New Jerusalem Church, Comecayo

New Jerusalem Partnership with ENLACE

In June of this year, the church and community association worked with the health committee to rebuild a retaining wall at the public health unit. The community leaders said that it was the first project that they can remember where different sectors of the community worked together to resolve a common problem. The pastor and church leaders have also connected to the public school and mayor’s office. They are extremely excited to see how God will continue to lead and prepare them to transform their community.

Pastor Rafel Gonzalez and his wife. Toward the end of 2008, Pastor Rafael Gonzalez and leaders from the New Jerusalem church called ENLACE to develop a strategy to transform their community. The church leadership decided to prepare their congregation and leadership simultaneously. They have dedicated one service per week to teach the congregation on the mission of the church. They have also invited ENLACE to conduct training workshops for all their leaders which will continue throughout 2009.

In April of 2009, the church leaders began to build a relationship with the directors of the public and private schools. They have also begun to create a relationship with the mayor’s office and local community associations. To date, the church and community leaders have identified three initiatives that they are starting to design: a pedestrian bridge and sidewalks for the schools, painting four public school classrooms, and street repair. Because of the church’s size and solid leadership, the New Jerusalem church has the potential of greatly impacting Comecayo as well as influencing many other churches to become involved in community transformation.

 

Church Profile

Name: New Jerusalem, ComecayoThe newly constructed Church building

Pastor: Rafael Gonzalez

Year church founded: 1945

Years of pastoring church: 19

Weekly attendance: 1,000

Years partnering with ENLACE: 1

Number of community initiatives implemented: 1

Number of people impacted: 1,500

Community partners: community associations, public school and Christian School, and the mayor’s office.

Current initiatives: painting of pedestrian bridge and sidewalks

Number of potential people impacted: 17,000

 

 Comecayo

Comecayo is a community located less than 5 kilometers from the city of Santa Ana. The community is comprised of 3 urban neighborhoods and 11 rural hamlets. Approximately 2,400 families or about 9,500 people live in the 3 urban neighborhoods and about 1,400 families or about 7,000 people live in the 11 rural hamlets. The total population of the Comecayo is around 3,800 families or 17,000 people.

The economic activity of the population of Comecayo is diverse. Most of the residents of the urban neighborhoods are employees that commute to Santa Ana or San Salvador, whereas the majority of people living in the rural areas are day-laborers, subsistence farmers or small-scale merchants. The majority of small-scale farmers cultivate corn, beans, and sorghum for household consumption.

The community has a public school, a private Christian school, and one public health unit in Santa Ana. The majority of the population (70%) has access to potable water. The remaining population purchases water from trucks or draws it from hand-dug wells. The majority of households have access to latrines (90%) and electricity (90%).

Each neighborhood is organized at different levels. 10 of 14 communities have a local community association (an ADESCO) but only 5 of the 10 associations are working actively toward improving their communities. Several of the communities also have local sports committees and other short-term, functional committees.

 

IdentifiedInitiatives

2009

  • Paint public school ……………………… $500Pastor Rafael and his son helping paint the public school
  • Total Infrastructure Initiatives 2009 …..$500

2010

  • Build pedestrian bridge and sidewalk…..….$80,000
  • Build road to the community of El Sitio…....$20,000
  • Total Infrastructure Initiatives 2010 …..……$100,000
  • Develop home garden initiatives (30 farmers) ……………..…… $5,000
  • Total Community Economic Development Initiatives 2010..…… $5,000

PossibleInitiatives 2011-2013

  • Repair roads.
  • Build public school classrooms.
  • Build storm drains for Christian school.Improve water system in surrounding communities.
  • Increase health education in surrounding communities.
  • Develop and strengthen health committees in surrounding communities.
  • Dengue prevention campaigns.
  • HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns.
  • Household waste disposal initiatives.
  • Launch microenterprise development program.
  • Develop agricultural production and marketing initiatives.

 

Opportunities in Comecayo

Infrastructure:

  • The associations in several rural communities have identified road repairs, storm drains, vaults, and a bridge in need of repair.
  • The PTA of the public school and Director of the Christian school have also identified the urgent need for a pedestrian bridge and sidewalks for children and their parents to walk home safely from school.
  • Some of the rural communities have identified the need to replace the roofing material of houses and build new houses. Other infrastructure initiatives identified by the communities include painting and repairing of several classrooms in the public school and fixing the storm drains of the Christian school.

Health:

  • Three rural communities need to expand their existing water system to provide clean water to households without access.
  • The church and community leaders have also identified many rural families with severely malnourished children. The church and community leaders have already piloted a home garden program that improves the nutrition of children and families. They would like to expand it in following years.
  • Additionally, both the urban and rural communities have a critical need to create an effective household waste management system. This is especially critical in the urban neighborhoods where the trash is disposed in public areas and left untreated for weeks.

Education:

  • The public school has capacity for 1,200 students and currently has close to 1,500 students. The PTA, church and community leaders would like to repair three temporary classrooms and build at least two new classrooms.
  • The Christian school has over 430 students and floods every time it rains. They have identified the need to build a bigger storm drain.

Economic Development:

  • Another major challenge for the rural communities of Comecayo is to identify and develop new sources of income. For generations, the region was known for the quality of its shoe cobblers. Over the last decade, cheaper shoes from Brazil, Mexico and China have flooded the market putting most of the cobblers out of business. The church and community leaders have expressed the need to identify new areas of small-scale production to replace shoe production.

    • View Jerusalem Church, Comecayo in a larger map