I have been steadily writing more diaries lately and I have been trying to see how I can put some of them to good use during election season. Typically, with election issues I make my contribution by commenting leaving the fact finding and analysis to some of the great diarists we have on DKOS. With that in mind I have decided to devote my Saturday diary each week to placing focus on service organizations that I am familiar with.
Why read this diary? Maybe you are tired of only reading campaign diary after campaign diary. Or maybe you want to learn about some organizations doing some good right NOW, even with our current buffoon of a president. Maybe you are awesome and love me just because. (looking at you mom) I will admit many of the organizations will be located in the New England , where I am from, but not all of them! Like for example the organization I have chosen to focus on today; Nuestro Ahora- a non-profit which provides orphaned children of El Salvador the chance to attend an institution of higher learning.
Join me for more after the jump.
El Salvador is a country that has been rocked by civil war and even now that the war has ended it is still in a dire situation. Nuestro Ahora helps children like this
Look forward to a future like this
I heard about this organization from an acquaintance of mine at Boston College who upon graduation became the Secretary on their US board of directors. The group was founded by a BC alum Victoria Lauren Cavanaugh. I will let her describe her experience in her own words, from a letter she posted on the organizations Facebook group
Bienvenid@s!! Welcome. . .
Thanks for checking out this group. I started Nuestro Ahora, Inc. after spending my junior year abroad, living in the COAR orphanage in rural El Salvador and studying abroad at the University of Central America. The experience of living with 122 Salvadoran youth at the COAR orphanage for a year motivated me to study more the educational and other opportunities available to these kids. There are so, so few and the need is so, incredibly great. . .The kids truly have captured my heart.
I began the scholarship program Nuestro Ahora because a close friend of mine from the orphanage was graduating from high school and had no place to go. What began as a wish to help one friend, soon turned into a dream to help the literally thousands of kids growing up in orphanages and shelters across El Salvador.
Today, Nuestro Ahora works with 15 orphanages in the western part of the country. I have the amazing opportunity to live with the Salvadoran students who have grown up in these orphanages. We live together in Nuestro Ahora's scholarship house in San Salvador. . .we share our meals together, study together, and often go back to the orphanages to visit the kids at the heart of it all. . .
But to meet the growing demand, we really need your help. . .please visit our website, www.nuestroahora.blogspot.com, to find the many ways YOU can truly help us make a difference. . . .
With gratitude,
victoria cavanaugh
Nuestro Ahora provides high school graduates from orphanages in El Salvador with a full college education at one of Latin America's many universities. In addition Nuestro Ahora if necessary provides a place for the students to live at their Scholarship house, as well as a stipend for meals, books and transportation. These students then return to their orphanages as role models, helping the children in their daily lives and allowing them to dream bigger dreams.
As Victoria's letter states her organization works with 15 orphanages but their main partner is the Comunidad Oscar Arnulfo Romero "COAR" orphanage. Oscar Romero has a special connection to Boston College. Boston College is a Jesuit institution and Oscar Romero was the Archbishop of El Salvador from 1977 to 1980. During his tenure six Jesuits who protested against the El Salvadorian government were martyred and Romero himself was also also assassinated for his political protest in 1980. He was shot during a mass by a trained death sqaud. Romero and these six Jesuits are mourned at Boston College each year. The Jesuit order of the Catholic Church has always understood the importance of education in helping the underprivileged and they have founded some of the greatest institutions of higher learning in the world. Oscar Romero understood the importance of education as well. So does Nuestro Ahora. They are helping carry on Romero's legacy by helping the children from an institution which bears his name.
This is a wonderful group that deserves support. I know most people's donation money (mine included) is going to candidates right now but if anyone feels so inclined I'll include a link.
Donate
Their general website is here. Nuestro Ahora
It provides more information on the program as well as the current situation in El Salvador. Also for anyone in the Massachusetts area the organization will be holding three events in Western Mass on July 22nd, 24th and 25th. Check the front page of the website for more information if you are interested.
Anyone who made it down to this point, thanks for reading. I really appreciate it. If you liked what you saw, join me right back here next Saturday.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Nuestro Ahora and I posted this on my own accord.