2022 is coming to an end and it is time to deliver our annual newsletter; reported for transparency and because we are excited to share with you what we have achieved.
Looking back on 2022
Tag: education
🎙️Grassroots Feminism in El Salvador – A Virtual Forum Invite
| 🎙️ Prevention, Attention and Activism: Grassroots Feminism in El Salvador SEPTEMBER 29 | 7PM (El Salvador) |
| Join us this week for a conversation with the Morazán Women’s Network, a regionally and internationally recognized organization for its impeccable work to promote equality and eliminate discrimination and violence against women in their region and beyond. ~ Prevention The work The Network is doing around youth development, drawing on both the ECHO model and popular education, to increase self-esteem and self-worth while preparing these young women to identify, confront and reject gender-based violence. ~ Attention The work The Network is doing in the area of comprehensive accompaniment of victims and their families, with special attention to trauma-informed care programs and their real-life impacts. ~ Activism The work The Network is doing in the area of providing legal aid, legal advocacy, and victim’s rights activism as well as the current reality of justice and the hopes for the future. —– You can join Thursday’s conversation via Zoom by pre-registering for an access code @ bit.ly/3cZAbQl or watch it live on Facebook. |
| OUR PANEL |
| Melida Avila – Vice President; Social Work and Healing + Idalia Claros – Secretary; Advocacy and Victim’s Accompaniment + Martiza Argueta – Treasurer; Sex-Ed and Youth Development Simultaneous english interpretation will be available via the Zoom meeting. A recording of the event will be made available. |
Mejores Escuelas, Mejores Futuros
Porque creemos que la educación es un elemento clave para acabar con la pobreza, nos esforzamos por mejorar la calidad no sólo de las competencias de los profesores y el equipamiento, sino también por mejorar las escuelas para que los niños quieran seguir estudiando.
Vea el siguiente vídeo y conocer cómo un poco hace mucho por las comunidades más vulnerables y olvidadas.
Gracias al apoyo del Grupo Santuario de Baja de Sur, de Palo Alto, California, por financiar este proyecto.
Better Schools, Brighter Futures
Because we believe that education is a key element in ending poverty, we strive to improve the quality not only of teachers’ skills and equipment, but also to improve infrastructure so that children will want to stay in school.
Watch this video and learn how a little goes a long way for the most vulnerable and neglected communities.
Thank you to the support of the South Bay Sanctuary Covenant Group of Palo Alto, California for funding this project.
Las Jóvenes que Trabajan para Empoderar su Futuro
Así es como se ve cuando las personas dedicadas pueden realizar sus propias soluciones a los problemas que enfrentan.
Aquí en el video, la Red Ciudadana de Mujeres de Morazán se puede ver desafiando la barrera de obstáculos multifacéticos, que impiden que muchas jóvenes se conozcan a sí mismas, sus derechos y el potencial de sus proyectos de vida, creando redes de líderes, capacitadas en materia que francamente pueden salvar vidas.
Para VOCES, es un honor hacer todo lo posible para continuar apoyando las iniciativas de La Red.
* In English: Young Women Working to Empower Their Future
“This is what it looks like when dedicated people can come up with their own solutions to the problems they face. / Here in the video, the Morazán Women’s Citizen Network can be seen challenging the wall of multifaceted obstacles, which prevent many young women from knowing themselves, their rights and the potential of their life projects, by creating networks of leaders, trained in matters that frankly can save lives. / It is an honor to do everything possible to continue supporting La Red’s initiatives.”
Environmental Education in Rural El Salvador
Over the past few months, as part of our Environmental Education Program in the Bajo Lempa, VOICES along with the help of Marco Antonio González, a professional in Biotechnology, held a series of training workshops. These workshops covered important public health topics, like this one on Solid Waste Management facilitated for the Amando Lopez community. The participants are leaders, many of them young, and they are now tasked with educating their friends, their families, and visitors to the community on the topics they’ve learned.
Educación Ambiental en el Bajo Lempa
Durante los últimos meses, como parte de nuestro Programa de Educación Ambiental en el Bajo Lempa, VOCES realizó una serie de talleres, con la ayuda de Marco Antonio González, Lic. en Ecotecnologia. Los talleres cubrieron importantes temas de salud pública como este último en comunidad Amando Lopez, Gestión de Residuos Sólidos. Estos líderes, muchos jóvenes, ahora tienen la tarea de educar a sus amigos, sus familias y visitantes de la comunidad.
Great Music for a Great Cause!
TICKETS | ENTRADAS
It’s that time of year again for Voices on the Border’s Solidarity Concert!
Last year, we surpassed our fundraising goal of $2,000, and this year we hope to do the same. We will be fundraising to pay the amazing bands that will be performing and to support a Sexual Health Peer Education program run by adolescents and young adults in the rural department of Morazan.
TICKETS | ENTRADAS
¡Es esa época del año nuevamente para el Concierto Solidario de Voces en la Frontera!
El año pasado, superamos nuestra meta de recaudación de fondos de $2,000 y este año esperamos hacer lo mismo. Recaudaremos fondos para pagar a las increíbles bandas que se presentarán y para apoyar un programa de educación de pares sobre salud sexual dirigido por adolescentes y adultos jóvenes en el departamento rural de Morazán.
TICKETS | ENTRADAS
Education in Times of Covid-19
Socially speaking, El Salvador was already deteriorating before COVID-19 hit, owing to rising rates of poverty and extreme poverty, the persistence of inequalities and growing social discontent. In this context, the pandemic was to inevitably have a profoundly negative impact on various social sectors, particularly public health and education.
Even before the pandemic, VOICES has been working with rural schools and families in an attempt to radically improve the culture of learning throughout these regions, by identifying and addressing major gaps in educational outcomes. Since the pandemic began, we’ve been supporting initiatives that deploy distance learning modalities through a variety of formats and platforms (both on and off-line), while also supporting the mobilization of education personnel and students and helping these institutions stay equipped with the necessary biomedical resources to ensure the overall well-being of students and their families.
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Building a Dignified Learning Environment
Isla de Monte Cristo, Bahia del Jiquilisco
In 1992, the Island of Monte Cristo was resettled by local farmers taking advantage of the postwar land transfer program. Today, the remote community contains acres of fruit trees, a handful of farming families, and hundreds of nesting birds.
Due to years of abandonment by both local and the national government, organizations like VOICES have been approached by local leaders to help them tackle specific issues like their lack of vital resources such as potable water and access to education.
Thanks in part to the generosity of South Bay Sanctuary Covenant, and the efforts of the islanders themselves in managing the logistics, the transportation of materials and the labor, their small school is in the middle of a complete makeover.
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Rural Mobile Technology Lab
Centro Escolar Amando Lopez, Bajo Lempa, Usulután
The Mobile Tech Lab began in 2020, in response to the official closure of all Salvadoran educational institutions. Luckily for the kids, the Amando Lopez School staff have always been at the forefront of developing creative initiatives to entice students and keep communities learning.
The Lab is helping bridge the digital divide in the Bajo Lempa, by offering direct technology to students and computer skills to teachers. 112 students are currently taking part in the Lab, by attending in-person or virtual classes in communities Amando Lopez, La Canoa and 14th de Abril. The teaching staff continue to say that their goals are being accomplished through this program, goals such as keeping students and teachers connected, providing students the critical technological tools they need to succeed and strengthening the technical capabilities of the teachers.
It is also important to note that because of the school’s stringent biohealth approach, Amando Lopez has become a model for other institutions who wish to teach kids, during a global pandemic.
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Early Childhood Education Improvement
Bajo Lempa Preschools, Usulután
Preschool teachers are critical agents of children’s social and emotional development, which in turn is a key predictor of their current and future academic and social success. Rural pre-schoools in El Salvador however are notorious for being left of the equation when it comes to government funding around paying dignified salaries, operational budgets, building infrastructures, etc.
For VOICES, it is important to support these institutions in their educational proceses by helping to supplement these shortcomings and offering them quality continuing education workshops with pedagogical professionals.
Recently, we worked with five different preschools in the Bajo Lempa to facilitate a series of highly interactive age and developmentally appropriate activities aimed at improving the methodological foundations of their curriculum and internal organizations.
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We want to reiterate our gratitude for our dear friends from South Bay Sanctuary Covenant of Northern California, St.John of God Church of San Francisco, the Carlos Rosario International school family in Washington D.C. and generous individuals and families who continue to understand the need for providing quality education in the middle of a pandemic. If it weren’t for each and everyone of you and the dedication and perseverance of our Salvadoran patterns, who knows how many bright young futures would be stifled and lost.
Don’t have your ticket for our upcoming Solidarity Concert? Click Here!
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Introducing our 2020 Annual Work Report
2020 has been a whirlwind year and we want to share it with you.
Click Here or below to read our latest annual report.
Grow With Us
Giving always feels good, but it feels even better when you know that your donations are helping small yet effective organizations like ours, strategically forecast their funding, budget their finances and plan future projects and initiatives. As we grow, your monthly gifts will help us stay fiscally healthy and predictable, allowing staff and our partners to focus on the job(s) at hand.
Join our 3rd Webinar
Don’t miss out on our upcoming Webinar: COVID-19 and the Salvadoran Educational System
Around the world teachers and students are being asked to make a lot of changes, in order to overcome the obstacles placed on them due to COVID-19 restrictions. In El Salvador, school will not resume until 2021. We will conversate with three educational professionals, on the front lines, and hear about the reality of the educational system, their opinions and their efforts to reach as many young people as possible in order to avoid mass desertion of students.
We will stream on our FacebookLive page, however, if you require interpretation you must register by clicking here.
Voices on the Border 