Central America: Zoila Franco and her community win legal title to their homes

“Alone, we don’t move anything; we are not listened to. But when there are enough of us, there is strength and confidence.” – COFOA Leader Zoila Esperanza Franco

For more than 20 years, 70 families in El Trébol 1, El Salvador, lived without legal title to their homes. Without it, they couldn’t get electricity or drinking water.

In 2021, Zoila Franco joined a team of leaders organizing to fix this. For five years they met with officials, lost work time, and watched the agency holding their deeds double its fee. Many wanted to quit. Zoila kept them going: “We had to have faith and learn to be patient… If we kept insisting and taking action, I knew we would succeed.”

This year, the families received legal title to their homes, each worth an estimated $42,000. Zoila, who once feared speaking to the mayor, now trains other leaders and presses candidates for public office to make commitments.

Her story is one of hundreds. COFOA leaders in El Salvador have won titles, water, roads and schools for thousands of families, and organizing continues in Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia.