Two Perspectives

Hola. Mi nombre es Quinta. Yo soy una estudiante de Español.

Rummaging through my old spanish stuff from high school, I found some really interesting things. Never thought I’d keep something as useless as this introductory level sentence. I’m sure a four year old could have said it better. But there it is, amongst the mementos from my years of study. This past fall I took a class where we learned all about El Salvador. That’s a country in Central America, kinda squeezed off to the side. The first day of class, no one could point to it on a map. I didn’t really think anything important would stick out to me from that class, but it didn’t take long before I realized how much I’d learn.

For the longest time, El Salvador had a serious economic problem. It’s been calculated that about 2 percent of the population owned the majority of the land. If you have a brain in that head of yours, you know something is not right. I’m surprised no one noticed it sooner. Anyways, in El Salvador there are great plantations known as haciendas.  These haciendas are usually owned by one family and then these families hire on campesinos to help work the fields. Sounds like a pretty good system right? Wrong. Here’s the problem: these haciendas are owned by the Catorce Familias (14 Families) that are the richest and most powerful families in all of El Salvador. The rest of the population owns less than 40% of the rest of the land, most of it being useless. That’s where the campesinos live. Also, the people that actually work their asses off in the field all day get paid basically nothing.  They have no rights. We learned about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in this class too…ya know, the ones that say everyone has the right to an education or the right to see a doctor. yea..they don’t get any of that. For rights every human being is supposed to get, despite gender, race, and social status, they get nothing. Kinda shitty if you ask me. So the rich people get all of the profits and the campesino farmers get next to nothing. They live in two bedroom houses made of stuff you’d find in the woods and can hardly get by.  Completely not fair to them. It makes me sick inside to think there is nothing I can do.

Hello. My name is Pam and I am the CEO and co-founder of Peace for Kids, a non-profit organization that travels all around the world to help children in need. Before I get into what we do as an organization, let me first get into why it’s so important to get help to those children in need. In the society we live in, children are a huge part of life. Families value children, which is why so many families are having children. Obviously, there are some families that have what I like to call “oopsy babies” but most families plan in advance. These children, whether planned or not, grow up to be adults eventually. They become business owners, politicians, police officers, teachers, and so many other wonderful things. But if a child experiences a bad childhood, where nothing is positive and they live amongst bad influences, he or she will grow up to be the same way. It is the parent’s job to teach a child right from wrong, especially when a child gets to the toddler ages, when everything is new and exciting and kids want to know everything. They say kids are like sponges: they absorb everything they hear and see and experience in the world around them. We want kids to suck up all the good things, rather than the bad.

Peace for Kids focuses on children in conflict areas. What this means is, we help out children in communities that have been struck by war, violence, poverty, and natural disasters. Often children do not know how to react in these cases. The reactions vary greatly, between violence and drugs to crying and isolation. Each child is different. Each situation is different. However, these kids still need help in any way they can get it. Despite their story or the way they respond to their situation, we are here to help.           

The way we help is simple. For about a year, we spread the word. We let everyone know in the surrounding areas about what is going on. People should know these things already but they don’t. If it’s not on the local news at 5, which most of our cases are not, they don’t care. They don’t go out of their way to find out. So, we bring the information to them. So, like I said, we spread the word, we also fundraise to pay for the trips of the volunteers as well as collect donations to take with. Donations also vary greatly, between food and clothing to school supplies and soccer balls. All the things kids here like to play with, kids from different countries like to play with too. So every little bit helps.

So you may be asking yourself: What can I do to help? Again, this answer is simple. Get involved. There are many different levels of this. The least involved would be just to find out more. Learn what’s going on in other countries. The most involved would be to buy a passport and take a trip with us. Otherwise, donations and spreading the word is great too. Every little bit makes a difference. What are you going to do to make a difference?

Thank You.