Seeing the pure joy that came from the people we interacted with in El Salvador was so profound - we couldn't thank you enough for all your generous support in making our trip to help change lives a reality.
There's an estimated 842,000 people that die each year from diseases caused by unclean water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene habits - the majority of whom are children.
Our goal from the start was to be able to distribute and provide clean water for those in need while along the way educating people towards taking preventative measures to keep our world from infectious disease.
Our Journey Begins
Our journey began on March 12th when we arrived in Zacatecoluca, a small town in La Paz. We worked there for four days with Agua Viva (Living Water) to enable accessible clean drinking water for those in the Zacatecoluca communities. Every morning in Zacatecoluca we built 10 bio-sand water filters and in the afternoon we distributed 10 filter systems made on previous days to communities that did not have any clean sources of drinking water.
“This was a real eye opening experience for us all as we were overwhelmed by how hospitable the people were, and how they wanted to make us all feel comfortable in their homes while we taught them about the filters and how to care for them.”
From Zacatecoluca we travelled to San Salvador where we worked with a team from Sol de Peniel, a Christian mission dedicated to improving the quality of life of those most in need in El Salvador. From there we helped with the distribution of the Samaritans Purse Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes that were assembled in Canada packed with toys and practical items such as school supplies.
It was such an incredible and moving experience being able to distribute these boxes in El Salvador and seeing the joy that they brought. More than 500,000 volunteers worldwide collect, ship and distribute the boxes with over 103,000 boxes destined for El Salvador. At one of the distributions we volunteered at, there were over 260 children who opened their boxes together after a collective countdown, completely in awe of their gifts. It was like watching a giant Christmas morning!
Apart from distributing shoeboxes, we joined in on a few soccer matches, provided arts and crafts activities while also attending the graduations of children from a discipleship program. It left us with the feeling that we were able to provide something for those in need that will stay with them forever. That is no understatement!
Visit the Samaritan's Purse International Relief to learn how you can help those in need.