Help is on the way for poor families in Latin America.

A group of spunky Salvadoran women finally has a reason to hope. These newcomers to San Salvador have settled far from their rural roots. Now they’re getting the promise of new life through skills they’re learning with Maryknoll Sister Carol Marie McDonald. Can you dedicate 2010 to ensuring that more of our neighbors see hope? 

Since the outbreak of El Salvador’s armed conflict, which was mostly in the rural areas, thousands were displaced. Most have come to San Salvador, the country’s capital. Now that the fighting is over, these Salvadorans need help to adjust to city life.

Sr. Carol Marie McDonald brings delight to families wherever she serves, including a prior ministry in Panama.

It’s hard for the women, in particular. They’ve had little or no formal schooling. They scrape together a living as street vendors who peddle whatever they come by. Women make tortillas, bread, sweets, and they sell fruits and vegetables. Some peddle used clothes which are hung on fences or walls. During business hours, parents try leave their children with friends and relatives, but most end up on the streets anyway.

Sister Carol Marie is working with the women to create more opportunities in San Salvador. She moved there in 2009 to help these families who are strangers in their own country. In February, she’ll mark her first full year in El Salvador. 

In that time, she’s met many displaced children who need day care, kindergarten and after-school programs. Their mothers and fathers need skills in parenting, money management, and finding jobs if they’re to survive the city streets.

That’s why Sister Carol Marie is guiding a program that’s putting Salvadorans to work. Through a group called Developing Communities Through Small Children, she’s a mentor to women who never thought of running their own business or deciding for themselves how to make a living.

 “If they can build stable homes for their children, there is a greater possibility that they will not continue being casualties of war and violence,” said Sister Carol Marie. She serves in Mejicanos and Soyapango, which are among the poorest neighborhoods of San Salvador.  

Find out how you can help people recover from years of poverty and armed conflict. It’s just a matter of making God’s love visible.