Breaking the Silence in El Salvador
In 2022, funded by the U.S. Department of State, we embarked on a pilot project to reduce gender-based violence in El Salvador. In partnership with local NGO Glasswing, World Mother trained Salvadoran community workers to empower and uplift 9- to 18-year-old girls across the country. We designed a detailed guidebook using the World Mother Storytelling Project’s methods of listening & storytelling, creative expression and body mapping to accompany the training and the workshops.
The cycle of gender-based violence
Breaking the cycle of gender-based violence
We taught them how to:
Create safe spaces for self-reflection and self-expression
Listen openly without judgment
Tell their own stories
Listen to and retell their mother’s stories
Apply and adapt the method throughout El Salvador
Sofia’s Story
After listening to her mother’s story, community worker Sofia Mangandi shared the story with her peers:
“Through my love, I understood my mother better. I understood that the time had come to accept things, to see what had happened to me and lovingly embrace it, to lovingly embrace myself. Before then, the emotion I had felt most throughoutmy life was loneliness, feeling utterly alone. Now, I don’t feel alone any more.”
The Impact
49 community workers have been taught how to use the method
15 organizations have expressed interest in incorporating the method into their programming
191 girls have participated in storytelling workshops
“I am what I could have been,” someone once said. So, in telling their story—in discovering it— people can become something they weren’t before but that they were always meant to be.”
MATT BOLAND
Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Embassy San Salvador
