A little girl walks home from school three miles each day in ninety five degree heat and intense humidity. She walks to what she calls her home. It’s an excuse for a shelter; it does not have running water, electricity, and it barely a roof. She lives there with her entire family in a single room with a dirt floor. She lives with a few other siblings, her mother, her father, and maybe her grandmother and grandfather. Her house does not provide her with adequate protection, she is not properly nourished; and so she is not healthy. Her family is poor, and her country is stricken with poverty. Her family can barely afford her education, so she may not be able to complete school. She lives in an underdeveloped community in third world country; she lives in the town of San Jose Villanueva, El Salvador. Fortunately, she may be able to live in a house that has electricity, running water, a roof, access to clean water and good nutrition. She also may be able to obtain an education and have a good life. These luxuries which many of us take for granted may be within her future because of the efforts of an organization called Epilogos. 

The name Epilogos comes from the english name “epilogue,” a word that means “what comes after.” Epilogos was in honor of the commitment of the founders of Epilogos. Epilogos was founded by Denny Williams, a Peace Corps volunteer, and his two Peace Corps friends Michael and Susan Jenkins. The three founders of the organization view their mission in El Salvador as their “what comes after” after working and raising a family in the U.S. Mike and Susie met during the Peace Corps while stationed in El Salvador, and they were married in a small town, San Jose Villanueva, with which that they fell in love. Their wedding was highly attended by members of the government of El Salvador; Julio Rivera, the El Salvadoran President and his wife were the honorary best man and bridesmaid. The U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Raúl H. Castro, most Cabinet members of the Salvadoran government, and the Peace Corps Director also attended.

Mike and Susie went back to the United States after their two year terms in the Peace Corps came to an end. In the year 2000, they returned to San Jose Villanueva (SJV). They had were approaching retirement, and their adult children were living independently. “Mike was the executive director of New Hampshire’s Governor’s Commission on Disability. Susie coordinated an adult tutorial program and classes for foreign visitors, refugees, and immigrants in ‘English as a Second Language.’ They took pride in their careers of helping empower others to become more self-reliant through education and community advocacy” (Epilogos, epilogos.com, 2007). Upon retirement, Mike and Susie decided to build a stronger community in their second home of San Jose Villanueva, El Salvador. They moved to SJV in 2002 and have lived their ever since. 

Mike and Susie committed to making Epilogos a successful nonprofit organization through charity, donation, and volunteering. They guided hundreds of volunteers, who have helped to improve the standard of living in SJV. Mike and Susie have worked with Epilogos for years, overseeing the in-country community development team. They continue to help lead the operations, projects, and volunteer initiatives in SJV. Epilogos is directed by a board of volunteer directors, many who are based in New Hampshire, as well as a team of employees, who work on site in SJV. 

The mission of Epilogos has been clear from the beginning of its foundation as an organization. As declared on their website, the mission of Epilogos is to “improve the lives of the impoverished people in the town of San Jose Villanueva by engaging in community development” (Epilogos, epilogos.com, 2007). The organization collaborates with many other organizations and charities throughout the United States to establish and complete successful projects throughout the El Salvadorian community. “Epilogos is recognized and supported by many organizations, including Habitat for Humanity of El Salvador, ADESCOJ (a local community development organization), the school administrations and municipal government of San Jose Villanueva, many faith-based communities and churches, Engineers Without Borders from many universities, health professionals from many different states in the U.S., and Rotary Clubs from many countries” (Epilogos, epilogos.com, 2007). Epilogos volunteers are engaged in a variety of projects, which focus on improving the lives of the individual citizens as well as the community of San Jose Villanueva; these projects include: work skills and job training, education, health and nutrition, access to clean water, energy resources, environmental sustainability, and housing.   

Since the establishment of Epilogos in 2002, the organization has been involved in community development, “with all projects initiated and implemented with Salvadoran collaboration and partnership” (Epilogos, epilogos.com, 2007). Most projects require a combination of manual labor and financial donations. At least 30 percent of project expenses are covered through donations made by charities of individual donors, and most of project labor is done by volunteers. Each volunteer opportunity offers a unique experience because projects vary over time. Groups from nonprofit organizations, universities, high schools, and other charitable organization volunteer to help with their choice of a project category. 

Work skills training is a category of support that is offered to Salvadorans through Epilogos. Before the establishment of Epilogos in 2002, the work training efforts of SJV community members did not progress. The results were not successful, and a large Salvadorian population still lacked work skill knowledge. Most men did not know have much knowledge of physical labor work, and they did not know how to manage businesses. Most women in the community were single mothers who rarely left their homes. They struggled with the minimal resources that they had, and they had trouble generating any type of income. They relied solely on the men of the households (i.e. fathers, male children, etc.) to provide income. After Epilogos began supporting the community, most Salvadorans were able to operate successful businesses and the work force of their community was completely revolutionized. 

With help from Epilogs, Salvadorans were able to independently operate small businesses. An example of one of these businesses were businesses were able to make profits from harvesting shrimp and tilapia and selling seafood dinners in a rural restaurant. Several women were able to work in local bakeries after receiving training and three years of work experience. Other people who received training, now have contracts to provide healthy lunches and snacks to local high school students. Volunteers from the United States also worked with and taught local carpenters new work skills and building techniques. The volunteers donated tools for future training workshops as well. “Seamstresses trained women to measure, cut, and sew clothing on donated sewing machines, and volunteers taught women to embroider flour sacks and create angels, flowers, and wreaths from paper and corn husks. Several of the women used the income to make monthly payments on their houses, built through Habitat for Humanity” (Epilogos, epilogos.com, 2007). After Epilogos intervened in San Jose Villanueva, the community’s work skill knowledge increased and skills strengthened. Epilogos has been a main source of support and aid for the Salvadorans for over a decade. Without help from Epilogos, the people of San Jose Villanueva would not be able to succeed in the work force. 

During the last decade, Epilogos has largely concentrated on educational projects. Prior to 2002, the town schools offered minimal classes and allocated few resources to education for all ages. The school classrooms were without computers and students were therefore at a large disadvantage. The community did not offer literacy classes (for students of all ages), therefore the illiterate adults in the community had minimal resources to help them learn how to read and write. There weren’t any scholarships that were offered to students, moreover scholarships did not exist for students whose families could not afford school attendance. The lack of scholarships was a major issue for the people of SJV. There were many motivated and intelligent students, who were unable to attend school, because their families could not pay for the associated costs such as uniforms, shoes, and school supplies. Before Epilogos intervened, education for all ages was a luxury, not a normality.   

When Epilogos started working on education projects, hundreds of children received financial support and could finally afford school. Currently in SJV, all students are required to wear school uniforms, many of which are funded and provided by Epilogos. In 2010, I visited El Mendieta, the main elementary school in the village of SJV. I met some of the students who wore their uniforms to school and I took some pictures of them. I met a set of identical twins wearing their school uniforms (Photograph 6, Chazin, 2010), as well as a group of boys who were taking part in a parade and playing instruments (Photograph 7, Chazin, 2010). With funds donated to the school through Epilogos, the students received the uniforms which they are wearing in the pictures that I took. 

Shoes, backpacks, school supplies, and learning aids are also provided by Epilogos. Three schools in the village have new computer systems and facilities, including La Escuela Primera Mendieta, the main elementary school. Photograph 2 shows the classroom where I volunteered for part of a day. In the classroom, I helped teach the students how to change the language on the computers from English to Spanish so that they could operate the computers (Photograph 2, Chazin, 2010). After volunteering that day, I wrote the following: “Today I went to the elementary school with Terry. I was put in a computer class with elementary students. It was their first day in the class, and I helped them with the computers (they were in English). Gabby and Terry left me alone and I had a great time helping the little kids! (Journal 5, Chazin, 2010). 

Epilogos worked on a project to accommodate 1500 students with new and fully equipped science labs, and Epilogos provided 1200 students with new lending library programs containing hundreds of books and CDs. They helped to renew and institute more literacy classes for youth and adults, and they sent teachers from the United States to help bring new classroom skills to teachers in SJV. Epilogos also expanded its work in schools to provide student with healthy mean plans in school settings. Schools now offer healthy and nutritious lunches and snacks to more than 800 children in need. Foundations were created to help pay for a future gymnasium that will contain a stage, bleachers, and a large roof (Epilogos, epilogos.com, 2007). Epilogos has clearly helped to transform the education of the community of San Jose Villanueva by implementing these projects. 

Epilogos also finds donors to fund scholarships for students, which are commonly known as sponsorships. The Epilogos sponsorship program began 12 years ago, and about 900 to 1000 students have been sponsored. “Most of these students are high school students; the cost for students to attend high school is higher than the cost of attending elementary school. Sponsorships are available to any student who attends elementary school, secondary school (middle school), or high school. There are also several college students” (Interview 1, Phillips, 2014). Just 180 dollars supports a student to high school for a year; just 75 dollars supports a student from Kindergarten through seventh grade for a year; and just 125 dollars supports a student for a year in eighth or ninth grade (Interview 1, Phillips, 2014). Terry Phillips, the President of Epilogos, sponsored a student who I got to know during my time in El Salvador. Her name is Gabriella Hernandez, and I call her Gabby. Gabby was an Epilogos sponsored student throughout elementary school and high school, and she received a scholarship to attend Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York for a couple of years as well. 

Christofer Alexander, another Epilogos student, was also sponsored by Terry Phillips. I met Christopher when I was “in the field” in 2010 at the Epilogos office in SJV. Christofer, whose nickname is Christobol, is now 22 years old, and he was sponsored by Epilogos for all three of his years at high school. During my interview with him, I asked him how he came to be an Epilogos sponsored student. He told me, “Terry Phillips and David Phillips [(Terry’s husband)] came to San Jose Villanueva at the moment that I was designing a website for my location with my classmates at the computer center of my school. She came to see our work and the miracle occurred. She went to my spot and introduced herself. I could, at that date, barely speak English, so, I tried to say at least “my name is…" She smiled at me saying I was going to be a great professional [teacher/professor]. What I did not know was that I was gonna be supported by her the next year. Probably she saw in me a very positive person and so, I got her helping hand. No wonder she was an angel sent by God!!” (Interview #3, Alexander, 2014). Christobol’s story of how he came to be a sponsored student touched me. I was so happy that he was able to get a sponsored education because of Epilogos. Christobol told me, “for elementary school, I studied at Centro Escolar Doctor Salvador Mendieta, and for high school, I studied at Complejo Educativo Católico San Jose” (Interview 3, Alexander, 2014). Christobol is currently in his third year at college. His is studying to be an english teacher, and he is still being supported by his sponsor through Epilogos. “Approximately 1300 students like Christobol have benefited from scholarships ranging from basic (elementary) school to high school” (Interview 2, Martinez, 2014). Epilogos’ mission to educate students in San Jose Villanueva has played a critical role in the development of the community of SJV. Without Epilogos, 1300 students and many others would not be able to obtain an education. 

Development cannot occur without good health in any community, and Salvadorans have suffered from health complications in the past. Epilogos described the health services in SJV as “primitive and barely functioning” before Epilogos began to implement health related projects. “Dental services were primitive, and medicine was scarce. Few, if any, medical services reached residents of remote areas…. Dengue fever was prevalent. A nearby hospice for indigent patients was frequently running out of morphine, and family members could not afford to visit their dying relatives. There was virtually no eye care” (Epilogos, epilogos.com, 2007). 

Currently, there is a complete dental clinic in the village with volunteer dentists from the United States. In addition, other medical professionals doctor volunteers form the U.S. conduct health clinics several times each year. Medical equipment and medicine is constantly donated, and eye exams, glasses, and surgeries are all offered at reduced costs. A nonprofit eye care facility is located near SJV in San Salvador, the country’s capital, where thousands of eyeglasses may be purchased at affordable costs. Mosquito nets and home water purification units are now offered to people who cannot afford them. Families of patients who are dying can receive free transportation to the hospice, and money for most caskets and burials are donated to the families (Epilogos, epilogos.com, 2007). In terms of preventative care, Epilogos has helped to incorporate healthy and nutritious eating habits in the schools, where over 800 children are supplied nutritious and healthy lunches as well as snacks each school day. 

In order for Salvadorans to maintain a good health status in addition to eating well, they need to have clean water. Lack of access to clean water has arguably been the biggest struggle for the Salvadorans. It has also been the largest barrier which prevented the community from developing and thriving. There is some water that runs through the town, but it is not clean. Before Epilogos intervened, there were few water filtration systems. Most households in the town did not have electricity, so families did not have running water, and they could not access water easily. Collecting water, filtering it, and drinking completely clean water was a tedious and difficult process for the community before it received help from Epilogos. Families also bathed and washed their clothing in contaminated rivers which also served as toilets for cows, horses, and people.

Currently, “five communities have environmentally friendly public wash stations with clean water that is used to wash clothing and people. More than three hundred families have household water purification filters for cooking and drinking, and an entire water delivery snd purification system was installed in an area with no electricity, an incredible effort by the community whose pride and dignity have been enhanced by their volunteer labor and funding” (Epilogos, epilogos.com, 2007). There are also water filters that are offered to families. “The water filters are five dollars per month, and are available to any family” (Journal 3, Chazin, 2010). “Epilogos worked from about six years ago with purifying filters in the community but also by engineers without borders from Tufts University. The community has built filters in three places. Los Naranjos, Las Waivers and El Porvenir” (Interview 2, Martinez, 2014). With the completion of these water projects, the people of SJV now have access to clean water. 

Epilogos has also focused its efforts on energy conservation and environmental sustainability projects throughout the past 12 years. Before Epilogos began working in SJV, streets were littered with waste, and public trash receptacles did not exist in the entire village. Now, in addition to public trash receptacles, “most households and some schools in the village center now have recycling bins. Many families who had no electricity now have solar energy in their homes and community centers, and the streets are much cleaner” (Epilogos, epilogos.com, 2007). In addition to making homes and institutions more sustainable, Epilogos has focused on building and creating houses for the community’s population and some public institutions such as churches. 

“Dirt roads. Bumpy. Rocks. Homes made with cement, broken down with metal sidings. Out houses with blocks, barbed removable fences around houses (Journal 1, Chazin, 2010). This was the first thing that I wrote down in my journal the first night I arrived in El Salvador. I could not believe that people called their houses actual homes; they were literally cement structures with metal sidings, excuses for shelters. Barely any houses had electricity and if they had beds, they were cramped together. There were no separate rooms in the houses, and there was a single open space that was the floor. The floors of the homes were dirt and the roofs were metal plates with cloth attached that only partially kept the rain from getting inside. Photograph 4 shows a family at their house at the edge of the town. The roof can be seen in the picture; it is made out of tin and aluminum metal plates (Photograph 4, Chazin 2010).

Epilogos has built hundreds of houses and improved existing homes. Epilogos volunteers constantly help to construct houses during their volunteer trips. Graciela Martinez, the Director of Epilogos who works at the office in SJV, shared information about the construction projects. “For example: bakeries and theaters. Two Catholic churches and participation in other small construction projects for churches. [Epilogos] built approximately 65 prefabricated houses, and 150 homes contributed by Habitat for Humanity in which information is given in our office” (Interview 2, Martinez, 2014). Epilogos volunteers have built many more homes,that remain uncounted. In November 2010, Epilogos was involved in a rotary built-club, sustainable village project in SJV. Rotarians and Epilogos volunteers worked together to build a sustainable village (YouTube [Source #5], 2010). Epilogos has also installed fully functioning stoves in many homes. “The stoves were small and made out of cement, and pots go over the top. [They’re] completely smoke free. The stoves cost 25 dollars, and the big school ones are over 100 dollars” (Journal 2, Chazin, 2010). I saw a few of the stoves which were installed by Epilogos volunteers. These efforts are helping families to cook food more safely and easily, and these housing projects have benefited the community in many ways.

As a volunteer through Epilogos from August 24th to August 28th, 2010, I saw the issues which prevented the individual citizens as well as the community of San Jose Villanueva, El Salvador from thriving. These issues included work skills, job training, education, health and nutrition, access to clean water, energy resources, environmental sustainability, and housing.   Even though my time in the field was brief and over four years ago, it was one of the most significant experiences of my life. I saw many projects that Epilogos had worked on during the eight years since it began helping SJV. The experiences I had, the people I met, and the awareness I gained in just five days changed my perception about standard about living and sparked my passion for community and international development and sustainability. Seeing a critically underdeveloped third (or even “fourth”) world country for the first time in my life revealed issues that people in other countries such as the United States have the luxury to not even worry about. I believe that many people are blind to the reality that the Salvadorans are forced to live with every day. With the help of Epilogos, the word is getting out. Third world countries around the world need to develop and become more sustainable, and it is humanity’s responsibility to be their source of aid and support. Realistically, without the help of Epilogos, the community of SJV would not have been able to develop and become more sustainable. 

“My favorite part is seeing the satisfaction of the poor to have a decent house families [sic], I am proud to help young people to continue with their studies, share and learn about life in every home and know their difficulties and often their problems. I like to share with poor people and a heart full of love!” (Interview 2, Martinez, 2014). Graciela Martinez, the Director of Epilogos, is committed to her work and loves her job because she plays a part in something important. She is able to help kids to progress in their education and learning, help families in need of support, and give both material needs and a better quality of life to people who are poor. Because of my volunteering through Epilogos, I am now able to be a voice for SJV by spreading the word about the important work that Epilogos supports. As Graciela says, together we can share and give to people in need with hearts full of love. 

Bibliography

Phillips, Terry. Epilogos President. "Epilogos Projects Past and Current, Foundation, and Organization Information.” Interview. n.d.: n. Electronic Print through Electronic Mail. 10 November, 2014. (Source #1)

Martinez, Graciela. Epilogos Director of Operations. "Epilogos Projects Past and Current." Interview. n.d.: n. Electronic Print through Electronic Mail. 14 November, 2014. (Source #2)

Chazin, Erik. Epilogos Volunteer. “Epilogos/El Salvador Journals.” Written Print. 24-28 August, 2010. (Source #3)

“San Jose Villanueva, El Salvador." Epilogos. Epilogos, 10 Oct. 2004. Web. http://www.epilogos.com, 27 Nov. 2014. (Source #4) 

"San Jose Villanueva, El Salvador, Nov 2010." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mbw-RRDF1Y, 27 Nov. 2014. (Source #5)