Building Tools for Change
The CIS promotes a vision of sustainable development, not just short-term projects. Social Organizing in communities means fostering awareness and community participation to protect and improve living conditions in El Salvador.
Organizers live and work in their communities striving to educate community members, create community-member-led steering committees to increase participation, make decisions in a collective manner and implement local development plans.
We facilitate programs regarding clean water, education, entrepreneurship and more.
Youth Scholarships and Leadership Development
This is not your average scholarship program.
Disadvantaged youth gain a classroom education and, outside of the classroom, they develop leadership skills and their social conscience, and “give back” to their communities.
When they begin the program, many of the youths see migration or joining a gang as the only options for their future. But, with our accompaniment, they learn to aspire to more and contribute to positive transformation in El Salvador.
Join the more than 20 organized donor communities in the United States and Canada and other individuals that are making an education possible for hundreds of Salvadoran youths.
Dignified Housing
We transform deplorable living conditions into dignified homes.
25% of Salvadorans have no access to sanitation facilities with plumbing and live in homes without title to their land. Unemployment, poverty and income inequality in El Salvador make living conditions even more precarious.
We partner with families living in extreme poverty who want to replace their makeshift shelters and can dedicate effort to securing legal title to their land and building the homes.
With generous donations from solidarity partners like the Inti Raymi Foundation and Homes from the Heart we have built 130 new dignified homes with legal land titles, electricity, potable water and sewage systems since 2016.
Clean Water
The CIS clean water and environment program has three main activities.
One is community education and organization. Communities form water committees, learn from CIS promoters about clean water as a human right, and organize activities to improve their health, reduce waste, and care for watersheds.
Second, the CIS distributes water filters to households and offers simple training and follow-up to keep them in good working condition. The filter is accompanied by two buckets, one to store the filter and the water before it is filtered, and other to store clean water.
Third, the CIS partners with other organizations to install water infrastructure and purification systems in places such as schools and health clinics. These systems use infrared technology to clean the water and have the capacity to provide clean water for many different homes.
The CIS’s efforts resulted in clean water for more than 2,000 people and new sewage systems for 5,000 families in 9 communities in 2019.
Women’s Enterprises and Empowerment
The CIS works with 11 women-led enterprises of 100 members and supports 16 artisan workshops which generate income for 75 families.
Women’s participation in this program strengthens their self-esteem, autonomy and ability to organize. The additional income enables their children to attend school.
As women create value, they gradually disrupt status quo gender roles and learn their power as active voices in their communities.
The CIS works with partner organizations to train women in components of a successful business:
• Development of Organizational Skills
• Marketing and Sales
• Business Administration and Accounting
Our Gender Human Rights Scholarship Fund
In recent years, our work to protect human rights has also included education and training support for two specific groups: women unjustly imprisoned and transgender women.
