However, housing everyone may take more than a generation. United Nations statistics indicate that more than half of the families in El Salvador are living in unsafe or temporary housing.

     On Saturday, January 13, a 7.69 earthquake hit just south off the coast of the Costa del Sol (La Paz and Usulutan departments) in the Pacific Ocean.  More than 800 died, and hundreds of thousands have been left homeless.  The shocks were felt as far away as Mexico City, 600 miles away.

     A second earthquake, on February 13, raised the total death toll above 1,100, and the cost of rebuilding the country has surpassed $3 billion (equal to the whole national budget). 

"As you know, the situation here in El Salvador is very tragic.   The losses are greater than those we had during the Civil War, the 1986 earthquake, or Hurricane Mitch.  It is even possible that they are greater than all three of those disasters combined… It has really affected us to see how some of our friends lost everything they had." 

-- Aristides Valencia

Almost all adobe homes, like this one in La Papalota, were destroyed.

     Homes need to be rebuilt and crops need to be planted.  Money for these two items will be the most needed for reconstruction in the Local Zone of Peace  region.  2,500 families need homes, and a dozen shrimp ponds need repair.