Our current capital project at the Centro Escolar Católico, Presbítero Salvador Castillo Solorzano, in Izalco, Sonsonate. We are constructing two classrooms including a platform above for further expansion if necessary. These classrooms will serve kindergarten students.
Follow our Facebook Page for most up-to-date news and photos!
Here are a few photos of a new project, Centro Escolar Católico San Jorge in Texistepeque, Santa Ana where 25 children ranging from 5 to 12 years old attend classes together. In the rainy season the children can’t attend classes on rainy days, owing to the large numbers of holes and cracks in the deteriorating roof. They need about $2,000 to replace the 85 square meters of roof over their classroom, and it looks like the generous donors at TLAU are going to make it happen!
If you’d like to see a few more photos, click on the pictures themselves or click here.
There’s a new project underway at the Centro Escolar Catolico San Mateo in Santiago Texacuango. More information and photos to follow…
Interestingly enough, the school is situated just around the corner from the hospital where Helping Hands Medical Missions works during their annual November trip. Helping Hands was previously profiled on our website.
Julio Ramírez and Isaías López, two new TLAU scholarship recipients for 2014, will start two-year trade programs this year thanks to the generosity of TLAU donors.
Great news! Our Salvadoran field officer, Walter Ulloa, sent along a complete list of our scholarship recipients, or “Becados,” for the 2014 school year. There are a total of eight students, including two new scholarships for two talented young men, Isaías López and Julio Ramírez. Visit the photo album page or see the embedded gallery on TLAU’s main webpage for pictures and a little more info about the students.
Father Keane officially blesses and dedicates the classrooms at Pablo VI
This past November, Father Keane was able to fly to El Salvador and attend the inauguration ceremony for the two classrooms at the Centro Escolar Pablo VI. Visit our photo album for more pictures of the event.
Just to remind you, the Centro Escolar Pablo VI is in the town of Nahuizalco in the department of Sonsonate about 90 kilometers from San Salvador. When they approached TLAU and asked for help the school was already running at capacity, serving over 730 students from kindergarten through ninth grade with classes running morning through late afternoon. Now, thanks to the generosity of TLAU donors, two brand-new classrooms are up and running and will be for generations to come. The school was strapped for space, so the classrooms were actually built on top of already existing ones.
On behalf of all the people of El Salvador, Father Keane, and Walter, I extend special thanks to parishioners at St. Mary’s in Goldsboro, the students at the University of Dallas, and quite a few anonymous and independent donors. We hope you like what you see!
Heeding the call of Christ and taking to heart the meaning of Lent, about 240 youngsters at St. Mary’s Catholic School at Father Keane’s parish in Goldsboro, North Carolina decided to adopt The Least Among Us as their lenten service project. The idea was really simple: just collect and donate the loose change lying around the house. You know, the pennies lying in state with paper clips, tacks, and rubber bands in that old ash tray on the counter, the change you saw in the parking lot and shouldn’t have picked up but did anyway, those quarters that are too sticky to use in a vending machine after months at the bottoms of your cupholders. It doesn’t seem like much, but it really adds up, in this case to over $550!
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI put it well: “In inviting us to consider almsgiving with a more profound gaze that transcends the purely material dimension, Scripture teaches us that there is more joy in giving than in receiving (Acts 20:35). When we do things out of love, we express the truth of our being; indeed, we have been created not for ourselves but for God and our brothers and sisters (2 Cor 5:15). Every time when, for love of God, we share our goods with our neighbor in need, we discover that the fullness of life comes from love and all is returned to us as a blessing in the form of peace, inner satisfaction and joy.”
The funds were used to purchase backpacks and school supplies for their brothers and sisters in El Salvador.
After many years spent changing lives and improving communities outside of our department of origin (Sonsonate, the department or state containing the pueblo of Santo Domingo de Guzman where I first visited El Salvador), The Least Among Us will turn its attention, thanks to its generous donors, to the Paul VI school in Nahuizalco, Sonsonate. Nahuizalco is located approximately 90 kilometers from the capitol San Salvador (see google map below), and is home to a population consisting of mostly indigenous Salvadorans who still speak their native Nahuatl language. The school, serving over 730 students from kindergarten through ninth grade, is already running at capacity with classes running morning through late afternoon. Although the school has room for two badly needed additional classrooms, the local agrarian community simply cannot afford the construction costs…that is, without the help of The Least Among Us!
Please continue to follow construction progress through this newsfeed, the Facebook page, and the Picasa photo album.
Thanks to friends, family, Father Keane’s parishioners at St. Mary’s in Goldsboro, and quite a few anonymous donors for making this project possible. Special thanks to the students at the University of Dallas, whose Charity Week 2012 proceeds will fund construction of an entire classroom.
Pablo VI students: “Thank you for your help.”
TLAU donors do a lot to help our sponsored students, so I thought it appropriate to provide a closer look at them with a picture and other information, including history, course of study, and aspirations. Visit our sponsored students page for more information about each student. We have a total of eight students for the 2013 academic year. Enjoy!
With Dr. Joe Hurley, center, and Dr. Carcamo, a Salvadoran obstetrician.
As a Catholic physician with an interest in surgery, I was very excited to learn about Helping Hands Medical Missions and the work they have been doing around the world. Since 1996, teams of about 25-45 volunteers, nurses, dentists, and physicians (both primary care and specialist) have been setting out on annual week-long trips to the third world, including Sonsonate and Santiago Texacuangos, El Salvador, to provide medical care to thousands of impoverished patients. More importantly, through their encounters the missionaries also aim to bring the gospel and it’s saving message to every patient they encounter.
Although it wasn’t my first time in El Salvador, it was the first time I visited in the capacity of a physician. On arrival, I learned that with the exception of general surgeon Dr. Joe Hurley and orthopaedic hand surgeon Dr. Don Condit, I was the only one with significant experience in the operating room and as a result I would be spending most of the week assisting the surgeons. I spent the first three days operating with Dr. Hurley, and together we repaired approximately thirty hernias, which in an agricultural economy like that of El Salvador can be very debilitating. The next day I spent with Dr. Condit, who had a variety of cases including excision of a wrist ganglion cyst, a free toe phalanx transfer to lengthen the fingers of a child with a malformed hand, and a tendon transfer operation to restore some hand and wrist function to a patient with a permanent nerve palsy.
I also was able to spend two days with the primary care team, where my Spanish came in VERY handy. Although some patients presented to receive vitamins and over-the-counter analgesics like ibuprofen and tylenol, and others just for someone to visit with, I was satisfied to make a few diagnoses including ringworm and asthma and initiate the appropriate treatment.
Woven into the mission work was a great spiritual program. The week was structured almost like a “mini-retreat,” with daily Mass and time for private reflection. Father James Perez served as our chaplain.
In the future I hope to involve the TLAU becados in the HHMM mission in Sonsonate. Many Salvadoran students and volunteers, both medical and non-medical, provided great help to keep the mission running smoothly. I think it would be a great opportunity for them to join the HHMM volunteers and witness firsthand what it means to take the talents you have received and give them to others. The Least Among Us always emphasizes that scholarships are not merely paths to material advancement, but widespread cultural change and a lifetime of self-improvement.
I met many very enjoyable personalities and made many friends during the trip. Although everyone worked very hard, we still found time to have fun. It may have been my first mission with Helping Hands, but it definitely won’t be my last!
For more photos, see our Picasaweb page. For more information about Helping Hands Medical Missions, or if you wish to make a donation or volunteer on a mission trip, visit their website for more information: www.hhmm.org.
(Disclaimer – My Helping Hands Medical Missions trip was not funded by The Least Among Us. As stated in our mission statement, 100% of all donations are used directly on educational capital projects and scholarships.)
Assisting Dr. Don Condit with a tendon transfer procedure to restore some finger and wrist function in a patient with a disabling nerve palsy.
