Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Summer 2013 Issue | Page 26

Transformative Development in El Salvador
“ group of parishioners from Virginia could donate $7,000 to pave the road.
A
But that wouldn’t solve the problem. That’s not going to fix the system which
didn’t pave the road in the first place.”
– oah Bullock, Executive Director, Foundation Cristosal.
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At the end of February, Buck Blanchard and Ashley Cameron from the Office of
Mexico
Belize
Mission and Outreach traveled to El Salvador to learn how Foundation Cristosal is
empowering Salvadoran citizens to fight for the rights given to them in their own
Honduras
constitution. Foundation Cristosal’s ministry is unique: Instead of focusing on building
Guatemala
a house, for example, or teaching vacation Bible school, the human-rights based
El Salvador
Nicaragua
organization listens to those who have been marginalized in their own country,
and helps them organize their communities to find ways to move out of poverty by
insisting on their constitutional protections and human rights. Read on for an excerpt
from an Episcopal News Service story about this ministry.

Costa Rica
Panama

Human Rights-Based Development
Lynette Wilson for Episcopal News Service
Without a skilled driver and a fo \