WUNRN
Also via Women's Livelihoods -
PWESCR
27 June 2010
Carmen
Perez is among leaders of a women's committee that has taken the lead in
rebuilding the town of
Hurricane Ida left behind a trail of destruction when it
slammed into
MONTE SAN
JUAN – Like many small farmers in Monte San
Juan, Carmen Perez lost almost everything when Hurricane
Ida tore through El Salvador in
November. “My home was completely buried under the mud, and my corn and bean
crops were both ruined,” she says.
After the
storm, she and her four children survived on emergency food rations supplied by
WFP. Months later, she’s still receiving corn and bean rations, but now as a
form of compensation for her efforts to rebuild her community.
Building communities
Food for Work schemes like the one in Monte San Juan are one of the
best ways to get a community back on its feet following a disaster. Find out
how Food for Work programmes are helping Haiti rebuild after
the earthquake.
The Food for Work programme is keeping Carmen and
her neighbours fed while they clear the roads, build new houses, repair the
sewage lines and purify water wells. “Our community is safer. We’ve repaired
the streets and even widened some that were too narrow before. We’ve also done
a lot of work to protect our towns from landslides.”
Women
in charge
Since the
hurricane struck, women’s groups like the one to which Carmen belongs have
taken the reins of the reconstruction effort. Over 90 percent of the
participants are women, who have organized committees that oversee every aspect
of the work, from project management right down to worker attendance.
They’ve
also been a major source of feedback, both for the government’s reconstruction
effort and for NGOs and aid agencies like WFP.
A key
figure in her committee, Carmen points out that their efforts have already paid
off. Central America was lashed again in May by Tropical
Storm Agatha, which killed over 200 people – 13 of them in
Food
and support
“This
project has empowered our community and brought us all together to rebuild it,”
said Douglas Morales,” a community liaison with the Monte San Juan city hall.
“Working with WFP has been a big part of our success.”
Food for Work projects are helping to feed 79 families in
Monte San Juan, an area prone to high levels ofmalnutrition even before the
2009 hurricane.
The
project is among initiatives funded by a donation of USD $375,680 from the
Humanitarian Aid department of the European Commission (ECHO),
which have provided assistance to over 55,000 people in El Salvador who lost
their homes and livelihoods to the storm.
“We thank
all those help us succeed. Our community has worked harder than ever to grow
and develop,” Carmen said.
Empowering
Women
Women hold
the key to breaking the hunger cycle. Studies show that when women have greater
command over household income, child mortality rates fall dramatically. Here
are ten facts about women and
hunger that explain why they are such an important part
of WFP's work.
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