The School of our Dreams

We have come to the middle of the year after a first semester full of wonder, expectations, trials and lots of growing and learning. Our middle school students are active members of the student board where they help making decisions for the improvement of the school. Our first graders are now reading and writing short sentences and our fifth graders have five months left to graduate from primary school. It is all very exciting and we want to share these feelings with you all who have become part of our story.

The more we grow, the more we realize how important it is to invest time in social-emotional skills, strenghening families relationships and involving the community in the educational process. After all, it takes a village to raise a child. This is why we would like to share one key achievement we had this quarter, it was the SEMANA DE LA VIDA. The Week of Life is a program that we carry out during a whole week with students, families, and community members in order to raise awareness of the environment and appreciating how priviledged we are to be alive!

It started with the commemoration of Earth day where every class brought recycled material and created environmental superheroes. We dedicated some time too to paint a mural in each of the schools. After that, it came Spanish language day, which is celebrated all along Spanish speaking countries. We told stories, played word games, and even carried out a spelling bee contest. It was so much fun! On Wednesday we went for a walk up and down the hills of our Comuna. More than 500 people came together to walk for about 2 hours. Students even brought their little furry friends with them. It was so cute. 

We couldn't leave behind one of the school's most important event: our birthday celebration! This year we turned EIGHT and we held a birthday ceremony with all of our students and key stakeholders. The cake was delicious by the way. We wrapped up the week celebrating children's day. For this event we invited local artists to perfom a circus show  and turned the school into a cinema where students were able to purchase tickets to their favorite movie, get pop corn and a drink. All of this with our brand new currency: FONTACOIN. It is a coin that we will start using inside the school to promote participation and student engagement as well as developing entrepreneurial and financial skills. We had a blast.

The feeling we have now is GRATITUDE because we have been able to do and learn so much during this year. Our teachers have been heroes and our families continue to support the work we do. We continue to face many challenges for the rest of the year. Running a new branch is very expensive, we still need to equip a computer lab, we are planning English Day, there are 50 more scholarships that we want to grant to students who show academic achievement and commitment. But it is thanks to you that we will be able to do this and more. Please share about us with friends and family, colleagues at work, university students... anyone who can give at least TEN DOLLARS a month to support our mission. Every dollar counts in making a big impact.

Thank you so much to every recurring donor, to our one-time donors who are willing to donate again and to everyone who has become a friend to our community.

It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a handful of friends to help educate 350 kids.

Gracias,

Lili