In El Salvador, hundreds benefit from church partnership with Swiss foundation
Some 335 men and women raise their hands as they stand in front of their tools and/or equipment to start their small businesses and support their families at the Bosco University gymnasium, in San Salvador, El Salvador, June 7, 2015. Thanks to the partnership between the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Advent Stiftung Swiss Foundation, and El Salvador’s Professional Formation Institute, hundreds of needy families will be able to support themselves with the new training and equipment provided to them. Images by Fabricio Rivera
June 17, 2015 | San Salvador, El Salvador | Fabricio Rivera/IAD
Some 335 families in El Salvador have the opportunity to support themselves thanks to new skills and specialized tools provided by a partnership between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Advent Stiftung Foundation—a Swiss-owned, non-government organization.
A group of women are all smiles as they hold training certificates behind their brand new sewing machines.
Under its “Viva Mejor” or “Live Better” initiative, the church and Advent Stiftung celebrated the culmination of small business training and the handing over of tools to hundreds of families during a special ceremony held at the Don Bosco University gymnasium in San Salvador, on June 7, 2015. The print and television media covered the event.
Leaders of El Salvador’s Professional Formation Institute (Instituto Savadoreño de Formación INSAFORP), who provide training along with the church, thanked the church for its contribution and partnership to improve the lives of people in the nation.
“I feel very satisfied about this partnership with the Adventist Church because the seriousness and transparency in leading the project and allowing our people who are going through difficulties because of labor difficulties in the country,” said Ricardo Martinez, vice president of INSAFORP during the ceremony.
President of the Adventist Church in El Salvador Pastor Abel Pacheco speaks to the beneficiaries during the special program on June 7.
El Salvador’s National Household Survey Data revealed that 40.6 percent of households are poor and 12.2 percent of families live in extreme poverty (EPHM 2011) including 6 percent of unemployment rates among the 6.34 million population.
Present during the ceremony was former mayor of the capital city of San Salvador and current member of the congress Dr. Norman Quijano. Dr. Quijano congratulated the Adventist Church for improving the standard of living of citizens in the nation.
Pastor Abel Pacheco, president of the church in El Salvador, said the partnership with the Swiss organization has been on-going for 23 years in El Salvador, 9 of which have been in partnership with INSAFORP, and just now it’s reached a national level.
“We feel responsible to help the needs of the population,” said Pacheco. “Beneficiaries not only learn a trade, but they are provided with tools to learn to develop a totally different and better way of life,” he said.
Advent Stiftung director for Latin America speaks to the media during the special celebration in San Salvador.
According to Pacheco, the church recruits possible students who are unemployed or have low-income by regions and then coordinates with the INSAFORP authorities to provide required hours of training in each specific trade. The project is sponsored thanks to Advent Stiftung which provides most of the financial assistance and donated funds from church members and ingathering funds.
Guiseppe Carbone, Advent Stiftung director for Latin America, participated in the ceremony and said that the majority of the trained students has the possibility to develop into a small business owner. Carbone said the project was a “vivid demonstration of what can be accomplished when institutions collaborate.”
“The project is open to any persons who are in need of work and have no training,” said Carbone.
Luis Alonso Velasquez, 26, was among the more than 300 who benefited from a basic cooking course. Velazquez said he was thankful and excited with everything he learned and feels happy that he can own his business and bring income to his home.
Several men stand behind their welding kits as they hold their training certificate.
Velazquez was among the hundreds who received tortilla makers, sandwich cart, frying kits, welding kit, construction tools, fumigating pumps, sewing machines, baking ovens, agricultural equipment, fishing tools, and bicycles, among others.
The “Live Better” initiative has benefited 766 families from 2010 to 2014, training an average of 150 families per year with an investment of $250 US dollars per person, church leaders said.
Pacheco said that more than $80,000 US dollars were collected for this year’s project. The church plans to continue with the initiative next year.
The Advent Stiftung Foundation has benefitted thousands of people for over 23 years in Central America, South America, The Caribbean, and India.