Child sponsorship update from San Miguel, El Salvador

Update for child sponsors from the SOS Children's Village San Miguel, El Salvador from Christmas 2008.

Dear friends,

Once again receive a warm greeting from El Salvador and specially from the children of the SOS Children’s Village San Miguel. It is a pleasure for us to greet you in this season of the year to let you know more about the lives of the families and the daily life in the village. We hope you enjoy reading and knowing more about the activities and events of this year 2008.

We want to tell you that we have currently sixteen families in our village, who daily support each other. After some teenagers were transferred to the SOS Youth Facility on January, the village was left with 111 children, from 10 months to 18 years old. The teenagers were received with a lot of happiness and enthusiasm by the other teenagers that currently live in the facility. There are 13 girls in the SOS Youth Facility for women and 12 boys in the SOS Youth Facility for men. Both facilities are directed by psychologists who daily oriented the teenagers in their life project. Before the teenagers are transferred to the SOS Youth Facilities they are prepared with vocational workshops like bakery, air conditioning repair, automotive electricity and computing, for mentioning some.

Once that they are established in the facilities they continue with that development, that is the case of Julio, Ernesto and Eduardo, they work in a bakery and at the same time they continue their studies; Miguel and Angel work in a shoe store of a mall in their vacation time; Carlos worked repairing air conditioning; Salvador and Elmer worked in a store during vacation time also. Armando, Adonaldo, Marlon and Santiago haven’t found a part-time job so they are full time students; Alejandra, Griselda, Diana, Teresa, Vanessa, Angelica, Julia and Maricruz studied and had part-time jobs; Maggy finished her studies to become a Licensed Vocational Nurse and works the last month of the year, she also is going to continue her degree in the university; Carolina studied and had a part-time job but she incorporated to the peace band at school and that takes up a lot of her afternoon time. Besides that the teens are supported and oriented by the youth leader to find a part-time job. They visit their SOS family almost every weekend and also they receive visits from their biological families. Carlos, Santiago and Angelica finished their high school studies and they are preparing to get into the university next year.

Supporting children and communities at San Miguel, El Salvador

This year the Strengthening Family Programme is taking care of 165 children of different parts of San Miguel between 3 months to 6 years old; they are being assisted in the SOS Social Centre. We also count with 133 children in the Childminding Programme, who are taken care of mothers in different houses of the communities. As the Family Strengthening Programme is about helping the families, we do not just assist the children but also their families. Now we are assisting 132 families in the SOS Social Centre and 89 families in the communities, which are in different vulnerability conditions.

We have been also working to improve the quality of the services provided to the families, which are divided in four components: boy-girl, family, woman and community. In the boy-girl component the attention that is given to the children has had improvements and we are trying that the families of the community gives priority to the protection and care of the children. We have also received support of three important universities of San Miguel and some students that are about to graduate of the degrees of psychology, physical therapy and laws. About the other components Woman, Family and Community, we have been working with the parents of the children about different topics of personal development and preventive health and upbringing practices to their children.

Inside the long-term family based care Programme efforts have been made to enhance the affective bonds between the children and teenagers with their biological families. That is the case of Daniel that was received in the village when he was 6 days old. We had no news of the biological family, but now that he is four years old, his biological aunt, who raised his four oldest brothers was located, and legal procedures have been initiated so the five boys can live together. A preparation procedure for him and his family has been also initiated in case that the proper entity decides that the boy can reincorporate to his biological parents. We also have had other similar stories, Alejandra met her grandmother and Carolina met up with her biological mother after 12 years of separation.

Children growing up at San Miguel, El Salvador

We are glad to tell you that during the year we had five SOS aunts in the process of becoming a SOS mother. Elba, Noemi, Graciela, Roxana and Cecilia did their monographic essay and the results were excellent because their final mark was 9 in a scale of 1 to 10. Their children and the collaborators are very proud of them. Another good news is that we received the support of a foreign organisation to make a physic and deontological evaluation to all the children of the village. Through this evaluation Judith and Ruben were submitted to a tonsil surgery; it was a success and now the children have a very good health. Other important event happened in August, Fatima and Lucia were part of a national weight lifting contest and they won the first and second place; all the community of the village is very proud of them, they are a role model; prove of that is that 8 children are practicing Judo, 3 goes swimming and 2 are lifting weights.

During all this year eight children have had computing classes and in December they will graduate of their first module. Other two boys are taking bakery and now they can make different types of bread, six teenagers were part of a dance festival in the Youth National Secretary installations and 24 participate in the festival plays; and some other nineteen children were camping in Perkín, a beautiful city in Morazán department. In September the children took part in the Independence Day parade, despite that they walked a lot and finished very tired it was a big event for everyone. Marisol is being part of the Latin-American Special Games of 2008 in San Jose Costa Rica, among the children of her school she was the one that was chosen to go. Roxana is a substitute for the special games that will take part in February next year in Idaho USA; in case that the titular couldn’t go for some reason then Roxana will take her place.

The former SOS youth make big efforts to adjust to the independent life; the most difficult situation for them is to find a job specially now that the economical situation of the country is very hard. But we are very proud to tell you about Francisco, who works in a lawyers buffet and continues studying his eighth semester in the university; Carmen Elena y Jacqueline also work in a lawyer buffet and are in their third semester in the university thanks to the scholarship that is provided by the village; Douglas is two subjects away of his graduation to get his English degree and he works in a prestigious institute for teenagers, for 2009 he has an important decision to make because he has the chance to go working to the capital or to accept a scholarship to study in a university of another country; Ceci continues raising her two babies and works as a nursing assistant in a health house of Cabañas department; Jose has a wife and a baby girl and works full time in a bakery; Virgilio and Omar worked and study as well. Roxana is mother of a baby and a housewife, and like them there is many more that live in acceptable conditions and have a normal life.

We are glad to share with you all these achievements and good results of our programmes. We are very happy and thankful to you for your help and support that make us possible to give our children a family with love, respect and security. Thank you for making all this possible may God bless you always. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Yours sincerely,

Angel Adalberto Argueta
Village Director
SOS Children’s Village San Miguel