CFCA stories

CFCA community mobilizes to beautify town

March 30, 2010

CFCA families in Cinquera, El Salvador, chip in to clean the
town every month.

Every month, residents of Cinquera, El Salvador, sweep the town clean.

Cinquera is nestled in the middle of the El Salvador rain forest and its peaceful appearance belies its violent past. During the country’s civil war from 1980-1992, the town was bombed to the ground.
 
Residents fled Cinquera and hid in the mountains until the war ended. They returned to find the town in ruins, and rebuilt it from the ground up.

CFCA’s role in the cleanup

One goal of CFCA’s Hope for a Family sponsorship program is to inspire a sense of community. The Cinquera cleanup program shows how the love of community can lead to care of the environment.

Blanca Aminta, the CFCA social worker in Cinquera, is at the center of the cleanup effort. Aminta has worked for CFCA for nine years. She said the sponsorship program, started in 1996, instilled in the families the importance of keeping their community clean.

“We did not have basic services so the potential of getting sick was higher,” she said. “We knew that sweeping the streets would reduce illnesses such as dengue fever and malaria.”

When it started, the cleaning campaign was slow to gain momentum.

“We did not have the tools we needed,” Aminta said. “Our families were poor and we could not afford brooms.”

So the families made the brooms from palm leaves, just as they do today.

Everyone pitches in

Aminta meets with CFCA families monthly to set the cleanup date and organize the groups. The cleanup crew consists of about 60 people divided into teams.

Each team is assigned to an area. They clean the streets, the park, the soccer field, the river—nothing escapes the sweepers.

The group separates the trash into plastic, paper and organic matter. Organic matter is hauled away to make fertilizer for crops. The cleanup takes about three hours.

The municipal government hauls the trash to a local garbage dump. The residents collect so much trash that it takes several trips to haul it away.

Families take pride

Besides keeping residents healthy, Cinquera’s beauty and cleanliness is attracting tourists.

“Sometimes tourists find us cleaning and they ask the families why they do it,” Aminta said. “They all say, ‘We live here and we want to see our town clean and disease free!’”

Most of the sweepers are women because the men work in the fields during the day. Juan Francisco is one of the few men helping. His daughter is sponsored through CFCA. He participates because his wife has diabetes and is unable to help.

“Since CFCA entered and the cleaning campaign began, everything looks much cleaner,” Juan Francisco said. “This is how it should be in any community—to be organized and united.”

In addition to the cleanup campaign, the residents of Cinquera want to start a reforestation effort. They have begun a neighborhood watch program to prevent illegal logging and to protect the environment that shielded the residents during El Salvador’s civil war.

“We always had in our head to defend those who defended us,” said Pablo Alvarenga, a community leader and catechist. “If the woods and nature protected us, we have to protect them.”