New World Outlook - Summer 2017 - Open - 30

30 N E W W O R L D O U T L O O K . O R G

Mending Shattered Dreams and Dignity
in El Salvador
by Nayara Alves Gervásio

was drawn to the Global Mission
Fellow program because it focuses on seeking social justice for those
who lack it. We cannot demonstrate
God's love for people without serving
the people. To demonstrate God's love
for people is to help them feel loved
and cared for by God, to restore their
dignity and their rights as human beings, even in an unjust system. This is
the work I have been assigned to with
the migrant ministry of the Salvadoran
Lutheran Synod in El Salvador.
My work in San Salvador focuses on two main issues: preventing
migration-mainly with children and
adolescents-and emergency assistance for those who have returned
or been deported. As I learn about
the history of this country and some
of its communities, I understand the
many reasons Salvadorans migrate.
El Salvador's poverty, its lack of infrastructure, basic sanitation, and access
to education, and its unemployment
are devastating. In addition, a network
of gangs forms a parallel power to the
government in the country. These
problems force many families to emigrate or to send out their children to
find the "American dream."
Working on the prevention side,
our ministry offers workshops for
community leaders, pastors, police,
and health-care workers to help them
alert families about the risks, implications, and dangers of emigrating
in an "irregular" manner. In 2017,
we launched an education campaign called "Migration Is Not the
Solution." Learning about immigration laws in the United States, the
types of visas, and information on

A staff worker with Lutheran World Relief teaches accounting and business skills in a village
in El Salvador to help returning or deported Salvadorans establish small, sustainable family
businesses. PHOTO: NAYARA GERVÁSIO

asylum or refugee requests increases awareness and understanding. It
includes real statistics on immigration cases in the US and seeks to dispel some of the illusions people have
about migrating.
The other side of work with our
ministry is to provide emergency assistance to families who are forced to
move-threatened by gangs, either
by extortion or by attempts to recruit
their children. We help these families
find a place to live somewhere else in
the country.
People returning to El Salvador
find few employment opportunities, so the ministry helps them set
up small entrepreneurial projects.
Even though many have little education, they have skills and abilities,
often in agriculture or small business. We help them establish small,

sustainable family businesses such
as agriculture, fishing, repair shops,
retail clothing or food, or even beauty salons, for example. Many people
return to the country without hope,
their dreams shattered on the journey. These projects help them sustain their families and thereby rebuild
their dignity as citizens. I see more
than just charity in this work, I see
justice. I see families prospering.

Nayara Alves Gervásio, from Ribeirão
das Neves, Brazil (Advance #3022222),
serves as an assistant in migrant pastoral work with the Salvadoran Lutheran
Synod in El Salvador. She graduated from
Izabela Hendrix Methodist University in
Belo Horizonte with a degree in administration and an emphasis on entrepreneurship. This article was translated from
Portuguese by Donald D. Reasoner.

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