Poverty

Poverty is extremely common in El Salvador. There is some degree of extreme poverty in all 14 departments. You are driving down the streets and in the 5 average stop lights you pass, there is always someone begging for some food or money. The saddest aspect of this begging that happens in every corner is the fact that the parents use their children to generate more money, they will generally say the money is for the kids when it's not. There is also many homeless people wandering around the streets of my country.

The hardest thing about having so much poverty is that this gives the people a chance to get into something illegal or unmoral just to make some money. The majority of people attribute poverty as the #1 reason we have so many gangs in El Salvador. The gangs recruit poor people and offer them a community and some money, which is more than what they have living in the streets. The lack of jobs in my country is also a huge reason why there is so much poor people struggling to get even one meal for their day. 

El Salvador being such a warm country, the upper classes are always trying to do something to help out these people who need the most and to avoid a big, dark future for them. Consciousness is slowly being more evident in the community, and the biggest businesses in the country try to generate as much jobs as possible. For example, at my school we are often having fundraisers or events that benefit other organizations that help the poor. I believe poverty is something that impacts me the most, still to this day, about my home.