By Rebecca Mueller | Project Assistant
The Scheel International Technical Training Center opened for the 2011 school year last Monday. 145 students from Jocotenango and surrounding communities arrived in fresh uniforms, buzzing with the anticipation of starting classes and making new friends. Faces new and old fill the classrooms:
New faces like Maria’s.
Fifteen-year-old Maria started the first grade last week. A year ago, Maria was working with her mother and siblings at the local landfill, sorting through trash to sell to recycling companies. This year, with the help of a GOD’S CHILD Project social worker, Maria enrolled as a student at the Scheel Center. Donors like you gave her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leave the dump and start a brand new chapter in life. She now has a future and has dreams to reach for.
Old faces like Juan’s.
At first glance, Juan looks like someone who has had a rough life. If you decide to stop and chat, Juan is kind, polite, and intent on sharing not a sob story, but the goals he hopes to reach through education. His dream in life is “to help people who don’t have an education, who don’t have a home, who are sick, who are poor, who don’t have a lot, who just need help in general.” This tough-looking kid stands out as one of the smartest and hardest-working students at the Scheel Center, and we are all hoping that he will accomplish all that he dares to dream.
With the first couple days of school come really important lessons: how to wash hands, how to brush teeth, how to enter the classroom, why it’s good to keep quiet when teachers are speaking. Very soon, these bright and eager learners will be ready to tackle math and reading, woodworking, gardening, and volunteer-led English lessons. With your help, these kids—really good kids from really bad neighborhoods—will continue to flourish.
Continue your support.
We hope you will continue to support The GOD’S CHILD Project as this school year progresses. We´re off to a good start, but we still need your help to keep these kids in school. We are offering them a hope-filled future through long term education, and the competition is offering them drugs and fellowship through gang involvement. Please donate today and pass this link along to friends and families so that they too can get involved.
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