Years of conflict have left many parts of El Salvador impoverished, with almost one-third of the population forced to survive on less than one dollar a day.
Many children have to do hazardous work to contribute to meagre family earnings, for example using machetes to cut sugar cane on plantations.
CARE tackle child labour by improving access to primary education and helping parents of working children to earn more so, they can afford to send their children to school for longer.
We’re also working with the government to help working children go back to school.
Improving health, water and sanitation
Diarrhoea is easy to treat and prevent, but it is a major cause of death among small children, so we’re working with communities and local government to provide health education and install water and basic sanitation services. CARE aim to make a 40 per cent reduction in the number of children under five who suffer from diarrhoea in El Salvador.
Earning a decent living
Alongside the Inter America Development Bank and local enterprises, CARE have created a fund to finance rural development initiatives. Improving the lives of rural families in some of the poorest communities, the fund supports projects that have substantial economic impact, are innovative, sustainable, environmentally sound.
History
We began working in El Salvador in 1956. But a violent civil war from 1979 to 1992, in which 75,000 people were killed and more than a million were forced to flee their homes, threatened our operations.
In 1980 we were forced to suspend our work. Between 1985 and 1988 we returned temporarily, providing prosthetic limbs to war victims. We were able to fully return to our work in 1993.
