Welcome
By Kent Madsen, St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, Santa Cruz, CA
Welcome to the first Santa Cruz al Salvador newsletter. Many of you hear about our trips through the presentations we do at our congregations, but we hope to reach a broader audience by publishing a newsletter. At the end of this year's trip, we asked delegation members to write a brief account of their experiences. Wow! Wait until you read what thoughtful, insightful responses we received.
Added by Kent September 6, 2007 (7:15AM)
Amilcar, My Salvadorian Godson
By Stephen Barrett, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Salinas, CA
It's not a perfect program. Ideally, the scholarship/prayer-child program which was started a little over two years ago is not only a great fund-raising idea, but also an opportunity for initiating relationships between Salvadorian children in our sister community of Guillermo Ungo and individuals and families from our churches who are interested in supporting our mission there and getting to know a child. And it has worked in some cases where motivated families have given us cards, gifts and letters to take down to El Salvador to give to their child and we have had many Salvadorian children shyly approach us with beautiful notes to take back to their padrino or madrina telling them a little about themselves and their family and thanking them and letting them know how much help the scholarships are (The scholarships provide a uniform, shoes, school supplies and contribute towards a healthy meal at school each day). There have even been a few families who have sent letters and gifts by mail through the year.
Continue reading Comments (0) Added by Kent September 6, 2007 (7:10AM)
La Clinica Hilda Alas de AMUDESCO
By Lisa Johnson and Ruth Cruddas, St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, Santa Cruz, CA
On our 2005 trip to El Salvador, we discovered that Santa Cruz al Salvador is the sole financial supporter of the clinic and the women's group, AMUDESCO, that serve our sister communities, the largest of which is Guillermo Ungo. It is a small clinic with one doctor who works three days a week (for $20/day) and two active health promoters ( for $8/day) who are sort of like medical assistants and provide basic preventative healthcare when the doctor is not at the clinic. The women who are not Health Promoters are active in the areas of mental health and education about family violence.
Continue reading Comments (0) Added by Kent September 6, 2007 (7:08AM)
