The Marillac School’s Impact

Abundant in rivers, lakes, and fertile, tropical farmland, El Salvador’s wealth of natural beauty traverses a vast central plateau bordered by Pacific coastal plains to the south and rugged mountains to the north. For centuries, several Mesoamerican nations called this land home, including the Lenca, Olmec, Maya and Pipil/Cutcatlec. However, this smallest and most densely populated Central American nation is particularly susceptible to natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and has been plagued by chronic political and economic instability for more than a century. High unemployment rates, rising inflation, organized crime and a soaring birthrate leave many Salvadorans to live in abject poverty.

The town of Santa Tecla, located six miles west of El Salvador’s capital, is also impacted by these maladies. For this reason, Sisters of the Order of St. Vincent de Paul founded the Marillac School here in 1940. Today, the school serves over 1000 impoverished boys and girls from Santa Tecla, providing a well-rounded education—the key to breaking the cycle of poverty—and the tools to enable students to rise above the difficult socio-economic circumstances from which they come.