Maria Antonieta Gamez de Valenzuela, a small business beneficiary of the Rural Financial Markets Activity (RFM), poses at her stall in San Vicente. Photo by Alex Linares, Development Alternatives, Inc.

Workers dry coffee beans at sun-drying patios at Siglo XXI Cooperative in Ciudad Arce, La Libertad, to preserve and enhance coffee quality. Photo by Rafael Cuellar, USAID.

Residents of Los Novillos, in El Triunfo, Usulutan, walk through a new rural road built with USAID funds. Photo by Patricia Echeverria, USAID.

U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Douglas Barclay (2nd to left) hands over educational materials at a child care center in San Salvador during a ceremony organized by USAID’s Early Childhood and Family Education program (EDIFAM) and attended by (from left to right) USAID Mission Director Mark Silverman, El Salvador First Lady Ana Ligia de Saca, Minister of Education Darlyn Meza, and Minister of Health Jose Guillermo Maza. Photo by Francisco Quan, EDIFAM.

An artisan from Ilobasco, Cabañas, works on a clay piece.  He is a beneficiary of USAID’s Artisan Development Program. Photo by Celina Monterrosa, Aid to Artisans.

An employee of “El Yagual,” a family-owned handcraft workshop, finishes a Cost Plus order craft for a U.S. buyer.  The workshop used to employ five people, and now it has provided jobs for 25 people through USAID assistance. “El Yagual” is now able to complete an order of two 40-feet containers within six weeks. Photo by Eduardo Duron, Aid to Artisans.

General view of the Food Marketing Institute Show, in McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois. Twenty Salvadoran companies showed their products in May 2004, such as ethnic and gourmet food, beverages and health products. Photo by USAID/EXPRO.

USAID/El Salvador Mission Director Mark Silverman and Banco Salvadoreño President Maria Eugenia de Avila show the legal agreement signed by both institutions on August 11, 2005, which will facilitate loan access to small and medium businesses. Photo by Karen Azucena, USAID.

Magdalena Perez Ceron (front) and Celustiano Candray (back), of the Salvadoran Indigenous Ancestral Recovery, an NGO, weave fabrics to create clothes and tablecloths under USAID’s Artisan Development Program. Photo by  Stephanie Budzina, USAID.

A farmer works at a cooperative that has received technical assistance from USAID’s Regional Quality Coffee Program. Photo by Victor Mencia, Entrepreneurial Systems of Mesoamerica.

Students of a public school in La Union learn reading techniques on May 27, 2005.  USAID, through the Alliance of Communities Supporting Children and their Continuance in Education (ALCANCE), helped rural children to attend and stay in primary school through scholarships, supplies and teacher training.  Photo by ALCANCE team.

A girl from Tatalpa, Sonsonate, holds a plaque for USAID during the inauguration ceremony of a rural road on October 27, 2005. The road was built under USAID’s Small Infrastructure Activity, benefiting 7,768 residents. Photo by Karen Azucena, USAID.