Global Citizens of America is a new series that highlights Americans who dedicate their lives to helping people outside the borders of the US. At a time when some world leaders are encouraging people to look inward, Global Citizen knows that only if we look outward, beyond ourselves, can we make the world a better place.


“Poco y poco,” or little by little, is what the people of Chiltiupan, El Salvador told Sister Rose Elizabeth Terrell when she first arrived in the country. She was there to help others, but her Spanish needed some improving.

Over the next 11 years, she became fluent in not just the language but also the many hardships facing the community.    

As a nun, Terrell, who is 77, has dedicated her life to serving others, but this was her first time working abroad.

She began her service in the 1970s close to home in Cleveland, Ohio, teaching at the Urban Community Schools. After leading fundraising efforts for the Urban Community School and the Ursuline Congregation for over 20 years, she decided she needed a change.

“I thought, ‘I have to do something else,’ and it might be my turn to go to El Salvador,” Terrell recalled in an interview with Global Citizen. So, in 2004, at age 63, she packed up her life in Cleveland and headed to El Salvador, continuing what would be a 46-year legacy of Ursuline Sisters serving in the country.

Terrell settled in the hillside town of Chiltiupan about 35 miles away from the capital San Salvador. She described it as “one of the poorest areas in the country.”

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During her time there, she worked to identify the areas of need in her new community and implemented projects that would live on long after her departure. With support from her friends from Cleveland and Chiltiupan alike, she founded a scholarship for high school graduates to attend college, installed stoves and toilets, built churches, improved schools, and more.

Sister Rose Elizabeth Terrell recently spoke to Global Citizen about her love for the people of El Salvador, the intersection of her work in Chiltiupan and Cleveland, and the importance of keeping an inclusive and global mindset.  


GC: Was going to El Salvador a difficult decision? What compelled you to dedicate years of your life to a community so far away from home?

Terrell: I had two friends Sister Martha Owen and Sister Dorothy Kazel who were going to El Salvador in 1974, so I joined them and immediately fell in love with the people. They were such welcoming, happy, hardworking, faith-filled people that I fell in love with them. So, that was in 1974 and it took me until 2004 to get back there, because I had jobs that I thought, foolishly, that no one else could do. I was fundraising, first for Urban Community School, and then for our Ursuline congregation.

And then after 24 years of fundraising I thought I have to do something else, and it might be my turn to go to El Salvador. So then I had to study spanish of course, and so I went and stayed with a wonderful family in Bolivia. The mother of the family is just a precious woman, and they had two teenage sons and I stayed with them for five months while I studied.  They were so gracious and giving and they made me feel a part of the family. They would be going to a relative's birthday or graduation celebration and invite me to go. Of course I was a little timid at first about going because my language was terrible.

I got home from Bolivia in December and went to El Salvador in January. I remember I was there [in El Salvador] for one night and I went to a meeting and couldn’t understand anything. I was way too old to learn a new language! Nobody spoke English in Chiltiupan. I would struggle and they would say, “poco y poco, sister,” meaning little by little. They were very patient with me, and I loved them.

Did you envision staying 11 years there?

In the past, nuns only stay five years, but nobody else wanted to go, and I didn’t want to leave. So, I just continued to stay, and the community appreciated that I wanted to stay.

Could you talk a little bit about community and how you look at your place within the community in Chiltiupan?

You know, I’m a rather outgoing type of person, so I just talked to everybody. I did little things like putting a rug and some toys at my backdoor so the little kids could come and play, and I would ask them if they wanted a snack and they would take it, and so on. Then the kids would talk about it to their parents. I went to meetings and had a bible study group, and I always was looking for things that the people needed in their life, in their homes, for their families. And so I started a lot of projects, and through these projects I hope that I enabled them to live a more stable life.

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I started a stove project because the women would start a fire in the morning and it burned all day long. Then the smoke gets in their lungs, their eyes would develop early cataracts, and pulmonary diseases for the whole family. So with the stoves, because they use very little kindling wood, it produces very little smoke, and they can cook on it for a long period of time. It saved them money, it saved their eyes and lungs, and it was a great project and I think we gave around 1200 of those to people.

We created a census and asked them if they had a bathroom, if they had water, if they had electricity. 350 people didn’t have a toilet. Don’t ask me where they went to the bathroom. So we started a latrine project, and put in 350 outhouses for people so they could have a little bit of dignity.



Then one day, this one kid, I noticed he didn’t have shoes. So I asked him “where are your shoes?” and he said he didn’t have any. The next day I saw him at school with shoes on and I said “I thought you didn't have shoes?” and she said “oh, these are only for school.” So then we started a school project for kids so they could have shoes. As a matter of fact, we just had a collection here at Urban Community School and we collected $569 to buy kids shoes in El Salvador so that they can go to school.

Then we saw kids that were graduating from high school, and they all wanted to go to college, but they couldn’t afford the bus ride to the capital. So I started a scholarship program, and by the time I left El Salvador, we had about 45 kids going to school in the capitol. We met every month, and they had to account for their expenditures. The students actually liked these meetings -- I thought they’d hate them -- but they liked them, it built community and camaraderie among these young kids.

Did you have a team behind you? How did you execute all of these projects that were so impactful?

I encouraged people to visit.  And they came and experienced the people, their love, their generosity, their openness, their faith, and then they came home and did what we call reverse mission. They invite other people to come with them every year, and they contribute to the scholarship fund every year. They saw the need and they recognized that I was using the money wisely for the people, and so it worked out.

What was it like adjusting back to living in America and working at the Urban Community School?

Well, the Urban Community School has been a part of my life since 1972. I came to teach in 1972, and I taught for six years, then I was the director for eight years.  

The mission of the school is to serve the poor, to serve people who don’t have other educational opportunities.  When the school started we had a 60% Latino population, now it is more like 40% Latino and 30% African American, and then everybody else in between. Now, our new immigrants are coming from Myanmar, Syria and Afghanistan. We welcome people, all people.  

I love Urban Community School. It allows me to live those same values that I lived in El Salvador here in our country.

The thing that bothered that bothered me the most coming back was all the choices that we have. For example, I went to the grocery store to buy some ham for some ham sandwiches, and there were fifteen kinds of ham displayed in the case. “Which one should I buy?! Or a box of cereal. You go down the aisle and the whole side is filled with cereal boxes. Which kind should I buy?” The choices are just like, mind boggling. That is one of the things that is most burdensome for returned missionaries.

Right, so I guess you grow to appreciate the beauty in simplicity. You mentioned that working at Urban Community School allows you to embody the values at home that you embodied abroad in El Salvador. I’m wondering, what does being a Global Citizen mean to you?

Well I think it involves living with an open mind and a welcoming spirit, and not to compartmentalize and say “I only like white males who are taller than I am.” You know, you have to accept everybody, because God made us special and He loves every one of us.

Profiles

Demand Equity

This Global Citizen of America Is a Nun Who Spent 11 Years Serving a Village in El Salvador

By Avery Friedman