By Ron Bueno
On November 7, Hurricane Ida dumped 14 inches of rain in twelve hours on El Salvador, severely damaging the central and coastal regions. To put that into perspective, the last major hurricane that hit Central America was Hurricane Stan which dumped over 15 inches in a four-day period. The sudden massive downpour caused rivers to overflow and triggered deadly landslides. Across the country over 200 people died and 13,600 people were forced to find refuge in 118 temporary shelters. The landslides destroyed 158 homes and damaged an additional 1,500 (for more information and pictures regarding the effects of the storm visit NY times article and our gallery).
As many of you already have learned, the central part of El Salvador was hit by a devastating rain storm last weekend. When Hurricane Ida moved north, a Pacific low pressure system was drawn inland over the Departments of San Vicente and San Salvador, and dumped as much as 14 inches of rain Saturday evening. That amount is approximately 1/5 of El Salvador’s annual average rain fall. View more photos of the extent of the damage.
Engineers Without Borders, an NGO based in Boulder, CO, is involved with projects in over 45 developing countries around the world. Five of its 12,000-plus members are working with ENLACE on a holding tank a few kilometers above the well site of this project. A week or two ago, the tank site (Rebombeo #2) was a collection of scrub brush and sink holes along the side of a mountain between Las Delicias and Las Animas...
Take a minute to listen to a few local pastors and church leaders explain what ENLACE is all about; equipping churches to transform communities. We always welcome your comments.
Last week, The Crossing Church sent a team to collaborate with the Good Samaritan Church in Las Delicias. For some team members, this was their 7th trip partnering with local ENLACE churches. With 25 members, this was the largest team the church had ever sent. It required months of preparation to properly match the skills and desires of the team with opportunities identified by the local community. This year, the result was a multi-faceted trip that included women's leadership training, working with children at a local school, organizing a soccer tournament, a Project Milagro construction project, and even free haircuts and haircutting training. Teams like The Crossing who are involved in a multi-year relationship with a local community play an important role in motivating and empowering the local church to transform its community.
Since the beginning of 2008, 12 new churches have begun to work with ENLACE. Take a minute to see the profiles of two of these churches as they eagerly serve their communities in a variety of tangible ways.
In the past two months, multiple U.S. churches have come to partner with the work of local churches and communities in rural El Salvador. Please take a moment to view photos of this wonderful collaboration.
CHIMPS team member seeing one of the hundreds of patients seen during the weekIn June the Children’s Health International Medicine Project of Seattle, CHIMPS, arrived for its annual medical trip to Abelines, a remote, rural village in El Salvador’s northeastern mountains. Since 2003, groups of doctors, pediatricians and medical students from Washington have collaborated with ENLACE to support its ongoing efforts in this region. Not only do they bring thousands of dollars worth of much needed medicine to address the curative medical issues, but they also focus on preventive education in an effective way by preparing charlas, training sessions, for the local health committee. The health committee, established with ENLACE’s help 11 years ago, continues to be the primary health educator for this village of approximately 2000 people.
