Project Salvador
Scholarship Program
"An
educated woman is an educated mother and, as such, she is able to
provide her children with a broad outlook. On the other hand, an
uneducated woman is an uneducated mother who cannot broaden her
children's horizons."
Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev (1823-1924)
Scholarship students with uniforms
By
Board Member Tony
Gasbarro
There are many children in El Salvador who do drop out of school before the seventh grade because their families lack sufficient financial resources. Very often when there is some money available for education it is first allocated for the education of the boys. The girls of these families often remain at home and marry while in their teens. For this reason 70% of our scholarships are awarded to young women.
Overall only 58 percent of Salvadorans of school age attend high school and about 15 percent of college age persons attend college. Project Salvador is providing scholarships to enable girls and some boys to complete high school. Recently we started awarding more college level scholarships.
Johanna at her home in San Chico El Salvador. She wants to become a doctor
Our program began in 1998 and has grown form a dozen students to over 170 students today. During the 2010 academic year, 45 of these students are pursuing University degrees in such fields as teaching, sociology, physical therapy, social work and psychology. Another 89 students are receiving scholarships to complete high school and we are supporting 34 students in the primary grades. Forty five scholarship students graduated from high school and 3 graduated from the University in 2009. Since the inception of the program in 1998, 278 scholarship students have graduated from high school and four have completed college.
“I may not be able to find employmentwith my high school diploma
because of our poor economy
but at least I’ll be a better mother”.
High School Student,
La Laguna, El Salvador
Marvin a polio handicapped student is studying law.
Over the years we have established contacts with several trustworthy people and small non-profit organizations in El Salvador who administer the program “on the ground” for little or no remuneration. These collaborators identify the students with scarce resources who are in need of a scholarship and use the money we send them to purchase school supplies and material for uniforms. The high school students only receive cash to purchase shoes and to pay for bus transportation. Our university students receive a stipend each month.
It costs between $50 and $100 each year to support a student who is in the elementary grades (7 through 9). A student at the high school level needs between $175 and $250 each year depending upon the school and transportation requirements. We are providing between $1200 and $2200 a year to University students. These amounts are the bare minimum and in many cases the families have to provide additional monies and/or food.
Scholarship journalism student Melissa. She wants to become a TV anchorwoman
Around 4 percent of our funds are devoted to pay a small stipend to some of our collaborators. Two of Project Salvador’s board members work with our Salvadoran helpers to develop annual budgets and provide oversight to the program. These board members travel to El Salvador twice each year to verify program expenditures and meet with the students to assure that they are complying with the scholarship requirements. The board members cover most of their own expenses for these trips.
As the scholarship program evolves we are placing more emphasis on bringing the students together with their parents once or twice a year for mutual reinforcement, to provide opportunities for small group discussions, and to encourage students to develop good reading habits. Recently our donors donated books in Spanish to augment the school libraries and provide books to individuals on loan. We have distributed over 300 books to date. We have given 5 laptop computers to University students and will try to send down 2-3 additional computers each year.
We have noted that once in school many of the young women postpone marriage and motherhood. The kids are generally happier in being able to associate with their peers in the school setting. Life at school is certainly more interesting than days spent in the hot fields or doing routine household tasks. Most of the kids still spend a lot of their time helping their parents. For some of the high school kids being able to go to college in an opportunity that they never dreamed they would have.
If you teach a boy you educate an individual; but
if you teach a girl, you educate a community.
African Proverb
We receive a good portion of our money from small individual donations. Some individuals or groups provide funds for individual college students. You can “adopt” one of these college or high school students. We will help you communicate with her. Any level of donation will be warmly received and acknowledged with a letter that can be used for tax purposes. We would be delighted to receive additional lap top computers that have word processing software and are capable of accessing the Internet.
If you care to donate please make your check out to the “Project Salvador Scholarship Program” and send it to Tony Gasbarro, Project Salvador, 2687 Horsetail Trail, Fairbanks, Alaska. Project Salvador’s headquarters is in Denver, Colorado but since we have only one paid staff member to keep our operating costs down, board members take charge of various projects. Mr. Gasbarro is coordinator of the scholarship program and can be reached at tonygasbarro@yahoo.com or 907-455-6287 for further information.
Rural scholarship student Guadalupe with mom and dad
9th grade student Orbelina has a great interest in reading
Heidi giving presentation to high school class