Alejandro and his wife PatyChilean native, Rodolfo Alejandro Pérez Olave, seems to have no shortage of enthusiasm and energy. After marrying a Salvadoran and settling into life in El Salvador many years ago, Alejandro brought his excitement and expertise to ENLACE. Alejandro has been an agronomer with ENLACE since the very beginning in 1993 and has helped thousands of people transform their lives through medium-scale agricultural endeavors and most recently with home gardens.
Alejandro began his career in agriculture working for the Chilean government with its national reconstruction plan after which he studied the environment and bacteriology in Canada. In 1992 Alejandro traveled to El Salvador as a part of the Organization of American States. It was during this time that he met ENLACE co-founder David Bueno, who was working with farmers in Ahuachapan. Alejandro never looked back, and since then has worked with farmers and community members in a variety of traditional and non-traditional production of vegetables.
“What I like most about working with home gardens is to see how people learn and progress while also living in such humble circumstances. [Participants] welcome others into their homes with the little they have. They make my work worthwhile.”
Alejandro directing one of his home garden training seminarsAlejandro recalls how he used to work primarily with male farmers. Over the last five years, however, he has worked primarily with churches that help women with home gardens. Since women are the main caretakers of children and the elderly, their gardens support the most vulnerable in each community. According to Alejandro, “ENLACE has nailed it with the home gardens because they have great social and economic impact. Through them, communities can help themselves by eating more healthily, making a little more income and fixing their homes; I have seen their lives change completely.”
Today, Alejandro works with new partner churches in the regions of San Martin, San Rafael Cedros, Santa Ana, and San Jose El Naranjo. He provides ongoing technical support and teaches how to plant, cultivate, prepare the soil, and control pests totally organically.
Just as Alejandro has been a witness of change and transformation in the communities in the past 16 years in El Salvador, he has also been transformed by his work. Alejandro said that ENLACE has become his second family. He has been changed and transformed by God’s love, the people with whom he works, and by the friendships formed with his coworkers in the office.