05 Feb – Responding to the Cry of the Poor Today

Every year the Romero Trust organise a short lecture tour with a visiting speaker with personal connections to St Oscar Romero or El Salvador.

This year the speaker will be Peggy Healy and we are delighted that, in partnership with Leeds Trinity University, we will be hosting a presentation of her talk at Leeds Trinity University on Tuesday 21 March 7:30pm
There could be few people better placed or qualified to speak about St Oscar and the martyrs of El Salvador and how they can inspire us to respond to the cry of the poor in the world of today. Peggy has deep and broad experience of community service, of advocacy and policy work on human rights in Latin America and globally.

For more than two decades, she worked as a Maryknoll missionary sister in the United States and in Central America, where she was a close colleague and friend of the members of her congregation who were martyred in El Salvador. After working as a specialist paediatric nurse practitioner among poor, marginalised urban and rural communities in Nicaragua, throughout the repression and civil conflicts which raged across Central America, Peggy returned to health work in the South Bronx.

A graduate of Fordham University’s School of Law, amongst her many achievements Peggy has received awards for her work as a peacemaker in Central America, for her service to survivors and families of those killed in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre and was honoured by President Clinton for her work in human rights. She holds an honorary doctorate in human rights.

From 2009 to 2021 she served as senior Vice-President for Canada and Latin America of Covenant House International, an agency dedicated to empowering young people, to survive and overcome homelessness, trafficking and abuse. Much of her work was focused on Mexico and throughout the region of Central America, enabling young people at risk to overcome adversity and to flourish.