The El Salvador Project

Team Leader: Jordan Dehoff
Contact: jdehoff1@ycp.edu
When: Winter Break
Aimed For: Rural El Salvadorian Communities
Faculty Advisor: John Barteld, Gerald Patnode & Nancy Stauffer

What is The El Salvador Project?

Over the past seven years, York SIFE has helped people in the country of El Salvador. Last year, ten SIFE students traveled to El Salvador. First, we visited the impoverished community of Nehemias where York SIFE began its mission six years ago. We looked at various aspects of Nehemias and started to formulate ideas about how we could improve the quality of life. For the second year in a row, SIFE members taught the values of leadership and personal success skills to over 1,000 students at the elementary, high school, and college levels. Partnering with the University of El Salvador, lessons were presented in both English and Spanish. This year, we plan to partner with various organizations to install a water sanitation system in the Nehemias community. To ensure everlasting impact, we will focus our efforts on the small community through the water sanitation system, lessons on hygiene and planning for years to come. Over York College's winter break, 7 students will travel to El Salvador to assist in testing water in rural communities. While students are not working the with water engineer, they will be visiting high schools to teach lessons on leadership, goal setting and organization building. We hope the high school students will see the importance of positive organizations and feel motivated to start their own.