the staff are amazing. their love and passion for the people they serve is evident in everything they say and do.
there are 5 adp's (area development projects) supported by canadians but there are lots more that are supported by other countries.
the wv national office visits the adp offices every week to deliver mail for the sponsored children in the adp as well as go over programs.
in 2001 there were 2 major earthquakes in el salvador leaving 2 million people homeless. considering that most houses were mud packed structures most of them collapsed in the earthquake. at a cost of $6400 for each house world vision has built 2000 houses since the earthquake, that's almost $13 million. the world vision houses are 46 square metres and made of concrete blocks.
people must own their own property in a safe area to get a world vision built home. if they don't own the property wv could build a house and then have the owner tell the people they have to leave as was the case with Damaris and her family.
sometimes the government helps but the houses they build are 7 square metres smaller than what world vision builds.
after the earthquake one family slept tied together at night because they lived close to where there was a landslide. world vision bought property for them and built them a house.
3% of the adp's budget goes to rebuilding houses. since the quake 5% of sponsorship money has gone to housing.
world vision national has 4 doctors, 1 dentist and 2 psychologists to provide preventive health and help to the communities. there are doctors and health care providers in each adp office. each newly sponsored child gets a medical checkup. the ministry of health has programs designed for each age group, moms & babies, teens, seniors, adults, etc.
they provide health training for teens and kids, have special projects for HIV cases and will have a rehab project for disabled kids to work with physiotherapists. physiotherapists from other countries are going to train people in their own communities how to care for disabled kids.
world vision aids program promotes abstinence, condoms and fidelity.
the culture is such that the men sleep with lots of women and women don't tell the men to use condoms because men would think that the women were not pure. the government provides anti-viral drugs.
health, education and christian impact are the first needs met by child sponsorship.
wv has a rapid response team and training in adp's for emergency response and security measures.
40% of the people live on $2 a day, 3 out of 10 kids are severely malnourished and 1 in 5 can't read, 90% of the rivers are polluted and 45% of the people lack good water.
wv is training mothers in nutrition and teaching agriculture and improving existing methods.
it is very hard to come back to this culture. my sister was showing me her latest acquisition, an expensive ipod that plays music, games, takes pictures, etc. all i could think of were the malnourished children of el salvador.
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