Rebuilding lives after the earthquakes
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale struck parts of El Salvador on January 13, 2001. A second quake hit exactly one month later.
About one thousand lives were lost and hundreds of thousands became homeless in a matter of seconds. Plan has been working with Salvadorian communities since 1976.
Some of these communities were among the hardest hit, especially in the Department of La Libertad.
Many people lost their homes. Some homes collapsed or were structurally damaged because they were poorly built, but others were destroyed because they were located near geological faults or on other high-risk (such as landslide prone) areas.
After the earthquakes, the Government declared many high-risk areas unfit for residential purposes.
People living in such areas had to resettle to safer grounds. Since El Salvador is a densely populated country with limited natural resources and with land ownership concentrated in the hands of a few families, identifying and procuring land for resettlements is difficult.
For those who were allowed to remain in their own communities, Plan has so far helped several hundreds of families rebuild or repair their homes. We have been very fortunate to receive the generous support from several Institutions, Governments, businesses and individuals for this purpose.
For those who had to relocate, Plan secured a plot of land, donated by the Government of El Salvador and thanks to the generous donation of one individual started the community and Plan were able to start the costruction of 'Little England'.
In the pages below you can read about the 'Little England' project, the community's participation, the costruction of the local school and view some of the pictures.
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