"On Sunday, Nov. 8, a low-pressure cell dumped almost as much rain on central El Salvador as Hurricane Mitch did over four days in 1998.El Salvador was already in its rainy season. The storm went largely unnoticed in the Canadian and U.S. media because it coincided with Hurricane Ida.
Just as Andrea de Jesus Parada, her four children and two grandchildren were preparing to go to sleep, they heard a noise that sounded like a helicopter hovering over the house and then cries for help. Mud and stone began to pour into the windows and doors.As they hurried out of the house, Parada called one of her granddaughters. “‘You hold from my neck,’” Parada told her.“I felt stones and mud hitting my body,” Parada said. The mudslide carried them along for almost a block before Parada could feel the ground beneath her. She was able to walk to safety with her granddaughter, guided by feeling the walls of the houses in the dark. All around them, people were crying in panic and terror, Parada said.
Parada told her story to Irma Solano and Antony Sanchez, MCC representatives to El Salvador in mid-November. They were in Verapaz to evaluate the damage caused by massive flooding and mudslides that killed at least 85 people in Verapaz and more than 140 people in the country."
Taken from
Mudslides wash people, trees and houses away in El Salvador
MCC Guatemala and El Salvador is committed to supporting local partner organizations that work at community development through projects focused on Education, Relief, and Peace and Justice. The Connecting Peoples program is just one of the examples of how these general categories are put into practice "on the ground"; the Connecting Peoples program is considered one of MCC's key peace building initiatives as it works to build bridges of understanding and commitment between different cultures and groups. However, we are doing a lot more than just connecting people down here! In Guatemala and El Salvador, MCC is supporting projects that focus on: education of women, youth, and children, food security and income generation projects, capacity building, HIV/AIDS, sexual health and gender equality, emergency preparedness and disaster response, peace and justice education through arts and recreation, psycho-social recovery, and much more! Over the next couple of months, we will be highlighting the various projects that make up MCC Guatemala/El Salvador to show just how we work at community development - these are just a few:
Communinity development through EDUCATION
Caring for the environment workshop in Nebaj with partner organization Q'anil
Students at Bezaleel school in Altaverapaz work at builiding a basketball court
Teaching children in Panabaj about dental health with partner organization ANADESA
Community Development through FOOD SECURITY AND INCOME GENERATION PROJECTS
Women of Panabaj practice making fruit salad for visitors that partcipate in ANADESA's eco-tourism project
Community cooperatives in San Marcos work at constructing a green house and trout reproduction system as part of the food security program of partner organization Caritas
