Marcos Alberto Cano Flores and Maura Elizabeth Giroacuten Meza are 14-year old students in the community of Aguilares, near San Salvador, El Salvador. He dreams of being an architect. She wants to become a computer scientist.
Both ninth graders have a better chance of achieving their career goals thanks to a new science lab installed at their school through an innovative partnership program by PADF.
“Now we can do amazing experiments,” Maura says. Her ninth-grade companion Marcos agrees. “This is something we only dreamed about. I wish all the other schools could have a lab like this,” he says.
Their enthusiasm is echoed by youth around the country who have benefitted from Manos Unidas por El Salvador (Joining Hands for El Salvador), a corporate social responsibility initiative of Banco Agriacutecola of El Salvador that was implemented through its pioneer alliance with PADF.
Manos Unidas linked the efforts of Salvadoran immigrants living in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., their communities of origin, Banco Agriacutecola and PADF to channel community remittances to improve the quality of education in rural El Salvador.
The immigrant groups called Hometown Associations (HTAs) and their communities developed project proposals, which were submitted for a competitive review. Manos Unidas, Banco Agriacutecola provided up to two-thirds of the total cost of the projects that were selected. The HTAs and beneficiary communities supplied the remaining resources through collective remittances and in-kind contributions.
More than 14,700 students benefitted from the 25 projects in fiscal year 2008 alone. Since Manos Unidas inception in 2004, the wide range of educational initiatives financed by the program included providing school supplies, building basic infrastructure, stocking libraries, equipping computer centers and science labs, and remodeling classrooms.
Meanwhile, the assistant director at Maura and Marcos school says the educational investment has made a significant difference for the students.
“Good quality teaching and learning require that theory and practice go hand in hand,” Alicia Loacutepez de Hernandez explains. “Without a science lab, we felt we were missing something important. But now all that has changed. Thanks to this program, we have seen our underutilized storeroom converted into a lab that is an excellent center of learning where theory is confirmed in practice.”
She continues, “I want to thank PADF and all the organizations and individuals who helped us realize this important educational project – a dream, a theory, that today is a reality in practice, thanks to the chemistry of solidarity.”
