 Maria lives in a small shack in a stick village near the region of La Paz, El Salvador. The conditions are deplorable – a stench of sewage fills the air as Maria pushes her canoe through the thick sludge on her way back home. She dreams of the day when she can move to a better place…
Despite her current difficult situation, Maria is hopeful her circumstances will change someday because she attends our Mano Amiga School in El Salvador. At this Catholic school, Maria has learned that she is someone made in the image and likeness of God. She knows she can make a difference in this world. Maria is thankful for the opportunity to attend school each day.
As Pope Benedict has written in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love): ‘Love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind is as essential to the Church as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel. The church cannot neglect the service of charity anymore than she can neglect the sacraments and the word. …We now have modern systems of distributing food and clothing, and of providing housing and care. Concern for our neighbor transcends the confines of national communities and has increasingly broadened its horizon to the whole world.’
 Our Mano Amiga School seeks to provide more than just education to children like Maria. Mano Amiga El Salvador seeks to provide a dignified place for these children to learn. However, times are tough everywhere. This year, the school is struggling to provide even just the basic supplies. Can you help Maria and her friends with any of these most basic school supplies? Can you help with a gift of….$25…$50…$100?
As some of you are getting your children ready to go back to school, please keep in mind these children also urgently need school supplies, tables and chairs, and sports equipment to keep them healthy in both body and mind.
Both the economic and political challenges that we face in El Salvador, given the new global and local scenarios, make the mission of the Mano Amiga School even more important – only a holistic approach (spiritual, intellectual, human and apostolic) to education, based on solid Catholic virtues, will empower the poor to fight through their poverty to self-sustainability.
– Lucia Siman, Principal Mano Amiga El Salvador
The students at Mano Amiga El Salvador do not have summer vacation because their school year begins in January and finishes in November. In a few months they will celebrate their first high-school graduation. The dedication of these graduates and their teachers is reflected in the extremely low drop-out rate at Mano Amiga (only 1.2 percent) compared to the public school drop-out rate in El Salvador of 11.7 percent.
This past June, 50 younger students took part in a spiritual retreat for another type of “graduation.” They are joyfully preparing for their first communion. This is an example of the education of the whole person that Mano Amiga schools provide – spiritual as well as intellectual and human.
In addition to helping students, parents are invited to participate in a literacy program to learn how to read and write. This is how Mano Amiga El Salvador helps to transform the entire family – and eventually the entire community!
The poor people of Maria’s village are committed to doing all they can with the help of Mano Amiga to work to improve their lives. Please be generous in your assistance to help Mano Amiga continue to make a difference in the lives of Maria, her family and her friends.
| 
