Dina Kaplan of Puppeteers Without Borders, Professor Michelle Oberman of the Santa Clara School of Law, and Sister of Charity, Peggy O’Neil of The Art Center for Peace in Suchitoto collaborated together in a series of workshops. This first workshop focused on the taboo topic of domestic abuse within the community. Participants shared stories of conflict and then created puppetry scenes to explore and relay their stories.
The midwives identified an urgent need for sex education in their community. At that time there were no existing programs about reproductive health. Dina Kaplan returned the following year and held group training sessions on this topic for a select group of peer educators chosen by the midwives. From this core group a smaller group was formed called Las Estrellas (The Stars) to go into the outlying areas of the community as local peer educators to teach sexual health.
Thank you to help from the Israeli Embassy in San Salvador. A special thank you to Sister Peggy O’Neil for hosting and encouraging these workshops.