As an integrated part of the Red de Sobrevivientes’ many ongoing projects, the NGO is assisting people in rural areas to improve their living conditions. As survivors become part of the growing network of people with disabilities in their area, they commit to doing community service projects, attend local advocacy workshops, and help provide peer support for one another.

The Red started working in Ilobasco just over a year ago. They are now assisting more than 45 people in the surrounding area, several of whom expressed to me that they had felt neglected and left behind until outreach worker, Armando Fabian, began to visit them in their homes.

Along with other programs, such as; health, social empowerment, and economic opportunities, the Red supports survivors most in need with basic repairs to their homes, as well as much needed relief in the form of food, medical supplies and/or furniture. This is the story of one couple and the improvements the Red is helping them make to their home.

When I met Isidro and Francisca last week, their hospitality and openness left a huge impression on me. They are both a little camera shy, and admitted to being embarrassed by their living conditions. I hope this short video does them justice and captures the kindness, warmth and gratitude I felt from them that day.

CLICK on the link below to watch video

To Keep Out the Rain

Driving onto the Monterrosa Military Barracks will without a doubt ignite a surge of emotions for most Salvadorans. A regal statue of the infamous commander stands ominously just beyond the entrance of the base. Lieutenant Colonel Domingo Monterrosa was the military commander during the civil war and leader of the notorious Atlacatl Battalion. His name alone has been plagued with a vehement connotation.  Last week, the Armed Forces of El Salvador, in coordination with the Ministry of Health and several national and international NGOs, hosted a comprehensive medical campaign at the Monterrosa Military Barracks in the department of San Miguel.  The services offered brought a refreshing and hopeful sentiment over the barbwire-lined walls surrounding the barracks.

The medial campaign was established by the Military Disability Support Unit[1] just last year to provide integrated health services to injured war veterans and their families. Many injured and disabled veterans that live in rural areas don’t have access to proper medical facilities, and transportation to a military hospital can be extremely difficult. That is one reason why these campaigns are so well received. They bring a form a relief and an array of much needed services, absolutely free of charge, to some of the people that need it most.

free dental services

Disabled Veterans and their families can receive not only medical attention such as; clinical consultations, eye exams and dental work, but they also have access to other much needed services such as; prosthetics repairs and adjustments, psychological consultations, free legal services, and even career counselling. The campaign in San Miguel was the seventh of its kind this year and provided care to more than 150 veterans with disabilities in the area. Every month the Unit visits one of the 14 different departments in El Salvador.

Lieutenant Colonel Edwin Juarez serves as the Director of the Disability Support Unit and is also the Secretary of the Board of Directors for the Survivor Network[2]. Lt. Col. Juarez has many aspirations for the future of the medical campaign and is proud to be involved with the Survivor Network.

The Survivor Network and its dedicated team of outreach workers have been instrumental in helping connect disabled veterans with the newly offered services, Juarez said. It’s the outreach workers who are in the field connecting with the survivors on a personal level. They not only provide peer support, but play an active role in connecting people to the services and assistance they need.

Lt. Col. Edwin Juarez

“This work is important to me,” Juarez said. “For me, my career is no longer just about military service, with my duties come a moral responsibility to humanity. To be an example of professional ethics and to help the people who need it most, is invaluable.”

Juarez entered military school in 1984 at the age of 17. His country in the midst of a civil war, he graduated as a lieutenant officer in 1989. Juarez began his military career as a commander in the infamous Atlacatl Battalion where he served for two years before the 1992 Peace Agreement was signed. His specialty was once infantry. Today Juarez uses his military rank and compassion for others to support his fellow countrymen through public service.

Lt. Col Juarez had the look of a proud father as we toured the different medical stations at the barracks. What makes the medical campaign so revolutionary is that the availability of specialized medical services for persons with disabilities in El Salvador is almost nonexistent. With limited funding, the coordination and collaboration among local and international institutions, in addition to government and military, is absolutely essential to the success of these campaigns.

The barracks whose very name evokes so much mixed-emotion, for one day this month became an invigorating make-shift clinic with enthusiastic doctors and smiling patients. The Military Disability Support Unit is working to heal the wounds of the past by providing an invaluable service to veterans with disabilities.

Lt. Col Juarez and Jesus Martinez, Executive Director of the Survivor Network, have been working closely to find ways to expand the campaign to include not just disabled veterans, but former combatants, guerrilla fighters and civilians who have injuries or disabilities from the war.

“It would be ideal if we could find a way to provide this type of support to all persons with disabilities and all people in need,” Juarez said.

[2] La Red de Sobrevivientes y Personas con Discapacidad

It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been two weeks since my flight touched down at Comalapa International Airport. We landed in the darkness with the lights of San Salvador casting an obscure amber glow into the night sky. Stepping off the plane I felt both fear and anticipation well up in my stomach. I’ve been planning for the AP fellowship for the past few months, but the weeks leading up to my departure were a whirlwind: finishing my graduate coursework in Vermont, packing up my apartment, attending the AP training session in DC, vaccinations, visas, spending some time in New York with friends, generally just trying to organize my life before embarking on this new chapter.

Only now am I finally beginning to feel settled again. After my enthusiastic introduction to San Salvador and my new coworkers, I’m more excited than ever about the work I’ll be doing this summer with the Fundación Red de Sobrevivientes y Personas con Discapacidades (The Network of Landmine Survivors and Persons with Disabilities).

I hit the ground running two weeks ago and have been extremely busy since day one: attending staff meetings and strategic planning workshops, traveling to rural communities with the organization’s outreach workers to visit survivors in their homes, participating in an educational workshop with the coordinator of the health program, and spending each day with my new colleagues learning little by little what amazing work they do for people with disabilities. The unrelenting dedication, moments of camaraderie and laughter, and genuine affection of the staff has left me with an unparalleled first impression.

Before I go into the detail of my day-to-day work with the Survivor Network, I feel it’s best to begin this fledgling Blog with a little background information…

Red logo

The organization was originally established as a network partner of Survivor Corps in 2001. Even though the armed conflict officially ended in 1992 with the signing of a peace agreement, El Salvador is a country still healing and struggling with repercussions from the decade long civil war. The Survivor Network (formerly LSN-ES) was founded with the intention of assisting survivors of the armed conflict. There are more than 70,000 survivors in El Salvador who carry with them not only the psychological trauma of war, but a physical scar left behind after the violence of a battle or a landmine explosion.

Peer Support is one of the principle methodologies adapted from Survivor Corps’ path to survivorship. Through the one-on-one support, Survivor Network’s outreach workers meet with people with disabilities who may have felt discouraged or alone in their situation. This type of support enables the person not only to heal, but to become empowered through the recovery process. By sharing their experiences with an outreach worker who has also suffered through the trauma of a disability and learned to embrace life, clients begin to find an inner-strength that sparks the transformation from victim to survivor.

The Survivor Network focuses on three distinct program areas: human rights advocacy, health and recovery, and economic opportunity. In the past few years, the organization has begun to expand their services. They not only support persons with physical disabilities, such as amputations, but are now reaching out to include people with other types of physical disabilities. Today the Network reaches 11 of the 14 departments throughout the country and has assisted more than 3,500 individuals with disabilities.

2009 has already proven to be a monumental year for the Survivors Network. In January of this year they became an independent, Salvadoran nonprofit organization. The Network is still going through a transition and learning to function as an independent organization. As they move forward, they carry with them the philosophies and ongoing support of their international partner and benefactor Survivor Corps. Continuing the struggle for equal rights and opportunities for people with disabilities in El Salvador, the Survivor Network will expand and increase their support of people with disabilities throughout the country. It’s encouraging to see program participants, who were once recipients of peer support themselves, are now becoming leaders in their communities and extending the philosophy of peer support and citizen advocacy to help other people with disabilities in their area.

Although their name has changed from LSN-ES (Landmine Survivor’s Network El Salvador) to La Fundación Red de Sobrevivientes y Personas con Discapacidad, their mission and vision remain the same: to be the leading organization in the promotion of social and economic inclusion of armed conflict survivors and persons with disabilities, so that they may reach their full potential and become independent.