Mission in Action in El Salvador
Sister Marita Capili was born in the Philippines and is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence. She has been ministering for two years in El Salvador; she is the president and administrator of the Providence Scholarship program, which is offered in the region of Bajo Lempa, Usulután Department. The program’s main goal is to support and help the education and formation of young people.
Sister Marita Capili was born in the Philippines and is a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence. She has been ministering for two years in El Salvador; she is the president and administrator of the Providence Scholarship program, which is offered in the region of Bajo Lempa, Usulután Department. The program’s main goal is to support and help the education and formation of young people.
Every day, she carries out her mission in action: “In early 2017, I participated as an observer in the 55th session of the United Nations Commission for Social Development, which was held in New York on February 1-10. I listened to the open dialogue and sharing of ideas expressed by representatives of different countries. They spoke about their progress, their challenges, the root causes of poverty and their action plans.
On my return to El Salvador, I shared my experience of the United Nations with our 80 students and I facilitated a workshop with them on the topic of the United Nations session I had attended. I found on YouTube a video in Spanish about the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; it helped me pass the message and urgency of this global movement to those young Salvadorians.
Through our scholarship program, each student participates in a community service project that aims at the protection of the environment, pastoral ministry, sports activities with children, literacy classes for seniors (see photo), tutoring to school-age children, or other services.
In addition, looking at all the United Nations strategies to eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable development, we were able to identify how our local projects of the program called Amor Solidario (solidarity love) are a contribution to the United Nations Agenda.
My visit to the United Nations also helped me to be more aware of the importance to collect, assess and share data on our social and economic realities. This data allows us to read the signs of our times and the needs of our brothers and sisters.
At first, I thought that the 17 Sustainable Development Goals1 set by the United Nations were very ambitious, but at the end of my stay in New York, I realized that we can be very ambitious when working with God’s vision for humanity and all of creation. We can do what we can, then let our Provident God do the impossible. ”
117 Sustainable Development Goals http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/en/