared and afraid about covid19, that is why they do not leave the house, but some more than afraid are mentally terrified and that is very damaging to the health of each of them.

2.     Do they have access to clean water?

R/ Yes, most families have drinking water thank God.

3.     Are there diseases in the community?

R/ Only chronic diseases, so far in the community there is no case with the COVID-19 virus. That is why everything is going well. Preventive measures are being taken to keep our communities healthy.

MEASURES

1.     What do you think about the measures that the government has taken (social distancing, subsidy, mobility restriction, detention in case of non-compliance with the measures, confinement of people in quarantine centers, among others)?

R/ For my point of view they are very good, since the president made the decision on time to quarantine and close all entrances or exits, to avoid contagion from many Salvadorans and seems he is concerned about Salvadoran people suffering from this disease. We only have to obey so that his strategy works for him. And if you have people in a containment center, it is those who do not want to obey and are making disorders in the streets or unnecessarily leave the house.

• The distancing helps us not to acquire the virus easily.
• The subsidy has benefited many people who are poor.
• Mobility restriction, it is fine because there are vehicles that circulate in areas where there are already positive cases of the virus and if they enter communities where there are not yet positive cases, they can contaminate the inhabitants of the area. 
• Detention in case of non-compliance with the measures, although it is a good measure because there are people who leave their homes without any need, they should be less rude.
• The communities have been closed to prevent people from entering other areas and at the same time they are being fumigated.