July 8, 2014 by Debra Gittler

MY TWO HOMES

This week I was on WBEZ Worldview with Jerome McDonnell talking about ConTextos in context of the current humanitarian crisis on the US border: 57,000 kids since October 2013 seeking refuge from the Northern Triangle countries El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, the same countries that ConTextos targets. You can see the link to the entire interview and article below. El Salvador and Chicago, my two homes. Perhaps not fair to compare a city and a country … but the populations are about equal (metropolitan Chicago), and really, they have lots of common. See below to get a glimmer of why it makes perfect sense that me – and ConTextos- are perfectly at home in both Chicago and El Salvador.

Ok. Technically my favorite beach in Chicago is in Michigan. But it’s only one hour from the city of Chicago, whereas Playa Las Flores is almost four hours from San Salvador.

But there’s few other things that Chicago and El Salvador have in common …

Overwhelming gang crime

Children in seek of refuge

And embarrassingly high homicide rates … According to today’s Wall Street Journal, El Salvador has the fifth highest homicide rates of any major city in the world.

We believe ConTextos is a force for good that can make a difference in both our homes. Starting in the fall, I’ll start fundraising for next year, with targeted goal to raise money in our hometown Chicago. Given how much the two places have in common, how can we convince people there to help our work in El Salvador? Have any ideas …