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Salvadorans in the Area Help their Country
El Tiempo Latino
August 8, 2003
Alberto Avendaño
Money from remittances sets up a food processing plant in a rural community.
The Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), in partnership with Salvadorans living in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, recently inaugurated a food processing plant for non traditional agricultural products, in a small community 51 kilometers west of San Salvador. The plant, which has been financed with PADF donations, through a USAID-funded project, and funds from Salvadoran immigrants, will be administered by CONFRAS and some agricultural cooperatives of the municipality of San Pedro Masahuat, in the Department of La Paz.
“The plant will process non-traditional fruits and vegetables, giving products such as loroco and maracuyá an added value, which will make them sell in the local market and possibly be sold to the Salvadoran communities in the United States,” expressed Dale A. Crowell, coordinator of remittances programs for PADF.
Two members of the Salvadoran American Civic Committee of Virginia, which actively participated in this pilot project, returned from El Salvador. Elmer Arias and José Ramón, president and director of the committee respectively, assured El Tiempo Latino that they are “happy to see this project come true, because it brings the Salvadoran community out of poverty and marginality.”
“The beneficiaries are 48 families in five agrarian cooperatives who, with a total investment of approximately $180,000 will have their lives transformed,” said Arias.
Ramón emphasized the use of remittances in this type of social improvement: “Many people now see that they can send their children to school because they are earning more. In the future, we hope to see the private sector playing an active role in this type of projects. Additionally, our community is demonstrating that it wants to help El Salvador because the area that is being supported has no immigrants in our area.”
Both Ramón and Arias pointed out the importance of collective remittances and “the compromise with the land through organic production,” to use the words of Ramón. In the same way, following the United States market model of having road side markets, the beneficiary families will begin a market of this nature.
“As part of the Salvadoran community in the United States, we decided to partner up with PADF to generate employment for and improve the income of the poor families of El Salvador,” Said Arias. “We already have ample experience in helping our own communities with community remittances. Previously, we worked with CONFRAS to build 200 houses to help victims of the 2001 earthquakes. Today, we are helping our communities in El Salvador, to fight poverty by creating job opportunities.”
Amy Coughenour, PADF Deputy Director pointed out that “the objective is to work with members of the local communities, teach them to produce organic products, which can then be processed and packaged here. Then, they will be able to sell the products, to which they will have added value, in the local market and maybe even export them.”
This project is part of a larger PADF regional initiative: “Transnational Development Initiative”, which brings immigrant groups living in the United States together so that they work in economic development projects in their countries of origin, with training, financial resources, and other resources. Currently, the initiative has three projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, funded by USAID: one in Haiti, one in Mexico, and one in El Salvador. The Salvadoran-American Civic Committee may be reached at 703-521-3700.
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