Stories

The WEP Team (left to right): Pamela Ramírez, Fernando Mendoza, Flor Castro, and César Gómez
The Women’s Empowerment Project celebrates five years with a fresh start!

The United Nations (UN) declares that February 20 is the “World Day of Social Justice”. The UN advocates that “The celebration of the World Day of Social Justice seeks to support the work of the international community aimed at eradicating poverty and promoting employment, fundamental principles and rights at work, gender equality, access to social welfare, and social justice for all. “

A group of Salvadoran women gifted with different talents, knowledge and skills, are willing to share them with graduated entrepreneurs of our Women’s Empowerment Project (WEP). These women are opening a path in their businesses and are taking every opportunity to acquire more knowledge and skills which they can implement to then improve their businesses.

Steffany is the newest addition to our Programa Velasco team! She is studying Social Communications at the Universidad Centroamericana “José Simeón Cañas”. Upon first meeting Steffany, she expressed her enthusiasm to start applying the knowledge she gained from her studies into a work setting like Programa Velasco. From that initial meeting, we knew that Steffany would bring her passion and knowledge into the role of Communications intern at Programa Velasco.

Fernando is the newest member of our team, and he will work hand in hand with Diego, our Strategy Coordinator, as a Program Monitoring and Evaluation Intern. Fernando is currently completing his third year in Marketing at the Central American University “José Simeón Cañas” (UCA). Fer is a cheerful, friendly, reliable, and empathetic person – all of which will serve him well when working with the women and children of our programs!

We are in the final stretch of the year. The entrepreneurs have spent a lot of time learning more tools and skills to grow their businesses so they can achieve more economic stability for their businesses and families. The Women’s Empowerment Project it is not just about PV facilitating workshops and finishing there, it is just as important to measure if the entrepreneurs have grasped and understood the most important issues. And if not, we give feedback to help reinforce certain subjects or skills.

Rogelia is one of the entrepreneurs in the Women’s Empowerment Project (WEP). Believe it or not, she and the other participants will be graduating this year! Before time gets away from us, we’d like to tell you more about her so you can appreciate her and her efforts just like all of us on the Programa Velasco team.

Diego is Programa Velasco’s newest member on our team – he is our new Strategy Coordinator. And, believe it or not, he is very good with “strategic” kinds of stuff! 😉 (This is a little phrase that he likes to use as a joke).

In the spirit of the holiday, Programa Velasco’s women entrepreneurs, children, families, and staff made a video to share the many reasons why we are grateful for you!

On this day full of love and appreciation for you, our friends, our volunteers from the University of Central America created a video to share

Teaching: not a science but a vocation Gabriela Mistral said, if you can’t love, don’t teach. An example of a teacher who demonstrated this love is Palestinian Hanan Al Hroub. She was selected out of 8,000 candidates to receive the 2016 Global Teacher Prize. Hroub’s mission as an educator of children living in the midst of endemic violence is, day in and day out, to build an environment of peace, harmony, and security within those tiny walls of her classroom by means of the methodology of learning through play.

La semana pasada, Moeller High School y Mount Notre Dame High School de Cincinnati, Ohio nos visitaron.

Pamela, or Pame as we call her, is a fourth year psychology’s student at the Central American University José Simeón Cañas (UCA) and a few weeks ago she began an internship as a technical advisor for the entrepreneurs of the Women’s Empowerment Project.

The kids are not the only ones who get to be students at the Center! As part of the holistic educational experience and support services that families have access to, parents and guardians participate in monthly parent workshops where they learn and discuss different themes related to early childhood education and development.

We’re happy to introduce you to Christian – he is fantastic and a hard worker!

After several years of owning her corn tortilla business, Roxana decided that she wanted to utilize other skills and knowledge she had – operating a small chicken farm.

The chance to qualify for seed money is one of the most important opportunities that entrepreneurs in the Women´s Empowerment Project have access to and is a reflection of the fruits of their labor.