Tag Archives: poverty

Shelley Callahan | June 7, 2017En Español

Almost as soon as we arrived in Managua after our flight from San Jose, I could tell that Nicaragua was vastly different from Costa Rica. As we drove out of the capital city, the jungle landscape we had seen just one day before had been replaced by flat, open land where cows and horses roamed for miles. Along the road to Leon, the second-largest city in Nicaragua after Managua, we saw cowboys, both young and old, leading herds of animals, and I felt like we were in an old Western movie.

Andreia, International Project Specialist, with Sister Olga, our volunteer coordinator

That feeling didn’t change when we arrived two hours later at the La Recoleccion Home, a school for girls that has been around since 1880. La Recoleccion itself looked like a movie set – the large hallways and courtyards of the school were picturesque, towering stories above us. Lush trees and blossoming flowers grew all around, and archways leading into grand halls were enormous. I hadn’t known what to expect on my first trip to Nicaragua, but its beauty overwhelmed me, which was striking, considering we were in one of the poorest countries in the Americas.

The Land of Lakes and Volcanoes

Geographically, Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America. It is a multi-ethnic country of six million people, and the main language spoken there is Spanish. Tourism in Nicaragua has grown exponentially in recent years, but the population of the country still remains very poor. 48 percent of its people live below the poverty line, living on less than two dollars a day.

The country is primarily an agricultural one, and its minimum wage is among the lowest in all of the Americas. For that reason, many Nicaraguans leave to try to find better work in neighboring countries like Costa Rica, even though that means leaving their families, including their children, behind.

But those who are accepted have a safe place to be during the day; and for some, La Recoleccion offers an escape from a world of poverty during the night as well.

A Safe Place for Girls

At La Recoleccion, more than 1,300 girls attend the school every day. Sister Olga is our volunteer coordinator at the school, which also serves as a girls’ home. She has been working at La Recoleccion since 2014, when she moved from Honduras, where she had been working as our coordinator at another affiliate project since 1998. In all, Sister Olga has been associated with Children Incorporated for almost twenty years; and like Sister Bertalina at Santa Luisa in Costa Rica, she has worked at multiple projects in multiple countries!

Of the 68 girls enrolled in our program and attending the school, 25 live in the home full-time because their families have moved away to look for work. Many of the girls who don’t live at the Home live with single mothers who work long hours away from home in fields, or as housekeepers for other families. Violence is a concern because the girls are at home alone in the afternoons while their mothers work late – and unfortunately, abuse sometimes comes from people the mothers are associated with, like stepfathers or boyfriends.

A Beacon of Hope

It’s hard for Sister Olga to decide who gets to go to the school – more parents approach the school about enrolling their daughters than there is room for students in the classrooms, even though it is a very large school. But those who are accepted have a safe place to be during the day; and for some, La Recoleccion offers an escape from a world of poverty during the night as well.

The girls are well-cared-for by Sister Olga and the teachers and staff, so they can worry less and focus more on getting a good education. The girls also receive counseling, and Sister Olga offers sewing classes to their mothers so that they may acquire the skills they need to make a better living for themselves and their families. In the beautiful land of volcanoes and lakes in Nicaragua, La Recoleccion offers a safe and special beacon of hope for so many girls and their mothers.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN NICARAGUA?

You can sponsor a child in Nicaragua in one of two ways – call our office at 1-800-538-5381 and speak with one of our sponsorship specialists, or go online to our donation portal, create an account, and search for a child that is available for sponsorship in Nicaragua.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 31, 2017En Español

A five-hour drive from Costa Rica’s capital is the small town of Bribri in the Talamanca region, southeast of San Jose, along the border of Panama. The town is inhabited mostly by the indigenous Bribri tribe, which is comprised of people who live and work close to the Sixaola River, which separates Costa Rica from Panama by just a short boat ride.

For the last nine years, during five of which Sister Bertalina has been at Santa Luisa, the 83 children in our program have been receiving food, clothing, shoes, and school supplies upon monthly visits to the home.

The area produces various crops, including bananas, plantains, cacao, and a variety of tropical fruits; agriculture provides little income for the families in the region, however. Among the houses and schools within the Bribri community is the Santa Luisa home for the elderly, which not only serves the aging population, but also provides support for children in the community.

A Surprising Connection

We left San Jose at 4:00 a.m. to make the drive to Bribri; we passed over mountains and then drove along the Caribbean coast until the paved road we had been traveling on stopped, and a gravel path lead us into the jungle, the river to the south visible every so often over banana trees.

When we arrived at Santa Luisa, we saw a community center at the entrance gate, and there was a basketball court in front of it. Directly behind it was the home for the elderly, which consisted of four or five separate buildings connected by walkways. Another home sat on a hill above the driveway, where Sister Bertalina, our volunteer coordinator, was waiting for us.

Sister Bertalina with one of our sponsored children

Upon greeting us, Sister Bertalina explained that she had been our coordinator for two years at La Milagrosa in San Jose — which we had visited just the day before — until 2011, when she came to Santa Luisa.

Before that, she had worked at one of our other affiliate sites, Casa Central, in Guatemala as well. In the last ten years, she has been our coordinator for three different sites in two different countries — meaning she has a lot of experience with how to best support the children in our program.

A Community in Need

Sister Bertalina showed us around the grounds of Santa Luisa, which are well-kept and full of chickens, roosters, and fruit trees — all of which provide food for the residents of the home. Santa Luisa is funded and run by the Costa Rican government.

Ten staff members help care for upwards of 25 elderly residents at a time, and the four Sisters that live on the property help to oversee operations, as well as provide support for the children and their families in the surrounding communities through our sponsorship program.

For the last nine years, during five of which Sister Bertalina has been at Santa Luisa, the 83 children in our program have been receiving food, clothing, shoes, and school supplies upon monthly visits to the home.

Both the young and old are being affected by the delicate nature of their families’ economic situations — all because of poverty.

Although the children and the elderly don’t interact with one another during those visits, in many ways, they go to the home for similar reasons. The elderly there have families who are no longer able help them as they become older and unable to care for themselves. Being a casualty of the cycle of poverty, these families can’t afford to take care of aging parents or extended family members, and they are forced to leave them in the government’s care.

This is something that I have become used to seeing with children in our program, but hadn’t yet seen with the elderly. Both young and old are being affected by the delicate nature of their families’ economic situations — all because of poverty. The elderly residents, just like so many children, are lacking the support they greatly need, and are just as vulnerable as children are.

Living in the jungle

After showing us the Santa Luisa grounds, Sister Bertalina took us to visit the home of two children in our program, only a few-minutes drive away. The visit took us deep into the jungle, where at first glance, it didn’t seem that a path off the main road existed at all.

Blanketed by large banana trees, it was narrow and muddy, and it took us up a steep incline. When we arrived at the wooden two-bedroom house, which was built on stilts on the side of a hill, we were greeted by the father, who held his small son in his arms. His wife and their other son were out, but he told us we would meet them at Santa Luisa the next day, when we were to meet with the other sponsored children in our program.

We provided shoes to children thanks to Because International.

The father explained that the roof leaks whenever it rains, which forces them to bag their clothes and tie those bags to the rafters in order to keep their belongings dry.

The family has little money for food because the father makes a very low wage working banana fields. The youngest son is anemic, which makes it difficult to keep him healthy. As we left, Sister Bertalina mentioned that she wants to buy mattresses for many of these families who sleep on the floor or foam padding. She also wishes she could start a nutritional program for the families so she could provide them with vitamins, as well as instructions on how to eat well.

Neither young nor old

The following day, the children went to the center to meet with us, along with their mothers, and some with their fathers, like the family we had met the day before. The children were excited to meet with us, and it gave them a chance to play on the playground, too.

They ran around together until it was time for us to hand out school supplies and shoes we had brought with us for them to take home. Each child received a pair of shoes from Because International, a book bag, pencils, erasers, toothbrushes, and toothpaste.

It is more than just a home for the old which also supports the young — it is a home that makes a difference for everyone in-between in Bribri, too.

After they received their gifts, the mothers served a large meal of rice, potatoes, and vegetables. After we ate, everyone went home for the day, and we said our goodbyes. The family we had visited the day before came to speak with us — the father, the mother, and the two small boys. The parents, who were neither young nor old, expressed their gratitude for the support they receive from our program, thanks to the Santa Luisa home.

It occurred to me how important Santa Luisa is to this community. It is more than just a home for the old which also supports the young — it is a home that makes a difference for everyone in-between in Bribri, too.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN COSTA RICA?

You can sponsor a child in Costa Rica in one of two ways – call our office and speak with one of our sponsorship specialists at 1-800-538-5381, or go online to our donation portal, create an account, and search for a child in Costa Rica that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 24, 2017En Español

When we first met our volunteer coordinator, Marta, at the Costa Rica Center in San Jose, I could tell she was full of energy. A small Costa Rican woman, she walked quickly down the sidewalk away from our hotel, as Andreia, our International Site Specialist, and I tried to keep up. When we got to her car, she shuffled us in, having a busy agenda for the day.

Ricky, Marta (left), and Ricky’s mom, outside of their home

In the morning, we would be visiting the houses of four of our sponsored children, and then we would be meeting the eighteen children enrolled in our program at the community center, which Marta uses as their monthly meeting spot. There, the mothers and the children had something special planned for us.

A Second Mother

The Costa Rica Center has been a Children Incorporated affiliate site for more than thirty years. Our founder, Mrs. Jeanne Clarke Wood, originally started working with this place when it was an orphanage. At that time, it had a school attached to it, which Marta’s son, who is now grown, attended. Marta worked as a volunteer with our former coordinator at the school, and eventually took over for her. She has been our coordinator at the Costa Rica Center for twenty years now.

Today, the orphanage is no longer there, and Marta has found another location at which to meet with the children in our program. Our program could have disappeared with the closing of the orphanage and the school, but instead, Marta happily took over all the responsibilities that go along with sponsorship, acting in many ways as a second mother to these children, which she isn’t really far from.

She has seen many of the children grow up in our sponsorship program, having been enrolled in primary school, and going on to graduate. A lot of the children have been in the program for ten years or more, which says a lot about Marta. She has used her abundance of energy to help keep these kids in school for many years.

The Importance of Longevity

Marta happily took over all the responsibilities that go along with sponsorship, acting in many ways as a second mother to these children, which she isn’t really far from.

All the Costa Rica Center children live in the city of San Jose, in various impoverished neighborhoods, and they attend the local schools. Many of them are in high school, or are just graduating and moving on to college or trade school. I was so impressed with Marta — her personal dedication to helping these kids was amazing, and the fact that so many older children, mostly between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, are enrolled shows me that she understands the importance of longevity when it comes to sponsorship.

Keeping children in the program as long as possible, and keeping up with their home lives and families is a big job — and Marta is obviously doing it well. She not only meets with the children on a monthly basis to provide them with food baskets, but she also plans holiday and Mother’s Day activities to give the children and their families a chance to get together and celebrate. She also has monthly meetings with the mothers to discuss whatever concerns they may have.

Helping Children Become Teens

Theresa and her mom in their house in San Jose

Our first stop was Ricky’s home, which was a small house down a narrow alleyway in the city. In his early teens, Ricky is a ninth-grader who lives with his parents and two siblings. His mother talked to us about how much sponsorship helps the whole family — with Ricky receiving support, they have less to worry about, and it also motivates Ricky to do well in school so he can stay in the program.

Marta also took us to Theresa’s house. Theresa was born five months prematurely and has had health issues ever since she was an infant. She is now nineteen, has always needed a wheelchair to get around, and has had multiple complications throughout her life that have lead to long stays away from home — sometimes even months — in the hospital. Theresa’s single mother receives very little help from the government to cover health care costs, and the government prevents her from working because she must care for her daughter full-time.

Theresa’s sponsor sends additional gifts to help with her special needs, which has been a great help for the family, who never knows when Theresa might end up back in the hospital — and her sponsor has even visited a few times over the years. As I look around the house, I notice a picture of Theresa on the wall, holding a violin. Her mom told us that one time, when Theresa was hospitalized for four months, the staff there gave the children musical instruments so that they would have something to do. Theresa learned to play while she was recovering, and plays all the time now.

The Joy of Laughter

After our home visits, Marta took us to the community center where she meets with the mothers and children. The center is large, with a stage in front, and benches lining a wall. The mothers all brought homemade dishes for lunch, as well as homemade crafts to show us. Ceramics, paintings, and knitted garments lined a long table that was against a wall. Marta explained that she encourages the mothers to make crafts to sell, so they can earn additional income.

After lunch, the children had a special performance planned for us. They did an interpretive dance, which was very well choreographed, considering these teens do not see each other very often at the center, nor do they live close to one another or attend the same schools. They had taken the time to get together to practice, and it was apparent that they enjoyed being together as a group, because they worked really well as a team.

It was great to see that they have become close – more than friends – over the many years they have had sponsors.

After their performance, Andreia and I spoke with the mothers, while the teenagers sat on the stage and chatted, laughing excitedly, and enjoying the desert their mothers had prepared. I kept getting distracted by their laughter, and my eyes wandered over to them, one different giggling face after another coming into my view.

I love knowing that these children have gotten to know each other because of our program, since they probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. It was great to see that they have become close — more than friends — over the many years they have had sponsors. These teens are like family, with Marta acting as an additional mother in their lives, all supporting each other as they grow up.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN COSTA RICA?

You can sponsor a child in Costa Rica one of three ways – call our office and speak with one of our sponsorship specialists at 1-800-538-5381, email us at sponsorship@childrenincorporated.org, or go online to our donation portal, create an account, and search for a child in Costa Rica that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 18, 2017En Español

In so many countries around the world, drought is a constant worry, causing problems for crop cultivation and keeping impoverished people from having access to drinking water. In San Jose, Costa Rica, in the slum neighborhood that surrounds our affiliate site, La Milagrosa, a welfare center that supports more than seventy sponsored children, families have the opposite problem. Instead of the rainy season bringing relief from arid conditions, it causes those families to fear losing their homes to the mudslides that often come with it.

Sister Vielka is pictured with a mother and daughter outside their home.

Costa Rica, with a population of about 4.5 million people — nearly a quarter of whom live in the metropolitan area of the capital and largest city, San Jose — is one of the most stable and prosperous nations in Latin America. Because of that, it’s not cheap to live there and everything is expensive, especially food. But despite the high cost of living there, the country attracts a lot of migrant families.

Costa Rica is surrounded by nations that are much worse off than it is. Nicaragua and Panama have higher poverty rates, less stable governments, a lack of employment opportunities, and violence is more rampant there. This leads families, desperate for better lives for themselves and for their children, to migrate to Costa Rica in search of employment and a safer environment in which to live.

Unfortunately, what they find when they arrive is low-paying jobs for men in construction or field labor; and the only land they find to build on as undocumented immigrants is government-owned and in the hills of San Jose, which is subject to frequent mudslides. The rainy season lasts from May to November, so for half the year, work can be inconsistent, and families are concerned about losing their homes and all their belongings.

The Sun Shines on La Milagrosa

At La Milagrosa, which is run by our volunteer coordinator Sister Vielka, children receive food on a monthly basis, as well as educational support, mostly in the form of encouragement from the Sisters. Most of the children live with their single mothers who struggle to find support in a foreign country. Some receive food stamps from the government, but most are trying to get by on their own, away from their home country and extended family.

Six Sisters live at the home, and they not only make sure the children are fed, but they also offer emotional support to the mothers, who might find work cleaning houses or doing laundry. But those jobs fill only for a few hours a week, which isn’t enough — and it causes them a great deal of stress. The Sisters talk with the women about their issues, and counsel them through tough times.

Instead of the rainy season bringing relief from arid conditions, it causes those families to fear losing their homes to the mudslides that often come with it.

As we visit with the children at the home, Sister Vielka explains that they have to turn in their report cards and show passing grades in order to stay in our program. She says that this rule has been working really well to not only motivate the children, but also to keep their mothers engaged in their learning.

The Sisters would love to one day run an after-school tutoring program so that the children could receive additional support; that would require funding to hire a teacher to work with the kids. La Milagrosa is currently not receiving any support from the government or elsewhere, and there are few resources outside of Children Incorporated sponsorship to do more to support the kids’ education.

When It Rains, It Pours

We left La Milagrosa in the early afternoon to walk through the neighborhood to visit the homes of some of our sponsored children. It was a bright and cool day, and there was not a cloud in the sky. We walked with Sister Vielka and her assistant Gisela down a steep hill, and then down a dirt path covered by giant, lush tropical plants, taking us off the main road into what felt like a jungle within a city.

Gisela told us that seven years ago, rain took five houses from families in the middle of the night. Luckily, the occupants were able to get out safely in time, but they all lost everything they had in the mudslide.

Andreia Beraldo, International Project Specialist, outside the home of a family who lost their bathroom to a mudslide last month.

We walked up tightly-packed dirt steps that had been carved into the side of the mountain to reach our first home, where a woman greeted us in the doorway. When we walked into the living room, she pointed to the floor with one hand, as she held her small baby in the other arm, and told us that the floor used to extend further out — but rain had washed part of it away, exposing the ground below and leaving a huge hole in their home.

It seems like only a matter of time before the rest of the floor will go sliding down with the rain, leaving this family homeless. Last month, rain took out their bathroom, which had been on the side of the house. When we walked outside to leave, we could see what was left of a small structure where there was no longer a toilet, but only another hole left in the ground on the property.

With each home visit, we seemed to go further and further up into the hills. Since the land is owned by the government, the families risk not only having their homes wash away in the rain, but also being removed at any point. Gisela explained that when it rains a lot, the children aren’t able to get to school, because it becomes too dangerous for them to be walking around.

After visiting four or five houses, we could see why so many of our conversations with families and the Sisters were about the rain. Each house was barely clinging to the blanket of dirt beneath it on a dry day like that day — looming on all of our minds was what will happen when the rain inevitably comes.

As we walked back to La Milagrosa, the clouds started to come in heavily; and in the distance, we could hear the rumble of thunder. By the time we reached the Home, it had started to pour.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN COSTA RICA?

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 2, 2017En Español

It has been fun to reminisce about my trip to Bolivia last year now that Luis has returned from his visit there just a few weeks ago. When I caught up with him to hear updates about our projects, there was one in particular I couldn’t wait to ask about. While we were in Bolivia together last year for the inauguration of the Montero School, Luis had just been to Santa Cruz for yet another inauguration – the completion of homes built for women and their Children Incorporated-sponsored children, who until now had been living at Villa Emilia.

A Shining Light in the Dark

Sister Pilar pictured outside of a home constructed by Villa Emilia

When Luis and I visited Villa Emilia last spring, we were greeted by smiling children and mothers who lined the driveway leading to the community center, where the kids sang songs and read poems to welcome us.

Villa Emilia is a special place; our volunteer coordinator, Sister Pilar, and the other Sisters that run the home pull women off the streets of Santa Cruz. They give them a safe place to stay, and offer them a job in the garment factory on the property, where they make school uniforms that are sold to generate money to run the home. It is really an amazing place – well-kept grounds and small dorm-style living facilities offer the families refuge from tough street life; and the children are able to attend local schools and receive support from Children Incorporated sponsors. As a result of living in a stable environment, the children at Villa Emilia are some of the best in their classes, we’re told!

Villa Emilia isn’t set up for women to stay there permanently; once they are able to save money, the Sisters help them find housing close by, so that they can continue to work at the factory, and their children can stay in the same schools. But even more than just helping the women find housing outside of the compound, the Sisters also help the women purchase their own property, on which they can eventually build a home – offering them a real, sustainable living situation.

Sister Pilar’s Mission

The Sisters also help the women purchase their own property, on which they can eventually build a home – offering them a real, sustainable living situation.

About thirty minutes away from Villa Emilia, Sister Pilar took us to a neighborhood where she pointed out a few modest homes.

They were sturdy brick structures, and she explained that each of the homes had separate bedrooms, which was something we hadn’t seen often in smaller houses in Bolivia. Across the street from the completed houses were other homes that were still under construction.

According to Sister Pilar, the Sisters purchased the land from the government, and then the women paid the five-year mortgages on the properties, after which point they owned them outright.

Along the way, they also saved money to build homes on their properties. The timelines for the start construction varied for each family, depending on how much they could save each month. If Villa Emilia received any funding from an outside source, the Sisters would pitch in to start of construction so the women could move into permanent housing more quickly.

Luis outside of a newly built house, ready to cut the ribbon

Another ten-minute drive away, we arrived at a field where grass grew as tall as our knees, and power lines were strung above our heads. Peaking up above the grass were pipes, a sign that water lines had already been laid in the ground. Sister Pilar told us we were standing on eight plots of land, already purchased by Villa Emilia.

Eight women had been selected to pay the mortgages on the land, and they were already more than two years into their payments — but far from being able to afford to build their homes. The cost of each house would be roughly $7,000, which would take the women a long time to earn. Once they had the money, though it would take only about six months to construct the houses.

We left that day, having been touched by Sister Pilar’s mission to give these families better lives in permanent homes, and a chance to raise their children off the streets.

The Right Thing to Do

After we returned from our trip, Luis decided the right thing to do would be to have Children Incorporated support the building of the houses.

If the women were left to make the money to afford the homes on their own, it might be ten years or more before they moved in. By then, most of the sponsored children will have grown up and moved on, never having a chance to live in homes that their hardworking mothers owned.

Luis talked to Sister Pilar about sending over plans for the construction, and told her that he would like for the project to get underway as soon as possible. Knowing he would be returning to Bolivia in almost exactly a year, Luis encouraged Sister Pilar to get the project going quickly so that he could share the success with Children Incorporated supporters upon his return.

A Celebration of Home

Three weeks ago, Luis returned to Villa Emilia, and was once again greeted by a loving group of boys and girls and their mothers, as well as Sister Pilar. When he entered the community center, he saw a large bulletin board on a wall that was covered in paper hearts. Each heart had the name of an individual Children Incorporated sponsor who was helping the children at Villa Emilia. After meeting with the children, it was time to go see the new houses.

The always-ambitious Sister Pilar told Luis she would love to build more houses. There were enough plots in this new neighborhood to build fifteen more houses if they could find the funding to do so.

When Luis arrived, he no longer saw an empty field; he saw eight concrete houses making a new small neighborhood where no buildings had stood before – and the families were already there waiting for him.

The first person Luis greeted was a grandmother who has two daughters, both of whom have children in our program. They stood in front of their new home, excited that the day they had waited for a long time was finally here. Luis cut the ribbon that had been gently tied across the front door, and Sister Pilar handed the grandmother the keys to her new home. She was overwhelmed with happiness, and tears streamed down her face.

Luis spent the afternoon cutting one ribbon after another, welcoming families into their new homes. He toured the beautiful new homes, which had two separate bedrooms, a large living area, a kitchen, and a bathroom each. They had electricity, running water, sewage systems, and large windows to allow for air and light to come in.

As they left that day, the always-ambitious Sister Pilar told Luis she would love to build more houses. There were enough plots in this new neighborhood to build fifteen more houses if they could find the funding to do so; and she would even love to see a community center in the area so that the neighborhood could really flourish. She was excited to have the opportunity to contribute to the lives of these women and their children, and she was feeling so uplifted by the day that all she could talk about was doing more.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN BOLIVIA?

You can sponsor a child in Bolivia one of two ways – call our office and speak with one of our sponsorship specialists at 1-800-538-5381, or go online to our donation portal, create an account, and search for a child in Bolivia that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | April 25, 2017En Español

It’s hard to believe it has already been a year since Luis and I were in Bolivia together, visiting projects in La Paz and Santa Cruz.

Although Luis has been traveling to visit sites for many years now, it was my first trip with Children Incorporated, and it marked the launch of our On the Road series. Looking back, it was incredible to have had the chance to visit our affiliate projects in Bolivia, and to meet with our volunteer coordinators, such as Sister Josefina at the Pedro Poveda School; and to spend time hearing stories from our sponsored children, like Carla, who grew up in our program and is now in college. Even more importantly, I feel privileged to have had the chance to be a part of something very special during that particular trip – the inauguration of the completion of the Montero School classrooms. The construction of the classrooms was hugely important not only to the students at the school, but it was also important to the whole community – and I didn’t realize what it meant to people until I was there to see it.

An Educated Proposal

Students in their classroom at the Montero School

In late 2015, Luis spoke with Sister Geraldina, our volunteer coordinator at the Montero School in Okinawa, a rural community a few hours outside of Santa Cruz. Geraldina mentioned that she wanted to add additional classrooms to the school so she could enroll more students. The town has a lot of poor residents, and educating the kids is really the only way to help them get out of poverty, as it is in so many places in the world. Sister Geraldina’s proposal wasn’t just an idea that she casually mentioned to Luis; in fact, the foundation had already been started. But she didn’t have any funding to complete the classrooms, so what was there was nothing more than a flat outline of a building on the school property.

Luis liked the idea of expanding the Montero School in order to educate more students; and thanks to our incredible supporters, only a few months later, construction was underway. The proposal was to add seven additional classrooms to the Montero School, which would allow 200 or more students to attend classes every day. By April of 2016, when Luis and I visited the school to celebrate the completion of the classrooms, everything except the two bathrooms was complete. By the time we arrived, desks for the students were in place, and the building was ready for students to start learning there the very next day.

Impacting an Entire Community

The construction of the classrooms was hugely important not only to the students at the school, but it was also important to the whole community.

For me, the most memorable part of being at the inauguration of the new classrooms at the Montero School was getting the chance to celebrate with the community. Nearly 600 people came for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and I loved how festive all of it was; starting early on in the day, children and their mothers hung crepe paper and blew up balloons to decorate the new classrooms before the afternoon ceremony.

I couldn’t believe how many local people showed up to the event, and it seemed that everyone was participating in some way – decorating, dancing, singing, or bringing food to share.

For Luis, before leaving for Bolivia once again, the memory of the inauguration called him to reflect on how incredible it is to see the projects that Children Incorporated supports work to provide for the educational needs of children beyond sponsorship. What struck him was more than just knowing the families were grateful for the new classrooms — it was also knowing that the school would help many generations to come.

I agree with Luis: sponsorship is the core of Children Incorporated‘s work, but when we have opportunities to do more — like build schools, homes, or dormitories — we can reach more people and change the lives of entire families for the better.

Luis and I enjoyed the inauguration immensely and were even able to stay in Okinawa an additional day to see the children start classes the next day.

Back in Bolivia

Just a few weeks ago, Luis returned to Bolivia to visit twelve of our projects, this time traveling to La Paz, as well as Sucre and Santa Cruz — including the Montero School.

The grounds of the school outside the new classrooms are now landscaped, thanks to the help of the students.

Upon arriving in Okinawa, Luis was greeted by Sister Geraldina, who had the same enthusiasm and energy as she did the year before when it came to showing Luis the new classrooms.

The first thing Luis noticed that was different was the new concrete walkways leading to the classrooms; only gravel had been there the year before. Surrounding the walkways were plants and flowers, both in pots and buried in the ground, lush and green, and well cared for. Grass had grown all around where once only dirt and remnants of the construction site had been. Sister Geraldina explained that the students were completely responsible for beautifying the area around the new classrooms; and they also maintain the grounds, making sure the foliage gets watered and trimmed as needed.

She then showed Luis the completed bathrooms, which were covered in white tile and were in perfect condition, clean and functioning well. She then took him to visit the students in the classrooms. Since last year, air conditioning units had been installed, a gift from students’ families — something they did to show that they care a great deal about having the new classrooms at the school. Sister Geraldina explained that nearly 400 children are taking classes now during two separate shifts during the day, and there are even adult reading classes being held at night.

Every single one of them have benefited from the new classrooms.

Luis was more than impressed by what he saw a year later at the Montero School. Not only had the classrooms and the grounds been kept up and even improved in ways, but the community continued to invest in the new building, and it didn’t seem like they wasted a second of the day in using the classrooms for educating children and adults alike. Knowing he saw the community using the building to its full potential, it makes all the sense in the world to me now why so many people came to the inauguration. Every single one of them has benefited from the new classrooms.

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