Montemira
Montemira provides a three year technical degree program in the hospitality field. Students at Montemira are young girls from rural or urban, marginal areas from across the country. The school encourages its students to start school at an early age so that they will have a proper education and qualify for future career opportunities.
Facing an El Salvador fraught with violence, teenage pregnancy, and few economic opportunities, a Salvadoran NGO called Asociación de Fomento Cultural y Deportivo (AFCyD) created Montemira in 1974 as a boarding school for economically deprived young women, primarily from rural areas. In 2021, AFCyD donated Montemira to Fundación para la Educación Superior (FESAL), a Salvadoran NGO dedicated exclusively to educational activities, human promotion, and social development.
In 2000, the Ministry of Education gave Montemira approval to start a secondary school. In 2004, it approved Montemira to give a technical secondary education degree in the hospitality field; this is the only degree of its kind accredited by the Salvadoran Ministry of Education.
The school’s program provides education for the entire person, cultivating academic, technical, human, and spiritual growth. Once the students obtain their degree, they can work in the service industry, in places such as restaurants, bakeries, hotels, and hospitals.
Montemira’s students usually pay 15% to 20% of their school and boarding costs. Montemira offers scholarships to cover the rest, using income from donations and the sale of baked goods produced in the school to support the young women.
600+ Alumni · 500+ Families Benefited · 2,400+ People Impacted
Student Testimonies
It was a huge change for me to come to Montemira because my basic education was deficient. At the beginning it was very difficult for me, but I leveled up, making an effort and putting my head into understanding and learning, and I have been growing in knowledge in many subjects. I love all areas of the school: academic, technical, and human. Studying here has changed me a lot because I did not see beyond, and I wanted to grow as a person. In that, the values that the school teaches have made it possible and Montemira made me know virtues that I didn't know existed. I learned to be more independent, after two years of living away from home, and now I appreciate and love them much more.
Andrea Duque
Third year of high school, 18 years old
Being at Montemira has been a very nice experience. My previous experience was difficult because in my first school I was a victim of bullying. Here I felt welcomed by everyone: the students, the instructors and the directors, and the coexistence has been very nice. Montemira is helping me to form myself as a person, to correct attitudes that are not good and has helped me in my spiritual life, even though I am not Catholic. It has taught my family and me to value each other and to look for the good and happiness for each one of us.
Adilene Hernández
Third year of high school, 18 years old
Montemira has been and is my home; it may sound strange. At first, I saw it as a boarding school, and I didn't think we were going to receive classes on the values that must be lived every day. I have learned a lot. It has made me see life from another perspective to solve problems in the right way. My family has told me, and I agree, that being away has taught us to value each other more and they tell me that they are proud of me. I know that one day I will be able to help them and to thank them for everything have done for me to grow as a person.
Zaida Yaneth Ramírez López
Third year of high school, 18 years old
I studied at Montemira from 2003 to 2005. Now, I am married and a mother of 3 children, and we are currently living in New York. I own a bakery called Rubio’s Amazing Cakes, in which we make custom cakes. For me, Montemira means a lot. It is a place of love, learning, and teaching, where they teach you many values: faith, family. You meet wonderful people, whom I always remember and carry in my mind.
Sonia Rubio
Graduated 2005
Saraí is originally from the Department of Morazán. She began her studies at Montemira in January 2011 and graduated in 2013. In 2014, she opened her own restaurant, Di Cuore, located in San Francisco Gotera, and in 2016 she won the Womed Award. In 2017, she received the Woman Entrepreneur Award from Queen Mathilde of Belgium. Recently, she added a line of Mexican food in her restaurant menu.
Saraí Argueta
Graduated 2013
For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/escuelamontemira/.
To donate by check:
Make check out to American Initiatives for Social Development with the memo line “Montemira” and send to:
American Initiatives for Social Development
PO Box 1670
New York, NY 10156-1670