Institute for the Protection of Minors and Asilo Sara: home for the elderly

The Institute for the Protection of Minors serves as the child welfare system for El Salvador.  They are have a few institutes around the country and have served about 2,000 children in the last year. Most of children that end up in this institute have suffered great trauma in their short lives. They have been abused physically, emotionally, sexually, psychologically, or their parents have abandoned them for one reason or another and at times the adolescent runs away from home due to the abuse imputed.  This agency accepts children as young as 3 years old all the way through their adolescent years. 

Unfortunately, they have very limited resources for the amount of children that they serve. In fact, the government has allocated only about 14 million dollars for the entire welfare system in the whole country and  administration staff members also gets paid from this money, thus they make very little money. The employees burn-out rate is extremely high, yet they trying their best to meet the needs of the children with the meager resources provided.  Perhaps, this is the reason why there are only SIX! social work students in all of El Salvador's universities- low pay, high burn out. One of the workshops for the teenage girls is embroidery. The adolescent girls sew purses, wallets, dolls, and other very nice items to sell and the proceeds all go to the institute.  Their government has to do a little better than what they are currently doing for the orphaned children in their country. Those children are their country's future, yet the government seems to have no regard for them. The injustices in this country seem to have no end...

"The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory for having exceeded" -Epicuro

Geriatric Unit

Right after visiting the institute for the protection of minors we went and visited the home for the elderly. What impressed me the most was all of the services that they provide for the elderly that stay there.  Including, being able to perform small surgeries right in their facility, physical therapy as well as have clothes made for the elderly right on site However, although they offer many services, the facilities themselves need to be updated.  The staff are doing the best they can with the allocated resources provided, but they house many residents.  The rooms are crammed with beds, and the residents have no privacy.  Many of them appeared lethargic and sickly. American families complain about the elderly homes here, but the ones in 3rd world countries are much worse.  What I have to remember is that the important thing is that they are SAFE.  They are not out on the streets, they are not starving, they are being taken care of as well as they could be given their lack of resources.  The physician and the social worker we met there absolutely LOVE their job.  They love serving this dear population, many victims of the war who now have no family or are not able to be taken care of by their family due to their illness. It was great to meet people who loved their jobs and that served with enthusiasm.