Walking With El Salvador

This story is told in the region of Tonacatepeque, El Salvador.  It comes from the time before the land which is now El Salvador was colonized by Europeans and is drawn from a combination of cultures and sources. The first American people had been created and formed some time ago.  They wandered in the forests of their chieftains, gathering their foods from the plains among the hills. They fed themselves with roots, fruits, stalks and tender buds, which were pleasing to the palate.  However, this alone was not enough to feed everyone, so Ometecuhtli (God of Life) thought he should create something that could sustain the people.  He ordered Tonacatecuhtli (God of Sustenance, at the center of all things) to give the people the means to find a new food. So, Tonacatecuhtli materialized and took the form of a priest.  He began to preach to the people the about the creation of a new type of food that would sustain them.  The people gathered very close to th...

Dear Readers, Linda's El Salvador Blog has a new name:  Walking With El Salvador.    It was time for a bit of an update with the format, and with a few things on the technical end of the blog, and the time seemed right to give the blog a name which is a bit more formal.  The new name also reflects the way in which we work and live and learn together, as friends and members of sister churches who come from different cultures and different places.  We walk together.  We accompany one another.  And we sure do have some amazing experiences along the way. There are many stories yet to be written.  Some are tucked into journals from the early years.  Some are pretty fresh.  Some have not yet been imagined. Let's keep walking, reading, writing and learning together. Linda

My last story was about the sewing collective which makes Days for Girls kits in El Salvador.  Many of the women in the US who sew Days for Girls kits also sew quilts for Lutheran World Relief, create baby items for Newborn Kits and use their sewing skills for a variety of ministries in the church.  Fabric closets in Lutheran Church basements are filled with generous donations, and in our church network, some of those end up in El Salvador.  This isn't my first story about giving away fabric in our Salvadoran sister church, nor will it likely by my last, because this is one topic that people ask me about fairly frequently. How to do a Raffle: Step 1:  Befriend the quilting ladies or at least send out the word to the quilting group that any fabric not suitable for quilting is welcomed in the El Salvador donation bin. Step 2:  Sort out the wool and heavy fabrics which are not useful in El Salvador.  Sort out the too-small scraps and anything deemed not ...

The challenges of running a small business dedicated to the production and sale of Days for Girls washable menstrual hygiene kits for girls and women are many.  The commitment to providing women and girls with accurate information about their own changing bodies and the rights they have to protect and care for their bodies is taken very seriously.  The goal of placing kits into the hands of girls, youth and women who need them is being met. This is an update on a story that began in 2016 - a story about commitment, perseverance, teamwork, inspiration and adaptation. Sonia teaches girls how to care for their Days for Girls kits during the 2019 Mission of Healing Family Wellness Fair. By 2021, plastic bags will be eliminated from kits produced in the US and in El Salvador. Background Within the Days for Girls International framework, a model is provided for setting up small, local enterprises within impoverished communities as a means of both employing women and s...