El Salvador

El Salvador is a country characterized by a history of beautiful traditions, powerful testimonies of resilience, ancient cultural heritage, and innovation. Unfortunately, it has also been affected by external interference, human rights violations, violence, and forced migration. 

Churches, communities and movements in El Salvador are responding to this context in many ways, like the Reformed Calvinist Church of El Salvador/Iglesia Reformada Calvinista de El Salvador (IRCES) and the Joining Hands Network in El Salvador/Asociación Red Uniendo Manos El Salvador (ARUMES). IRCES, close partner of the PCUSA since the early 1980s, provides education to more than one hundred children in the city of Soyapango and provides college scholarships to students from rural areas. Their psychosocial support programs help communities respond to violence and natural disasters like earthquakes, droughts, tropical storms and flooding. The church also collaborates with other churches to support internally displaced people and migrants and prompted the launch of the Mesoamerican Migration and Mission Network in March 2024. 

ARUMES, part of the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s Global Solidarity Collaborative, works to address the roots of poverty and hunger through training local leadership and accompanying campaigns for social and environmental justice. They work with local, mostly rural communities to advocate for food sovereignty and security with agriculture without agrotoxins in the face of climate change. These efforts represent a comprehensive strategy to address the interwoven issues that impact daily life in local communities, as well as the country and region.