First Parish Church Features

2004 First Parish Church Mission Trip to El Salvador

Meagan Burgess' Remarks

ASAPROSAR operates 10 different pre-schools which are called the Nucleos Program.

Much like Head Start, the program teaches children between 3 and 5 years of age about good health, respect for family, and how to get ready for school.

We visited one of the Nucleos facilities, where they needed help building a wall to create an additional classroom.

Children are provided with one meal a day at the Nucleos program.

Much of the money raised by this church that we delivered to El Salvador to help feed the children will be used in these pre-schools.

Our team also visited a Nucleos program located just outside one of the massive garbage dumps of Santa Ana.

Very poor children accompany their parents into these dumps, where they scavenge for anything of value that they might be able to resell.

Many of these children are not allowed by their parents to attend pre-school.

Many of these children end up suffering severe burns on their feet as they travel in a dump where garbage is burned.

While in El Salvador, we also spent a lot of time painting one of the buildings at ASAPROSAR.

The group that travels to El Salvador from this church each year is one of the only groups that devotes time and effort to maintenance projects for the ASAPROSAR buildings.

ASAPROSAR also has a staff person, Pedro, who does much of the maintenance.

We learned that he works at least 56 hours a week, earning $35/week, which he uses to support himself and five members of his family. This is a good job in El Salvador.

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