A Focal Point Aid Benefit Concert

Come out to see some great music and support Focal Point Aid while you're at it.

WHAT: Benefit Concert for Focal Point Aid

WHEN: June 2nd, 7pm

WHERE: Arlene's Grocery, 95 Stanton st. Lower Manhattan

WHO: Zach Hurd www.myspace.com/zhurd
Tina Mathieu www.myspace.com/tinamathieumusic
John Schmitt www.myspace.com/johnschmitt
The Library www.myspace.com/thelibrarymusic


Proceeds of this event will go directly towards our school project in Coffee Bay, South Africa.

For more details about Focal Point Aid go here. If you can't make the event and wish to donate, please go here.

Wrap-up

After a week in El Salvador (and a little trip to Honduras) members of Focal Point Aid have returned. We were able to spend some valuable time with our friends at Amun Shea. We were proud to be able to buy new desks and textbooks for the students of the school and were invited to take pictures to document the progress the school has seen during its second year.

The school continues to be a great success story, but it is not a guaranteed success. It will have to work hard and struggle just to keep its doors open. The standard it has set for itself is high and they have hopes to continue the promise it has made to these children and the community. Seeing what can be accomplished in just a short amount of time has indeed been an inspiration.

Thank you to all the students, teachers and folks at the Perkin Lenca Hotel for the warm welcome. We hope bringing attention to this region and this school will bring some aid their way.

To assist Focal Point Aid, please make donations here.

To see some early returns on our photography from this latest trip, click here.

There is much more to come. This blog will continue to be live, so please check back often for updates and information.

Teachers and a sad farewell

We have been telling you about the Amun Shea school now for about a year.  We have told the story of its beginning, it's evolution and it's early success.   We have documented our visits with photography and written stories.  What we haven't said much about are the wonderful teachers at the school who have been doing a lot of heavy lifting to help get this project off the ground and keep it running.  Teachers are and will always be a guiding force for any group of children, but here in Morazon, they can have a profound effect on how children grow.   

Ana is the day-to-day director of the school and as one of the founding members, she has helped to shape the curriculum that has been a main ingredient to their success.  Marlene and Marina teach the youngest of the students here, and have a thankless job of trying to instill the idea of education into children who's older siblings may not have been lucky enough to have this opportunity.  Daisy, Doris, and Antonia teach 1st, 2nd and 4th grades.  As you have seen from our pictures they keep the students smiling and learning.  Meymis who is the Music and Arts teacher has created a chorus from scratch and within only one year this group has won awards for best choir in Morazon and could be the best young student choir in all of El Salvador.

Then there are the volunteers who come and go for periods of time, teaching classes like phys-ed or english.  This is the case of Erica who came from Ireland to help out for a while.  She is replacing Alex (seen above) who after 4 months is going back to D.C.(via a trip to Guatemala) to rejoin his life there.  We were on hand for his last day Friday when we witnessed an emotional farewell scene that took us and all the teachers by surprise.  As the students sang songs to Alex to say goodbye, one by one they broke down in tears. Some students were so overcome with grief that they ran outside the classroom to cover their faces.  Teachers here represent hope and give the students something that is very precious.  They become attached to these teachers and as we saw on Friday their departure sometimes is very hard to take.

Separation from loved ones is nothing new to these children.  As you drive down the road or walk through the villages and hang out in the town square, you quickly notice that the majority of people you see are younger than 18 or older than 40.  During the war, this might make sense, but the peace accords were signed 17 years ago, a whole generation removed from the violence.  Where are the young adults?  Once you reach the age that you would expect to start become an active member of the community, you have a responsibility to support the rest of your family.  For most young people here that means leaving the country to look for work (mostly illegal oppressive labor) abroad.  The largest source of income for most areas of El Salvador are these remmitances.  It is a viscious cycle that has no clear end in sight.  The best and the brightest leave the country and very few are left to become community leaders to build foundations for positive change.  This process has crippled and handcuffed the Salvadoran economy and continues to tear apart families.

When a teacher leaves, even if he was only there for a few months, the students are reminded of the hard reality that hey are trying to overcome.  Perhaps these students with enough help and guidance will help break this cycle.  But for now they sing farewell songs wishing their families could stay together:

Donde voy, donde voy
(Where I go, where I go)
Esperanza es mi destinación
(Hope is my destination)
Solo estoy, solo estoy
(I'm alone, I'm alone)
Por el monte profugo me voy
(Through the desert, a fugitive, I go)
Dias semanas y meces
(Days, weeks and months)
Pasa muy lejos de ti
(Pass far away from you)
Muy pronto tu llega dinero
(Soon you'll receive some money)
Yo te quiero tener junto a mi
(I want to have you near me)
El trabajo me llena las horas
(Work fills my hours)
Tu risa no puedo olividar
(Your laughter I can't forget)
Vivir sin tu amor no es vida
(To live with out your love isn't living)
Vivir de prófugo es igual
(To live as a fugitive is the same)

We follow alex back to the U.S. As we do, we want to thank the teachers for their great work and for welcoming us once again into their world.  

Honduras

Today, we spent the day exploring villages and sites deep in the Honduran mountainside. Most notably we went to see the location of the Salvadoran refugee camps in Colomoncagua.  We were privileged to be accompanied by our friend and host Ron Brenneman who spent time in these camps as an Aid worker during the war years.  26 years ago Ron relocated himself from the U.S. to the middle of a conflict zone to work with aid groups throughout El Salvador.  One of his early accomplishments was creating a model for a house that was used throughout the camps for people displaced by the war (a design still known as Ron's House).  He stayed on in El Salvador even after his organization had decided not to.  Since then, he has become an integral part of this community and as great teller of its history.   He has written a book about his experiences coming out soon.  Before you read the rest of this blog, you should read some of his (perkin musings).  We were lucky to have him as our guide today.

The first thing we noticed as we crossed the border between El Salvador and Honduras was that there was not much of a border at all.  We didn't have to show documentation to pass the border patrol.  As Ron said to us "Border's like this are only important during a war".  The road was dirt, rock, clay and little bumpy.  It wended its way throughout the beautiful mountainsides with small farms and tiny house clusters (mostly of Native Lencans) along the way.  The town of Colomoncagua is small, quaint and dominated by the image of the old church.  As we walked along the cobblestone streets, we noticed that we were being followed by interested but friendly stares.  They surely don't see many tourists around here.  Later in the day, after the tour of the camps, we returned to drink some Honduran beer in the back patio of a General store.

As we made our way through the muddy roads leading to the camps we stop and Ron tells us, "This is it."  We get out and survey a mostly empty tract of land that looks pretty much like everything else in the landscape.  Besides a few crumbling concrete foundations where mechanical shops once were and random piles of rusted tin, we can only imagine what this place was like during the the time between 1980-90 when as many as 6,000 refugees shared about 10 acres of rough terrain (the pictures above are of the camps during the war and yesterday).  Ron starts pointing out places where things used to be and as he tells us he tries to paint a picture of what the camps were like; how the camps were separated, where the different workshops were located, how they had to live in tents before any structures were built.  Starting a little before 1981, tens of thousands of Salvadorans were being displaced as the conflict was just starting to heat up.  The refugees settled in these camps (the largest at Mesa Grande at about 12,000).  They were run by the United Nations High Commissioner of Refuges and the Honduran military guarded the camps with prison-like conditions.  Without the help of foreign aid workers the camps would be little more than concentration camps.  We visited several sites in the former camp including the site where Ron lived while working there, a cemetary of those who died at the camps, and the remnants of the few permanent structured built there.  We almost got lost in the jungle setting that has grown over the camp sites in the last 20 years. If it wasn't for a chance run in with a machete wielding farmer, we still might be looking for our way out.

The day was a heavy one due to the reality of the regions past.  We are not the ones who can tell the story of the camps or the war for that matter, but as we learn more of the history of El Salvador, the work of this community to return to a bit of normalcy is incredible to witness.    Just like our tour of an old refugee camp, much of he history of the war will soon be overgrown with new memories.  But with people like Ron and many others of this community sharing their experiences and telling stories of the past, no amount of new growth can completely cover up the past.

After our visit to the camps and our relaxing beer in Colomoncagua we toured some of the towns on both sides of the border including a walk around Torola and a quick meal in San Fernando during a small rain storm.  It's hard to classify this area as remote, but it is isolated.  The towns are all quiet and the people very friendly. Today was a good day traveling about the border.  The last few days of our trip are still undetermined, but todays trip certainly was a highlight.  The more we visit this community, the more attached we become.  This certainly is a special and unique part of the world.

Buggin' Out!

This is just a small post to describe a little bit of travel pains we have had to deal with down here during the Central American rainy season.  For anyone who thinks adventure traveling is glamorous, take a look at the picture above.  This spider watches you while you sleep and greets you when you wake.  She is not aggressive but she will jump clear across the room when she gets startled.  And she is not the only little critter following our every move.  There are beetles the size of quarters, lizards that like to crawls along the tops of our boots, and one very large creature that hovers and buzzes around like a helicopter that we have been calling the "Dinosaur Bee".

This all comes with the territory and has not stopped us from doing our work or having a good time, but there are two very unique bug related stories that we want to share with you.  The first involves a volunteer named Alex who has been teaching at Amun Shea since the beginning of this year.  After experiencing some serious pain in is big toe, we drove him to the local medical clinic where he was treated for a bug bite.  Apparently while he slept one night, a nasty little creature called a "Chinene" crawled on his foot and excreted a toxin on his toes and it was slowing burning the skin away.  Sound like fun?

The other story happened last night just before dusk.  During the beginning of the rainy season, when the circumstances are just right, like a big rain storm that ends with a few hours of sunlight left, a phenomenon occurs a few times a year.  Last night was one of those times.  A swarm...when i say a swarm I mean a cloud...and when i say a cloud, I mean a plague of flying termites called "Palomillo" (little doves) descended on us and others throughout Morazon.  They were relentless for the few hours these little pests looked for wood to burry themselves into.  When the Polomllo arrive, there is nowhere to hide and all  can do is calmly allow them to surround you until the sun goes down.  We waited and then had dinner and some drinks while the dogs and extra large toads had a field day cleaning up the layer of dead termites.

 

I am not saying any of these bugs/creatures/swarms have detracted from our trip, I am just saying the next time you want to travel far away from home, ask yourself if dealing with toxic Chinene and flying Palomillo is something you could handle.

We will post again later with news from our day spend in Honduras.

This is what change looks like!

As you probably already know from past posts, the main reason that we took this trip was because we were able to give the school at Amun Shea a gift this year.  The desk seen above is one of 38 that Focal Point Aid purchased this year.  We also were able to by textbook packages for the students as well.  They use these books to study Math, Science, music etc.

In the scope of the larger needs of the school and the bigger issues facing the community these gifts were small ones.  Over time we hope that we will be able to do much more for this school and this community.  However, we take pride in the fact that even in a tough economic year, a year that has seen this generations largest drop in the stock market and the largest increase in the unemployment rate, that people were still willing to give donations to a new unproven charity like Focal Point Aid.

So all of you at home who helped us out, even just a little, take a look at what you helped to bring to these wonderful students here thousands of miles away.  We hope you recognize the difference that each and every donation makes.  

Thank you again.  As we continue this trip and continue our efforts in other parts of the world, we are glad that you have come with us...even if it is just reading along to this blog.  Pass along out greetings to your friends and send them to our website to find out how they can help.  

Back to School

In our first full day here back in El Salvador we went to visit Amun Shea.  If you have not heard about the school, please go back a few pages and read about how we came to find this place and how our own efforts have brought us back.  On our last trip the school housed 52 students K-3rd grade (12 plus per grade).  They all learned in a single 4 room building on a mostly barren tract of rocky land with little more than elbow grease and imagination keeping the place together.  Within their first year, Amun Shea had gained friends from around the globe and received recognition from within El Salvador for academic achievement and was looking to expand.

What difference does a year make?  Well, we saw the answer this  morning.  The school has expanded.  It is now pre-K through 4th grade (18 plus per year) and spread out through 3 separate school buildings, a nutritional center (more on that later), water systems, full bathroom facilities, an outdoor complex with a future garden project built by MIT volunteers and still room to expand.  

We were welcomed back with warmth and a mini concert by the new award winning school choir. The music program has won national competitions despite the lack of musical instruments (hint-hint for anyone out there holding onto unused guitars and keyboards that have been gathering dust waiting to be donated to a good cause).  

Many of the children recognized us while we were making our way around the complex with our cameras.  The more outgoing students still hammed it up for the lens while the shy ones giggled while hiding there faces in their hands. We will bring you these photos over the next week.

We continue to be impressed by the evolution of the school here.  If Amun Shea were to be transplanted in Westchester it would be an inspiration for its imagination, openness and positive learning environment.  Here in Perquin, with the backdrop of post-war politics, an economy dependent on aid and sheer luck, and a notoriously poor national education system, what they have accomplished here at Amun Shea in a year and a half is no short of  miracle.

Over the next few days, we will try in this blog to highlight its development and the hard working people who have sacrificed to make it happen.

Notes from our Travel Day

We have been welcomed back to El Salvador!  It has been a long day of travel for us and we are very tired.  But as we sit in our now familiar table in the dining room of the Perkin Lenca Hotel catching up with our good friend Ron, we feel good.  

A few notes from our trip so far:  The airline TACA INternational did a wonderful job of flying us here with a few dozen others, but the flight was less than half full.  It is hard to tell if this is due to the economy, the approaching rainy season in Central America or the threat of the swine-flu that has been hanging over the heads of the traveling public (dare we say partly due to overblown sensational coverage by mainstream media).  The flu has indeed hit the region this far south and evidence of concern lies in the doctors masks worn by about half of the airline employees, but we don't fell all that worried.  Consider that only 2 cases have been found in all of El Salvador thus far, compared to the 1,000 plus that has hit the U.S including 50 reported in our hometown of New York City.

The difference in heat and humidity is the first adjustment that we will have to make as it hit us like a wave once we stepped outside of the airport.  Luckily, the climate in the mountains here in Morazon is much more temperate and cool breezes tend to dominate in the evenings.   The ride here was pretty much the same as past trips, only with less wrong turns and the comfort of knowing our surroundings.  Since it did not rain during our 4 hours car ride, we were able to enjoy some of the natural beauty that the country has offer (like the dominating view of Volcan De St. Vincente  seen above).

Thats it for now, we are up early tomorrow to say hello to Amun Shea.

Oh, yes...for those keeping track, we are 2 hours behind you on the East Coast.

Southward Ho!

In just a few hours, we will be on Taca Airlines on our way to Perquin via San Salvador, San Miguel and a few dozen other El Salvador way points. By now you all should have received our yearly update and the announcement of this trip, so there is no need to recap here.

The good news: We are able to make this trip and help out our friends at the Amun Shea school who continue to grow and prosper despite myriad obstacles in their way.

The Bad News: As expected during the start of this rainy season, the weather report is calling for 60-80% chance of serious rain storms each day we are there.

That's all for now. Wish us luck and see you all when we return. Check back here often to see what we are up to. We will be posting daily reports from our trip.

Return To Perquin

Focal Point Aid heads back to EL SALVADOR.

On Wednesday May 13th, members of Focal Point Aid will head back to El Salvador to visit our friends at the Amun Shea school. As we mentioned in our most recent update, because of generous donations to Focal Point Aid, we were able to purchase desks and textbooks for the students at Amun Shea. Most of the goods have arrived and we have been invited by the school and the Perkin Educational Opportunities Foundation (PEOF) to visit and witness the progress of the program.

As you may remember, Amun Shea is a private school program in Perquin, El Salvador in the Morazon Province. It opened last year for 52 students Kindergarten through 3rd grade. It quickly showed great success and is a model for what education can do for a community that has gone through some tough times.

We are happy to be able to help, and are hopeful that our relationship with this school and its families will inspire others to reach out and assist in any way that they can.

Follow along with our trip by reading our Travel Blog, and if you wish to help out please make a donation here.

An overdue update

This was our year end update that was sent out in January. We appologize for the tardiness of the post.

Hello friends and Happy New Year. Thank you all for your well wishes. We have received some e-mails and questions regarding our projects, so we want to send you this project update to keep you all up to speed.

The good news!
Our friends at the Amun Shea School in El Salvador have entered their second year and have expanded their program to include grades K-4. As an initial aid package, Focal Point Aid will purchase a full set of textbooks for all the students at Amun Shea including Math, Science, Social Studies, and Language. We will also fund the building of 36 new desks and chairs for the school. Our gifts to the school may also include other schools supplies as well as musical instruments. We will deliver these goods this spring.

Coffee Bay, South Africa

Our contact with the community in Coffee Bay, South Africa has been harder to maintain over these past few months. However, we are confident that we will be able to travel back sometime this summer to deliver an aid package to the Bekisizwe and Madekeni schools similar to the one we are donating to El Salvador. With it, we will continue the initial planning for new school buildings.

The economy and Focal Point Aid

As you all know it has been a hard year for charities and non-profits. Many organizations have suffered greatly and others have been forced to completely shut their doors. The tragedy of this situation is that as the stability of our economy waivers, the people of the world with the greatest needs suffer the most.

When we created Focal Point Aid a year ago, we knew that many charity groups are weighed down by the burden of administrative costs like salaries and office space. Thankfully, since these costs are not part of who we are, we have not been forced to abandon our work. However, the state of the economy will make it a little bit harder for us to complete our current projects in the timeframe we first had envisioned. Your help is needed more than ever. We except donations through our website or by mail.

Thank You

It has been quite a year for Focal Point Aid. We traveled half way round the world and back, endured tough economic times, suffered a few tropical diseases and here we are, still standing. We look forward to the successes and challenges of our second year.
Keep in touch. We have several events on the horizon.

Thanks again for your support,

Joe, John, Pete and Heather