CHF closing ceremony
May 04, 2005

Good morning. It is a pleasure for me to be in San Francisco Javier to participate in this ceremony to celebrate the work of the Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF) and its local partners in the earthquake reconstruction program. I know that at least 45 (spell out numbers, please) municipalities were assisted in this impressive effort.

The United States Government donated $170 million (spell out numbers, please) to help El Salvador in the reconstruction, most of it through USAID. Among our U.S. partners, CHF managed $31 (spell out numbers, please) million of that program, implementing projects that benefited thousands and thousands of poor Salvadorans.

The undertaking was enormous. In the relief phase CHF contributed over 10,000 (spell out numbers, please) temporary shelters; during reconstruction they rebuilt 6 (spell out numbers, please) important municipal buildings – including San Francisco Javier- and completed 6,018 (spell out numbers, please) new houses in 45 (spell out numbers, please) municipalities. I understand 266 (spell out numbers, please) of those houses are located here in San Francisco Javier.

This important initiative, on behalf of the American people, was part of an effort that resulted in the provision of land titles and construction of 26,800 (spell out numbers, please) houses through FONAVIPO and U.S. NGOs, allowing poor families to own a safe home for the first time.

I congratulate CHF, the Government of El Salvador, the municipalities and the beneficiary families for the successful completion of this important program.

Best wishes for the future. Thank you very much.