This past April 29th, about 100 youth from the departments of Morazán, San Miguel, and Usulután held the first ever interdepartmental youth network exchange in Morazán. The exchange took place in the local elementary school ‘Maria Paz Cristina Montes’ with the participating youth groups MIJO, OSCA, Quezalcoatl, among others.

This April 27th, some twenty youth graduated from a three month process of academic, intellectual, and social formation.For the past three months, these youth have received workshops on how to foment local community development. As stated on their diplomas, the students have ‘acquired fundamental tools and skills for achieving rural development, which has given them [...]

Beginning this year in the month of February, Voices on the Border has sponsored a drawing and painting class for some 20 youth that are direct members of or family members of the Pastoral Team. For three months, we have passed almost every Saturday afternoon at the San Luis Templo learning both theory and practice [...]

The San Luis drawing and painting classes are held every Tuesday and Thursday within the FSM office space. A consistent group of 15 students (ages 12-18) come for the two hour session. Last week we worked on portraits of our neighbors. This Tuesday we sketched a countryside that we will be painting next week. Today [...]

The Salvadoran Institute for Women’s Development (its Spanish acronym is ISDEMU) is launching a national effort to construct a ‘Board of Women Consultants’ in each of the 14 departments of the county. This November 18th, the Board of Women Consultants of Morazán held their monthly meeting in the departmental capital of Morazán, San Francisco Gotera. [...]

This first week of April we began painting the San Luis Templo mural.  Its’ design is to be based on the cultural identity, the historical memory, and the struggles that Comunidad Segundo Montes has overcome and continues to experience. Four painters (Fredy, Alberto, Alejandra, and Rachel) joined us from San Salvador to work on the [...]

This month of April, I am facilitating the fourth Sexual and Reproductive health workshop with the Fundacion Segundo Montes. The workshop topic is ‘Sexually Transmitted Infections’ with a focus on the following five infections: Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Genital Herpes, HPV, and Syphilis. Our team of facilitators is imparting the workshops in 6 schools in the two [...]

The OSCA youth group organized a forum in which the 2 Jocoaitique municipal candidates running for the mayor’s office were to present their platforms for the 2012-2015 period. Of the 2 candidates, only the FMLN candidate, Walter Claros (who is currently the Jocoaitique mayor), appeared. The ARENA candidate, Juan Sanchez, never showed up. Despite the [...]

On February 18 I facilitated the first painting-drawing class with some 18 youth from my neighborhood of San Luis II. Participation has been good; the second class had some 22 participants; the third class had 15 students. The classes will be held every Tuesday and Thursday and its content will vary from theoretical and   [...]

            For more than a year our dream has been to paint a mural on the front wall of the church in San Luis. We are inching along and are in the process of the following steps:   -We are taking a drawing and painting class facilitated by a local [...]