On the Road
A Blooming School in El Salvador
Escuela Santa Luisa’s improved school buildings are impressive
Abundant in rivers, lakes and fertile, tropical farmland, El Salvador’s 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 small and densely populated Central American nation is particularly susceptible to natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and has been plagued by chronic political […]
A Songbird in El Salvador
A young student at the Marillac School gets the chance to show off her talents
In El Salvador, children have two choices: try as hard as they can to stay in school or submit to the constant pressure to join neighborhood gangs. Organized crime is rife in El Salvador, and recruitment starts at an early age, when kids are at their most vulnerable. Often, their parents are working and the children are home alone—that’s when gang culture starts to come knocking, angling for loyalty and increasing their numbers.