Projects · Los Horcones, El Salvador
Building more than a school.
My father was born in Los Horcones. Its school is still there, still serving families in the hills, and still short of almost everything. So we started closing the gaps one at a time.
A reason to read.
This is what the work is for: a student standing in front of her class, reading something she wrote, into a microphone, out loud.
The library
Books that open windows.
The school had no library. Now it has shelves organised by category — Salvadoran authors, children's books, literary works, reference — and the teachers who run it know every title on them.
It matters that a good share of those books are by Salvadoran writers. A child who only ever reads stories set somewhere else learns, quietly, that stories happen somewhere else.
The playground & the court
A place to play.
Swings, a slide, a seesaw, and climbing frames — welded and set into concrete by people from the community, on ground that used to be bare dirt and loose rock.
A levelled basketball court came next. In a rural school, the yard is the only public space many of these children have. Making it safe is not a luxury item.
How it works
The community decides. I help deliver.
I don't fly in with a plan. The teachers and families in Los Horcones know exactly what their school is missing — my job is to help turn that list into something that actually gets built.
1 · They set the list
Priorities come from the school and the families, in their order, not mine.
2 · Local hands build it
Work goes to people from the area wherever possible, so the money stays in the community twice.
3 · We show the receipts
Photos before, during, and after — because anyone who contributes deserves to see exactly what it became.
The work, in pictures
From bare ground to a schoolyard.
Want to help with what's next?
There's always a next thing on the list. If you'd like to contribute, partner, or just hear how it's going, write to me.