#GivingTuesday: Help the CIS Build 50 Homes
“The best thing about our new home is that I can now play on the floor with my little sister.” - 8-year-old Jasmine
Dear Friends,
Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving. We are praying that you and your loved ones are healthy and that you can be together—safely—as a family. Even during these trying times, we have much to be thankful for. We are thankful for the time we have had to reflect on how to build a healthier and more environmentally friendly world. Although we are physically distanced, we are able to communicate through the internet and social media in ways that were impossible before. We are thankful for your solidarity and support to strengthen CIS solidarity work during the pandemic.
This Giving Tuesday (December 1) and Holiday season we need your continued support for a new challenge: raise the funds to build another 50 dignified homes in Paso Puente community, in partnership with Homes from the Heart and the Salvadoran Government Housing Ministry.
Thanks to your support during the pandemic, the CIS has been able to:
Distribute baskets of food and hygiene, and cleaning supplies to over 500 families in need;
Distribute over 50 new laptop computers (with core i5 operating system), 17 internet subscriptions, seven antennas, and other accessories in 28 communities so that underprivileged students can continue their education and have tools for a quality education;
Build 49 dignified homes in Paso Puente Community and install bathrooms and plumbing in 15 existing homes;
Convert our language school to online
Upgrade our web page (in process)
Organize Zoom calls between communities and their partners abroad, and
Support women’s businesses -- including the sale of indigo masks and computer cases -- and start developing strategies for online marketing.
We have many challenges for the new year, but this Giving Tuesday we ask for your renewed support to share the blessing many of us take for granted – a dignified home.
The CIS’s dignified home project is much more than a family having a roof over their heads; the project has a multiplying effect. Paso Puente is not only an impoverished community, but a community plagued by violence. But we are witnessing a social transformation.
The CIS was able to organize literacy courses when we discovered 15 single mothers could not read or write.
Forty youths in Paso Puente now receive scholarships to study, thanks to St. Elizabeth and Holy Spirit Parishes. We would like all youth in the community to have access to schooling and the CIS’s leadership development and art therapy programs.With the tools to get out of poverty, they will have alternatives to migrating or joining the gangs.
Before, no one knew their neighbors in Paso Puente because of distrust. Now they know their neighbors. They are helping dig the ditches for the potable water and contributing unskilled labor to build the homes.
This is the first time the Salvadoran Government is investing in urban shanty towns. It is an opportune moment to address what generates social violence -- unmet basic needs, inequality, the lack of opportunities, discrimination, and the lack of human rights -- rather than offer bullets and repression.
If you know a church, community group, foundation or individuals that would like to make an ongoing commitment to Paso Puente, please let us know.
“One man who did not trust the CIS or myself—and I wasn’t sure why—broke down crying one day. He told me the members of the community had been scammed three different times to paying $100; allegedly an agency was going to build them homes. So, he did not trust me when I asked them if they wanted to build dignified homes. On another occasion, I asked his young daughter in front of him what she wanted to be when she grows up and she said a doctor. He started crying and was blown away that his daughter had that idea and that it might be possible with a scholarship. He only had the opportunity to study 4th grade and his wife 2nd grade, so it was not in the realm of their imagination that their daughter would want to become a doctor. This is a big, burly man who rarely shows emotion. The police beat him up on several occasions when he was younger just for living in the area and for lack of education. Now he is president of the community, father, and husband, and playing a key role in coordinating the dignified home project. ”
Ending structural poverty and achieving social and economic transformation are not simple, but they are possible. Building dignified homes is the beginning of building lives with dignity, trust, education, empowerment, a culture of peace, solidarity and service to one’s community.
We are asking that you dig deep into your pockets again to contribute to build another group of 50 dignified homes and the possibility of a new reality. No donation is too big or too small. The CIS and Homes from the Heart will raise a total of $4,000 for each home. The Salvadoran Government will contribute $3,500 toward the home plus the infrastructure of potable water, sewage, and roads.
$1,500 will build a bathroom, sink, shower, and toilet, plumbing and absorption well;
$1,200 will pay for a roof;
$600 will pay for a tile floor;
$400 will pay for electric installation;
$200 will install a cement sink for washing clothes and dishes; or
$100 will pay for supervision.
When do we need the money?
As soon as possible, but we foresee the project taking a year to complete, so if you cannot give right away or can give some funds now and some later, please let us know.
Thank you for being a part of this social transformation. We would love for you to visit and see firsthand the difference you make once it is safe to travel.
Blessings and Solidarity,
Leslie Schuld, CIS Director and LOS OLIVOS CIS Legal Representative in El Salvador
How to donate:
Tax deductible donations can be made payable to and mailed to:
Los Olivos CIS (in U.S. dollars) / PO Box 76 / Westmont, IL 60559-0076, USA.
Debit/credit card donations can be made online:
http://www.cis-elsalvador.org/index.php/en/donate
PLEASE NOTE DIGNIFIED HOUSING OR PASO PUENTE ON YOUR CHECK OR ON-LINE DONATION
For more information:
Toll free number in U.S.: +1-866-887-2665
El Salvador: + 503-2226-5362
“
I grew up living in a garbage dump. We survived by going through garbage and selling what was recyclable. When they closed the garbage dump in 1998, my family was displaced and had nowhere to live. I squatted on the land in Paso Puente where I later met my wife. We have two children. I do day labor such as collect bus fares, but during the pandemic I have not had work. Being able to live in a dignified home was not something I saw happening in my lifetime.”
- Jorge (Jasmine’s father) studied through 3rd grade.
“
My home is a blessing from God and from all of you. I do not have words to thank you. I love plants and I never thought in my life I would be able to plant a tree in my own yard. It is a dream. Before, water would flow through the house. Everything would get wet. The pillows we make to sell would get wet and ruined. Now when it rains, I don’t panic. I feel secure and happy.”
- Marina, 59 years old.