Project Salvador -- What a Person Can Do
Posted by Robert Paddock
on Oct 02, 2014
Lawyer and Arlington Heights resident John Kukankos gave a heart-felt description of his volunteer work raising scholarship funds for the schooling of El Salvador young women. He said he “doesn’t have an end game, it's just that the effort there is very fulfilling. A program like this may create a person may change the country. “
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John’s interest in El Salvador started after he had to leave Turkey as a Peace Corps volunteer because a professor there published a book saying the volunteers worked with the CIA. He subsequently was stationed in El Salvador, coming to love the country and the people. After several years of marriage and a career, he decided to visit El Salvador again with a friend. After talking with NGOs and knowledgeable people there, he and his friend decided providing scholarships was the best thing they could do to help.
Why scholarships for girls? He said that "at age 14 or 15, if a girl is not in school she gets pregnant. The father leaves and she gets pregnant again and again...soon having 2-3 kids." He said women “carry the water in more ways than one” and has found that if you educate a mom, she in turn will educate her kids: “You get geometrical bang for your buck” with scholarships. They provide about $300 to high school student and $2,500/year to college students. Responding to a request from the audience, the our Board will consider contributing.
John said the country is beautiful, safe, poor, Catholic (Protestants making inroads), friendly to the U.S., and run by about 15 families. A significant part of the money ordinary people have comes from workers in the U.S. and elsewhere sending money back to their families. He has been impressed by several Rotarians he has met in his work there. He would welcome Rotarians who would want to accompany him on his visits. His program is part of “Project Salvedor” based in Colorado, http://www.projectsalvador.org . To find out more about the program, see “More” below, or contact John at john.kukankoslawpc@pretzelstouffer.com, phone at 312-578-7414, One S. Wacker Drive – Suite 2500, Chicago, IL 60606-4673. Currently, his efforts are in the western part of the country; he would like to expand them throughout.
“Project Salvador” has various activities such as micro lending, food supply as well as providing scholarships. Some photos, details and descriptions of the project can be found at their website,. “The mission of Project Salvador is to aid the people of El Salvador in implementing their own vision of justice. We express our solidarity and deepen our relationship with El Salvador by creating awareness in the United Stated of the plight of the marginalized in Central America and by supporting grassroots community development through funding of projects in El Salvador and marketing of fair trade crafts in the United States.”
Like Rotary programs which try to have local knowledge and accountability, representatives there interview students and their families to assure recipients are capable, committed to education and achieve good grades. The project currently has about 150 scholarship recipients, 50 of which are in his program (30 are in college, 20 in high school…though the government supplies high school tuition, there are additional costs). There is no overhead. The evaluation and awarding process is done by volunteers like him. He pays his own way to go there.