Give a better future to El Salvadoran Children

Givers Sophia University Japan is organizing this fundraiser.

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El Salvador Project: Bridge for Children's Bright Future

About us

We are Givers, a growing international volunteering club representing Sophia University from Tokyo, Japan with 126 members. Our focus spans three core pillars: nature preservation, animal welfare, and supporting underprivileged children. The El Salvador project focuses on the third pillar: supporting underprivileged children.

The back story of the project

The founder and president of Givers, Lisako Maria Ancheta Neriki, has a Japanese mother and a Salvadoran father. She had the opportunity to go visit her family in El Salvador and Japan where she could compare two incredibly different worlds, economically, socially and culturally. She could see the multiple struggles that El Salvadoran kids have to go through because of gender inequality, extreme poverty, and bad quality of education, and on the other hand, how much potential Japanese students have in order to help the Salvadoran children. Lisako had the opportunity to go to a Japanese university due to a scholarship and she was able to move to Japan from Mexico, where she was born and raised for 19 years. She took advantage and created Givers with an initial goal, which is to help children in El Salvador get a better future so that they can get out of poverty in the future. This process is how our emblematic initiative called the “El Salvador Project” emerged.

El Salvador

El Salvador is the tiniest country in Latin America, which is also the reason why it is called “The little thumb of Central America”. It is a country full of hope and home to many young people and children. However, the 20-years civil war that began in 1980 killed many civilians, worsened public security, left the country economically impoverished, and left the entire country in ruins. Young generation who have lost their place in poor communities prefer to join the gangs and commit crimes as an easy and fast way to get an income. This hopeless circumstance further worsens the security, exposing young children to the dangers of mental and physical abuse, violence, and sexual assault at home. Many children are unable to go to school because the routes to school are unsafe. Currently, the security situation is improving little by little and things are heading in the right direction, but many issues still remain.

Apart from the security, the education level is extremely low since the teachers do not have to take any test of proficiency. This is one of the reasons why although the children want to achieve their dreams, it is very difficult because of the lack of tools to get an opportunity. As students in Japan, we thought that we could give them the tools to let the kids achieve their dreams easier and actually make their future better by getting out of poverty.

Achievements in 2023

Givers successfully executed the inaugural El Salvador project in March 2023. The core of this project’s mission revolves around empowering children in impoverished areas of El Salvador, offering them the necessary tools and opportunities to envision and achieve their goals. In 2023, we conducted an intensive course of 2 weeks, ranging from dance, karate, Japanese culture, and English classes. For high school students, we taught the way they can make their own business, and as an idea of a product to sell in their business, we taught a Ramen recipe using locally available ingredients.

The voices of he children in El Salvador

“My dream is to go to high school” - Alexander (10 years old)

“If I could make a wish, I would like to be more confident of myself and stop being sad anymore” - Fernanda (A teenage mother of 13 years old)

“What makes me really happy is that you guys (the member of Givers) are here! What produces me a sad emotion is that you guys have to go back soon” - Multiple children from around 6 to 14 years old

Plans in 2024✨

The El Salvador future needs pragmatic and psychological education. Our plans for 2024 encompass a curriculum including Japanese philosophy, Bitcoin education in partnership with Generation Bitcoin —a reputable American organization—, English language training, video editing skills, and Excel proficiency⭐️.

The Bitcoin education initiative arose from the recognition of it as the national currency, along with US dollars, in El Salvador on 2019. Our goal is to empower locals with accurate and practical knowledge about Bitcoin in order for them to use this technology for their benefit.

Additionally, we aim to provide internet access by setting up internet routers in schools, and menstrual cups, especially catering to teenage mothers. Furthermore, Bitcoin education will become a financial aid from Givers to the El Salvadoran children as we seek to create part-time jobs by engaging the kids in video editing tasks, compensating them via Bitcoin for secure transactions. These vlogs will serve as sociological research material for us, and as a means for a system in our SNS, where contributors can support the families directly through donations.

Regrettably, our progress is hindered by financial constraints. To bring this meaningful project to realization, we require a budget of around USD 5,000.00 to cover essential expenses, plus travel costs for 7 members. About twice amount of people from 2023 would be the perfect amount to organize and give equal attention to the kids during the intensive workshop.

Up to the start of December 2023, we were able to gather more than 2500 USD through a fund raising project called, Geyser fund, and multiple workshops conducted by Givers and participation to markers representing Givers.

The funding gathered through the Go Fund Me Fund will be utilized for the Internet rooter expenses, and the participants' travel expenses.

This is the information in detail of how we will be spending the money: