ESNA makes a remarkable impact for the children of Las Trincheras
Building and furnishing an impressive Children’s Center for children ages 2 to 6!
By Guillermo Fernando Sensente
A longtime dream for the people of Las Trincheras – whose community is composed of families that were displaced from their place of origin due to the civil war during the early 1980’s – finally became a reality in 2013 as the first rocks were removed from the ground. Las Trincheras – which literally means trenches – is a poor rural community where many of its members earn less than $30 a month; making it one of the poorest communities in the entire Caluco area.
When ESNA was first introduced to the community, the first need that was presented was that of the children center – a classroom no more than 20 feet by 20 feet – that consisted of four teachers and twenty five (25) children ages 19 months old to 6 years of age. The conditions of this ‘center’ was truly shocking as children were exposed to horrible heat and safety conditions were close to none. Children had their meals inside an old chapel that was next to the classroom and that had been damaged by two major earthquakes that affected the country in 2001 (7.7 and 6.6, respectively). Since education is one of the pillars for ESNA, we put in our resources and started to spread the word about this very important need to as many people and organizations as possible both, in the United States and in El Salvador.
Luckily, we found many friends and organizations willing to help us out. And so the dream of having a new center began. It took about eleven months for the construction to be complete – and a great dose of hard work from volunteers from the community as well as that of ESNA delegations (people from various parts of the US). The Early Childhood Development Center was officially inaugurated on October 4th of 2014 and it brought lots of joy to many people, specially to the people Las Trincheras.
