Asociación Manos Amigas
Changing lives and communities in El Salvador
Since 2001, our mission has been to develop the capacities of materially disadvantaged families to achieve a better life through income generation, basic infrastructure and access to health and nutrition.
We are convinced that by offering the necessary tools for families to be transformed in a positive and complete way, they will influence the development of their own community.
Community Infrastructure · Generating Opportunities · Community Assistance · Health and Nutrition
Generating Opportunities Program
Manos Amigas has various projects that serve to promote an income-generating option for young people and women: Textile Project, Cosmetology Project, Health and Nutrition Program, and the Miraflores Clinic.
Miraflores Clinic:
Medical and nutritional assistance that serves the Miraflores community and its surroundings, providing medical consultation, medicines and food supplements to those who need them. They see approximately 3,500 consultations per year.
Learn more about their work and programs at: www.manosamigas.com.
To donate by check:
Make check out to American Initiatives for Social Development with the memo line “Manos Amigas” and send to:
American Initiatives for Social Development
PO Box 1670
New York, NY 10156-1670
Citalá and Villanueva
Supporting low-income families in El Salvador so their children have the opportunity to receive a comprehensive education
Colegio Citalá and Colegio Villanueva are private educational projects for young people between 12 and 18 years old. Their goal is to support low-income families so that their sons and daughters with great human and intellectual potential have the opportunity to receive a comprehensive education. This program allows low-income children to continue their studies after higt school at the university or higher technical level and improve their quality of life.
Citalá, which is specifically for boys, has been operating in the facilities of the Lamatepec School since 2012. It has a student population of more than 250 students, from 7th grade on, and has graduated 241 scholarship recipients: 46 students in 2016, 33 students in 2017, 49 students in 2018, 29 students in 2019, 35 students in 2020 and 49 students in 2021.
In 2022, Colegio Villanueva started for girls. It is a school that is operating in the facilities of Colegio La Floresta and provides opportunities for 43 girls from 7th grade on with scholarships, just like Citalá.
In 2022, 295 students from 7th to 11th grades will receive full scholarships, which include:
Use of facilities at Lamatepec and La Floresta Schools (classrooms, chemistry and computer labs, courts, physical and digital library, among others)
Access to highly qualified teaching staff
Didactic materials and school uniforms
Transportation
Counseling for the students and their families
Objectives
The main purpose of the Colegio Citalá and Colegio Villanueva is to open the minds and hearts of young boys and girls who are demonstrating exceptional capabilities for personal and academic development, but lack the resources needed to achieve their dreams. To accomplish this, Citalá and Villanueva provide resources and aid to bring educational opportunities to outstanding Salvadorian public school students, separating and saving them from dangerous gangs and domestic violence.
Achievements
Citalá has graduated 241 young students. All of them achieved outstanding results in the national secondary exams carried out by the Ministry of Education in El Salvador.
For example, in the national PAES exam (Test of Learning and Skills for Middle School Graduates), the average for the entire country of El Salvador in 2019 was 5.06, while the average for Citalá students was 8.06. (on a scale of 1 to 10). The highest grade of a Citalá student in PAES 2019 was 9.22.
Students from the program are admitted to a variety universities or technical colleges of higher education. More than 80% enjoy discounted fees or scholarships. In addition, dropout rates in the southern area of La Libertad, El Salvador have decreased during the lifetime of this initative. The young graduates leave Citalá prepared to find a decent job in El Salvador and continue their university studies.
Diego Vásquez graduated from Colegio Citalá in 2016. Thanks to the high quality education received at the Colegio Citalá, he obtained a full scholarship and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering at John Brown University in the United States last year.
Real Opportunities
Education is the best route to personal development. Donations to this program support young Salvadorans who deserve support as they begin the challenging journey of their lives. Citalá and Villanueva give them hope and real possibilities.
To donate by check:
Make check out to American Initiatives for Social Development with the memo line “Citalá and Villanueva” and send to:
American Initiatives for Social Development
PO Box 1670
New York, NY 10156-1670
Montemira
Vocational Training in Hospitality
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
Siramá
Accompanying and encouraging Salvadoran women to build opportunities according to their reality through our programs
Since 1970, Siramá Foundation has guided Salvadoran women to discover strengths, skills and abilities that allow them to develop their career and contribute to their community. To date, more than 50,000 women have found tools for their personal and professional development with Siramá.
Women in El Salvador have to balance their role as the head of their households with often underpaid jobs. They are underserved in professional training opportunities, conflict resolution skills training, and mentorship.
Siramá aims to create a multi-dimensional support network of opportunities for women based on mentorship and training. Its structure encompasses technological, material and human resources and, in addition to mentorship and training, provides multi-disciplinary resources, tools, channels and spaces for women to develop personally. With Siramá, women in El Salvador accomplish their small business entrepreneurial objectives and achieve independence.
"Women are called to bring to the family, to society, and to the Church characteristics which are their own and which they alone can give: their gentle warmth and untiring generosity, their love for detail, their quick-wittedness and intuition, their simple and deep piety, their constancy...A woman’s femininity is genuine only if she is aware of the beauty of this contribution for which there is no substitute and if she incorporates it into her own life.”
— Conversations with Monsignor Escrivá de Balaguer
Siramá Programs
Empowerment in Peacebuilding.
The areas in which most of Siramá’s beneficiaries live suffer from high rates of violence. Through the Artisan Women of Peace Program, each woman is encouraged to be a light for their families and society. The program contributes to the inner strength of women so that they can educate themselves in peace, becoming agents of peace throughout the country.
For more information, visit http://fundacionsirama.org/ or visit their Facebook page.
To donate by check:
Make check out to American Initiatives for Social Development with the memo line “Siramá” and send to:
American Initiatives for Social Development
PO Box 1670
New York, NY 10156-1670