Years of Positive Change in El Salvador

El Salvador—Volunteer health promoters meet monthly for training and community.

The Community Health Program of the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod addresses issues that Sandy and I have worked with since serving as Peace Corps volunteers from 1969 to 1972. We have maintained involvement with the people of El Salvador over the years in many ways, including Pastors for Peace and as leaders of civil war immersion tours with the Augsburg Center for Global Education. In 2007, our congregation of Saint Paul-Reformation established a sister church relationship with Cristo Libertador in El Salvador. We learned that the congregation’s pastor, Rev. Concepción Vanegas, was also a registered nurse and coordinator of the church’s health programming. She shared her dream of a village-based health education and first-responder initiative as an expression of congregational mission in witnessing to Christ’s love. We encouraged her to develop a proposal to share with GHM.

Sandy, a public health nurse, joined Rev. “Conchi” to assess the need and support for involvement in a pilot region of eleven villages. That was the beginning of GHM’s funding relationship with El Salvador which has continued each year since then. The first thirty village health workers received training in 2008.

Over 200 Lutheran health promoters volunteer to improve health all across the nation of El Salvador

Today, more than 200 workers serve throughout the nation, meeting monthly for training in addressing local health issues, reaching more than 20,000 village residents with education to prevent disease, adopt healthy living practices, provide emergency first responder attention, and link with local government health centers. We believe this model for community-based health care is an equally important methodology to a hospital building. Prevention education is also significantly less expensive. The Lutheran Church in El Salvador focuses on ministry to the whole person — physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, safety and security. Global Health Ministries has been a key partner in this wholistic approach to health care and contributed to years of positive change in health and wellness outcomes among the people of El Salvador. For this, we say thank you to GHM and all who make possible the work that will continue in 2025.