Each morning in Condadillo, a small rural community in eastern El Salvador, Marta Adelia Cruz de Maravilla rises before dawn. She steps out to care for her family, feed her chickens and open her small shoe shop. She supports her husband, a local pastor and farmer, as they prepare for the day ahead.
Marta holds one of her chickens.
Life here revolves entirely around agriculture. Yet the families of Condadillo face mounting, unpredictable challenges. Intense heat, prolonged drought, sudden violent storms, and rising rivers frequently threaten to cut them off from vital services and destroy their livelihoods.
The front lines of disaster
Communities like Marta's stand directly on the front lines of the most severe weather shocks. Every changing season brings devastating new risks to their doorsteps.
“Some years, the cornfields look very nice. But suddenly the drought comes, and then the farmers lose everything.” Marta Adelia Cruz de Maravilla
This constant uncertainty makes it nearly impossible for families to plan for the future, invest in their farms, or escape the cycle of poverty. A single storm can wash away a lifetime of hard work, while a prolonged drought can decimate an entire season's harvest, leaving families with nothing.
These aren't abstract threats; they're daily realities that dictate the course of life in Condadillo. Access to markets, schools, and healthcare can be severed in an instant. The very ground that should provide sustenance becomes a source of instability. And it’s precisely where your compassion is felt the strongest.
Building a culture of preparedness
Marta speaks with a colleague about community disaster plans.
Because of you, Marta’s community isn’t simply reactive to disasters; they are powerfully proactive. Your love delivers aid after a disaster, AND partners with our neighbors to build holistic systems that anticipate and mitigate risks. Local leaders like Marta ensure lasting change, since they both intimately understand community needs and have a deep desire to protect the place they call home.
Local emergency committees are training community leaders to respond quickly and effectively to disasters. Through peer-to-peer learning, improved early warning systems and practical tools, these committees are building resilience from the ground up — empowering communities to act before disaster strikes.
Marta first joined Condadillo’s committee as a first-aid coordinator in 2019 and now leads it. She says it feels good to work with everyone and support their needs.
“That’s what we’re here for — to help the community.” Marta Adelia Cruz de Maravilla
When preparation saves lives
The value of this training became clear when a forest fire broke out near Marta’s home three years ago. Thanks to the skills and resources provided by your kindness, the committee knew exactly what to do.
“I sent the WhatsApp message, my colleague set off the megaphone siren, and everyone knew it was an emergency,” Marta recalls. “The whole community, even those who weren’t on the committee, responded. Some did the firebreaks. Others were throwing water to keep the fire from reaching the houses.”
Because firefighters are hours away, this rapid, coordinated action made the difference. Together, the community contained the blaze before it reached homes or livestock.
Tools for Resilience
Beyond emergency response, your support helps families prepare for and adapt to the changing environment. You have provided Condadillo with tools like chainsaws, shovels and backpack sprayers, along with training on water conservation, organic fertilizer and soil care. Ten large water reservoirs now help families sustain livestock during dry spells, while an incubator enables them to hatch chicks and improve household nutrition and income.
These measures reduce vulnerability and strengthen food security, ensuring that households like Marta’s can recover more quickly after a disaster.
“We didn’t know many things before, but now we’ve learned them and put them into practice,” Marta says.
A safer, more connected future
Marta and her family including her husband Edwin, sons Oscar and Kevin, and daughter Liliana.
Marta’s oldest son has now joined the committee, a sign of the intergenerational change she hopes to see.
“We want young people to get involved so we can build a better community,” she says. “A community that, even if it takes effort, becomes clean and organized over time — with more jobs and opportunities.”
Perhaps most importantly, your compassion has transformed how the community sees itself. Before, emergencies often left people to fend for themselves. “No one would step in. It was every man for himself,” Marta recalls.
But now, there is a different mindset. Marta and her neighbors have learned when communities come together, they can prevent disasters from becoming tragedies and protect what matters most — their homes, their livelihoods and their future.