Child Sponsorship Background from Santa Ana, El Salvador

Santa Ana is the second largest city in El Salvador, located 64 kilometers west of San Salvador, the capital city.  The city has approximately 275,000 residents and serves both as the capital of the department of Santa Ana and as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. The municipality is divided into 35 colonias (neighbourhoods) and 318 small villages.  Christianity is, like the rest of the country, the main religion, most of whom are Catholic but there is a fast growing Protestant Evangelical population.

Santa Ana is 665m above sea level with a year-round warm climate with an average temperature of around 25 °C. The main river is the Guajoyo river which is a major tributary of the much larger Lempa River. There is a major Hydroelectric Power station at the Guajoyo river that provides electricity to most of the western sector of the country. Many hills surround the city and the Llamatepec volcano, the highest volcano in the country, is in the southern part of the municipality.

Santa Ana became a city in 1824, and has seen political rioting and has been known as the "heroic city". Many industrialists who cultivated coffee lived in Santa Ana, and coffee haciendas sprouted all around the city generating a surplus of income when coffee prices sky-rocketed in the latter part of the 19th century. This led to the construction of architectural jewels such as the gothic Cathedral of Santa Ana and the Teatro de Santa Ana.  Today the city is home to a major coffee processing plant. The north and west of the city are home to factories and assemly plants while the southern part of the city is more commercially developed with a number of restaurants, commercial banks, hotels and shopping centres.  Education is provided through the many schools, one third of which are private and through the limited university opportunities - there are three in the city.

Santa Ana has two main markets: the Columbus and the Central Market, they are close to each other and offer a variety of produce. The city has old architectural jewels to visit including the Catedral de Santa Ana (Santa Ana's Cathedral), Alcaldía Municipal de Santa Ana (Santa Ana's City Hall) and the Teatro de Santa Ana (Santa Ana's Theatre). The only museum in the city registered by Concultura is the Occidental Regional Museum, also known as the Museum of the West. Water parks include the Apanteos and Sihuatehuacán aquatic parks.

SOS Children's Village Santa Ana is situated on the outskirts of Santa Ana in the province of the same name in western El Salvador. Santa Ana is about 60 kilometers from San Salvador; it is El Salvador's second largest city. The site was chosen because in the western part of El Salvador, there were not enough facilities taking care of children without parental care. The third Salvadorian village was inaugurated on 27 April 1984.

SOS Children's Village Santa Ana consists of 16 family houses, a director's house, an SOS Youth Home and an administration and service area. Up to 126 children find a new home at the SOS Children's Village. The young people are accommodated in so-called youth communities where they gradually prepare for their future independence. From the SOS Children's Village, hospitals and markets can be reached on foot or by public transport. The children attend public nursery schools and schools nearby to the SOS Children's Village; this assures their early integration into the neighbourhood.

In 2008 an SOS Training Centre was built next to the SOS Children´s Village to offer training and workshops for SOS Children staff.