Help Protect Asylum Seekers

With your help, the IRC is providing a lifeline of support to highly vulnerable families—both those who have been uprooted by violence in El Salvador as well as those who have sought asylum in the United States—including emergency cash support and essential supplies, food, healthcare, counseling and legal support.

El Salvador: A Lifeline for Families Uprooted by Violence
Decades of civil war and recent U.S. deportations have led to a dramatic increase in gang violence which is putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk. The level of violence in El Salvador is akin to the violence in war zones such as Syria. The murder rate for women recently reached an astonishing one in every 20 hours. Each year, some 300,000 Salvadorans flee their homes in search of safety and remain displaced in their country, without basic resources for survival.

The IRC was one of the first international organizations to declare a humanitarian crisis in El Salvador. Backed by your support, the IRC employed decades of experience in helping displaced populations along with in-depth research into the crisis and needs on the ground to launch programming in 2018. Since then, our teams have been providing lifesaving and life-changing programs to aid vulnerable families, including: 

• ACCESS TO LIFESAVING INFORMATION. CuentaNos.org (“tell us” in Spanish) provides critical, trustworthy and free information to people in vulnerable situations. Users are equipped with a dynamic map of El Salvador that allows them to search for a range of providers of critical services including protection, shelter, health, education and legal assistance.

• EMERGENCY CASH ASSISTANCE through unconditional cash transfers is a rapid, safe and effective way of empowering vulnerable individuals and families meet their most urgent needs such as shelter, food and medicine.

• CRISIS PROTECTION. We work with local organizations to develop a holistic and tailored protection plan for each of our clients to address their acute safety or health needs or other concerns. IRC staff then use CuéntaNos to locate appropriate assistance, refer individuals to providers, and stay in touch with clients to ensure they are able to get the timely help they need.

• PROTECTION THROUGH CAPACITY AND NETWORK BUILDING. Through partnerships with a range of civil society and governmental actors, we provide quality and effective protection services for people on the move.

A Women's Story
Emelia (pictured above) is a beneficiary of IRC programs in San Salvador. Emelia was unjustly arrested and jailed by local authorities. Upon her release from prison, she was left without a business or money. The IRC provided humanitarian cash assistance to Emelia, through the local organization Azul Originarios, which helped her open a small sewing shop in her mother’s house to generate income and to support her and her children.

Thank You
We are grateful to you for joining our efforts to respond to the urgent needs of individuals and families fleeing violence and oppression in Central America. Your gift has been a lifeline to so many who are suffering and struggling to survive.

Links:

• Protecting Families in El Salvador