Local Pastora Expands Her Vision to Help Impoverished Neighborhood By Using the Gospel and Food
Panama City is much like what one would expect from any major U.S. city: the high-energy corporate world side-by-side with a poverty-stricken, inner-city weariness.
El Chorrillo is a poverty-stricken neighborhood, full of blighted apartment buildings in various stages of disrepair and occupied to the full. These apartments are inhabited mostly by single moms, living in less-than-ideal conditions, along with the elderly who cannot afford housing in a better and safer environment.
The presence of young families and rampant inequities has also contributed to the influence and control from local gangs who prey on the kids growing up here.
Pastora Dalia Viveros has been working to bridge the gap caused by such economic inequity in this neighborhood with two tools: the Gospel and food.
After years of serving this community from a tiny, poorly-equipped kitchen, YKPM raised the funds for Pastora Dalia to increase her vision.
These funds went to renovating one building to build out classrooms for serving youth, to expanding a kitchen used to feed children and to repairing another church building that had been gifted to them by the Church of God.
Unfortunately, this building had been vandalized by gangs during a time just prior to being given that facility.
YPKM raised approximately $14,000 for these projects.
Facts about Panama
Population: Four million, half of whom live in country’s capital, Panama City
Casco Viejo, which means “old town” in Spanish, is a neighborhood within Panama City that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with several old ruins; it is also the first European city built in the Pacific Coast of the Americas in 1519
El Chorrillo, the impoverished neighborhood within Panama City, is next door to Casco Viejo
While Panama is regarded as a high-income economy, it is still home to significant income and resource inequalities
Panama does not have a national law for an overarching child protective system
Jungles cover 40% of Panama’s land area and are home to many tropical plants and animals, some not found anywhere else in the world
FUN FACT: Panama’s highest point in the country, Volcan Baru, is the only place in the world you can see the sun rise on the Atlantic and set on the Pacific
SOURCES:
MORE INFO ON EL CHORRILLO NEIGHBORHOOD AND ITS CHALLENGES
“The Two Faces of Panama City” by Alison Skilton, Medium.com
“El Chorrillo bears the scars of a US invasion and gang violence. But amid the heartache, there's hope” by Sophie Kesteven, ABC National Radio (Australia)
Comments