Last Monday we were at Las Delicias and found out some hard information. Like I said before they have been running a comedor (lunch program) for 36 kids and giving them lunch 5 days a week. Well we found out on Monday that the program will no longer be running because they lost the funding.
A woman, by the name of Cristina, manages all the funding for the comedor and other programs related to the library. She informed us that a community from Spain had been funding the comedor but they have been on vacation for the last 3 or 4 months so they have not been sending money. So the comedor is out of money and will be closed at least until the end of the year.
We learned that it only costs $200 a month to feed 36 kids 5 days a week. That is incredible and such a small fee for so many people. I immediately thought of all the people I know who could donate to fix the situation but then I realized that it would not be sustainable because they could easily stop giving just as the community in Spain has done. There is such a disconnect between the people who donate money and the people who benefit from their donations so it makes it easy to stop giving. But if the donors were in the community and loved the kids as I have come to love them, they would never stop giving because they would understand how important it is for the children. Now some kids will not eat lunch and others will have one that is lacking in nutrition to sustain them.
Throughout Monday I felt my emotions building up and it was difficult to get through the day. I was feeling so many different things but I realized I was mostly angry. But this was an anger that I have never felt before. I could feel it raging throughout my entire body and had to keep my teeth clenched all day to get through my classes. I did not know how to deal with such an intense and foreign emotion so the only thing I could do was cry. I was able to sit down with the community coordinator of my house and try and figure out what to do. During our conversation I realized that a lot of the realities of El Salvador that I have been learning and experiencing this past month were finally sinking in and it manifested itself in the closing of the comedor.
On Wednesday I was able to talk with Cristina to better understand the situation. She explained that there is no funding available in El Salvador itself because the only options are with big organization. But these organizations have huge administration fees so you end up with very little amounts of funding. Since this is the only source, the people have to turn to the United States and to Europe to try and find funding. But, as with the example of the comedor, this funding is not sustainable so organizations are left depending on foreign aid that can be taken away at any moment.
This is a huge problem for organizations here but one way Las Delicias is trying to have more sustainability is with their food. They have been using the greenhouse to distribute crops to the community so the people will always have a source of food. They also want to use the crops to sustain the comedor so when money is short they still have a source. But this takes time and they are just beginning.
This past week I have just been trying to process this information and find a way to deal with it. My love has grown so strong for the community that it is painful to see the kids suffer because someone else has not kept their promise to support them. So all I can do is give more love to each person and show that someone cares for them.
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