El Salvador Mission Brings Needed Change and H.O.P.E.

Since 2013, Sister Diane Capuano, O.P., has participated in the Molloy El Salvador mission because she loves the people of El Salvador and loves being with students and alumni as they experience the people and the culture.

“Much to my surprise and delight, this trip has now grown into a new vision,” said Sr. Diane. “Students who went on the trip when they were students wanted to keep going even when they graduated from Molloy.  We now have a core group of alumni who faithfully come on the trip each year.  They also support this mission financially.  The alumni are now the ‘role models’ for the students.  It has been such a privilege and honor for me to watch all of this unfold. This is what Molloy University’s Mission is all about … transformative education.” 

The Molloy Experience El Salvador trip has its roots in a mission started by Sister Flor de Maria Baruca, O.P., a Dominican Sister of Amityville and a Molloy graduate who is from El Salvador. In 2010, she began a mission in the small village of El Sol Naciente where she established an afterschool program, as well as a one-week camp for the children.  

In 2012, while Sr. Diane was campus minister at Molloy, she went to El Salvador with two administrators from Dominican University in Blauvelt, NY to work at the camp with Sister Flor.

They wanted to see if the trip might be a good fit for their students. 

Sr. Diane explained, “We wanted to make sure it was a safe area, which it was and continues to be. It was an amazing experience for us, and we knew this would be a great experience for students. When we came back to NY, we began to plan how many students each school would bring.”

And so began the Experience El Salvador program, a collaboration between Sr. Flor’s mission, Dominican University, and Molloy.

Mary Roedig,’19, BSN, went on her first trip to El Salvador during her senior year and has since been back two more times. “Over the years, I have also been able to see firsthand the communities that we had the opportunity of helping grow in such positive ways,” stated Roedig.

“Sister Flor, her sisters, and Sister Diane have been like angels in these communities, dedicating so much of their time to the communities of Sol Naciente and Once. These two areas are where we go and help with afterschool programs for the kids. The children learn music, community service, art, and deepen their faith. The love that is experienced through helping these communities is something hard to explain. I do not speak their language but have still made so many meaningful connections with the people there that will stay with me forever.

“After my first trip, we didn't want the service to end, just because we were back in the United States.  My peers and I wanted to create a nonprofit organization so that we would be able to raise money for these communities and help in any way that we could.  That is how the nonprofit H.O.P.E. Sol Naciente started. H.O.P.E. stands for heal, overcome, provide and empower.”

Recently H.O.P.E Sol Naciente helped to raise money to create a new schoolroom for the Once afterschool program. Sr. Flor’s fundraising and Molloy University also contributed to the cause. 

Jeffrey Lozano, ‘19, was one of Roedig’s peers who helped found the nonprofit. He continues to be a part of the mission because it allows him to live the Four Pillars of Dominican Life and because his family comes from El Salvador, having escaped the civil war in the country.  

“The work of sister Flor has been impactful to me,” said Lozano. “She has done significant work to advance the education in both communities. She’s a role model I would love to follow. In different ways she cares about every single person in the communities. She is always looking to do more and to find the way to help more. For example, starting a third project aiding a community in San Miguel in building a church. She always has a new project to help more people.” 

Another recent project that Sr. Flor was involved in was the Clean Water Project. The project entailed the creation of a new well which now provides clean water daily to the people of Sol Naciente and Once. Molloy donated $35,000 to this project and was honored during a recent dedication ceremony for the well.  

Sydney Cifuentes, a Molloy junior nursing student, was there for that dedication and found it very meaningful. “This past trip we went to bless the well and seeing the hard work of Sister Flor, Sister Diane, Pearl River Rotary Club, San Miguel Rotary Club, and everyone who went on the trip in the past to work on this well was extremely inspiring. It was definitely an eye-opening moment because for a long time some communities did not have running water, and now they have running clean water.”  

Katie Sandoval, a Molloy senior, describes the mission as transformative.  “The impact this trip has had on my life is tremendous. It made me redirect my entire career and now I know I want to continue helping those in need and practice immigration law.  Another important aspect would be the unconditional love we all receive from the children. It makes you realize that love truly has no barriers; all they want to do is be with you and bond the whole time we are there. Even when you return a year later, your bond with them continues as if you never left.”