Cándido, Peg and Margarita picking organic corn in the agricultural group’s field.
“By caring for creation today, we hope to leave a world to future generations that is at least as healthy as that which we received.”
(Peg Vámosy, El Salvador)
That’s our Maryknoll lay missioner Peg writing to you from El Salvador. She is working together with her local parish community to promote greater health, sustainability and environmental justice.
She’s even helping small farmers and local families to grow fresh fruits and vegetables with less water so they can feed their children while conserving precious resources.
Peg teaching kids to recycle in San Nicolas village.
And that’s critical. Pope Francis has spoken of a “throwaway culture” in which we squander the precious life-giving resources that God has given us — the water, the soil, the air and climate.
Ours is not a throwaway planet, and there are no throwaway people. But too often around the world, people who are economically disadvantaged are paying the price for the world community’s wastefulness.
In El Salvador, however, Peg and her team are planting hope and improving health. Families are growing more crops, conserving water and saving seeds for the next planting — while collection bins for recycling cans and bottles have been placed in the yards of two churches and all the 12 chapels in the community where Peg is working.
That’s your impact. Thank you for your prayers, for your actions and for your support for Maryknoll Lay Missioners!
Today, please consider another generous gift. Click on the donation button to send any contribution you feel able to send. And do enclose your prayer intentions here, so we may humbly pray for you and those you love.
In El Salvador, where families used to make their own fresh and healthy juice each day, now processed juices and waters in single-use plastic bottles are advertised everywhere. But there aren’t enough recycling facilities available. As a result, plastic bottles line the roads and float upon the rivers.
This is what Peg saw when she arrived in El Salvador. She also met members of the local parish who wanted to change things for the better.
Peg spent time with them, listened to them, prayed with them and began working in partnership with them to help them care for the earth and the water.
Together, they are now improving food security through crop diversification and sustainable organic practices that will help families adapt to climate change.
Together, they are now reducing the use of chemical pesticides; the fruits and vegetables they grow are safer and healthier to eat.
Together, they are now promoting the use of washable and reusable products instead of single-use disposables.
The parish team taking samples to measure water quality at the river.
Together, they are even helping clean a life-giving river! As Peg writes:
“Our committee had been concerned for years about the diminishing flow and increasing pollution in the river. We set out to see how to protect this vital resource.”
The result of their efforts is a new watershed management plan that is based in science and informed by the needs and input of the community. “The government officials have been impressed that the initiative came from the community and recently invested in making a case study of our work.”
Isn’t that wonderful! What Peg and her partners are achieving can now serve to guide and inspire others. Like the river itself, their work — and your impact — keeps on flowing.
In our world today, there is waste. There is hunger and pain. There is environmental degradation, and there is terrible conflict and violence.
But there are also people of conscience and conviction who are working every day to put faith into action — so that anyone we encounter may know the wholeness and abundance of life God desires for us.
God has given us this world, and called on us to love God’s people and God’s planet. God has given us hearts and minds and hands that can change things for good. We are called to share in God’s mission, and to leave to future generations a world that is safe, healthy, peaceful, and sustainable.
Thank you for answering God’s call, in all the ways you do!
In hope and shared purpose,
Ted Miles
Executive Director
P.S. Please help to keep the good work going. Give today, if you are able, by clicking the button below.
And if we may pray for you, and for those you love, include your prayer intentions here as well. Thank you!
Compelled by faith to engage with people across cultures and ethnicities, Maryknoll lay missioners live, love and work with communities on the margins to promote active nonviolence and healing.
