Fact: Despite being the smallest Central American country, El Salvador has the highest population density throughout Latin American. Ever attentive to the local context (in this case, the countries high birth rate), in the month of February, FSM facilitated a series of Sexual Education talks on ‘Consequences of Teen Pregnancy and Methods of Birth Control’ [...]

There are some 35,000 reported cases of HIV in El Salvador, the majority of which, some 90%, are through sexual transmission. With the technical support of the Fundación Segundo Montes (FSM), I have been facilitating sexual education workshops along with Mercedes, a representative of FSM, and Samuel of the Peace Corp. We launched the first [...]

The rains have passed in the eastern department of Morazán. As of last night it has not rained. Schools are scheduled to resume this coming Monday. In Morazán, the municipalities most affected from the rainfall have been San Simon, Arambala, Perquin, Cacaopera and Nahuaterique. In Comunidad Segundo Montes, the community of Poza Honda has been [...]

The colonia or neighborhood, where I have been living for the past ten months is continuing their education in the separation of trash into compostable and non-compostable items. The majority of the families in San Luis II have passed through various informational and participative workshops on the benefits of recycling and environmental health. These workshops [...]

Catalina Montes, president of the Segundo and Santiago Montes Foundation, died this week from a heart attack. Born in Valladolid, Spain, Catalina worked diligently on behalf of the Salvadoran refugees both during and after the Salvadoran Civil War. Catalina was the sister of Father Segundo Montes who was killed along with five other Jesuit priests [...]

A Confluence of Anniversaries: On Sunday March 27, members of Comunidad Segundo Montes celebrated three anniversaries: the second year of the OSCA youth group, the twenty-first year of Radio Segundo Montes, and the founding of the community of Quebrachos, Jocoaitique in March 1990. The directive board of the OSCA coordinated with the Radio to celebrate [...]

At 5:30 pm on Thursday, January 27, Salvadoran soldiers shot and killed two Salvadorans who were attempting to smuggle a small load of lumber from Honduras across the border to their homes in Northern Morazán, El Salvador. Despite initial newspaper reports, the men were unarmed and the shooting occurred on the Honduran side of the [...]

Every year the OSCA organizes an end of the year youth outing. It is a rather open invitation for any youth that is a member of the Direcciόn de la Juventud, a branch of the national government that promotes youth development and leadership. This year the activity took place in the Poza de la Culebra [...]

The five-part series gender workshop that is organized by ‘La Fundacion’ are attracting more and more community members. The number of participants have grown by fifteen people. The second workshop focused on ‘Gender Empowerment.’ We went over how self-esteem is formed and asked ourselves personal questions such as, “Why do we get uncomfortable when we [...]

I moved! From Joco to San Luis, Meanguera into a casita that is close to some friends. This is definitely a change for the better. It has given me a chance to see the community spirit of the colonia where I am now living. For example, 7 men from the community “stopped by” to help [...]