News from our schools - December 2023

Thanks to your generosity Christmas has once again been the highlight of the children’s year. In Dodoma, Tanzania, the boys there experienced their first, and the schools first, Christmas! The boys were so excited to receive their gifts  thanks to all your generosity. From new tops for sport to school supplies, the gifts were modest but meant the world to all our children, but particularly to these, our newest boys.

We hope that you enjoy the photos from the schools celebrating this special day.

In the Philippines, our girls and boys from Adlas and Biga respectively attended the ECSU sports meet where they competed in many events. The Biga girls won gold in Swimming, Athletics, Sepak Takraw (Foot volleyball), futsal and silver in Tennis, Badminton and Table tennis. With the Adlas boys winning the gold  in athletics. The boys also competed at a Regional Skills Competition where they won gold in CNC Milling and Mechatronics, silver in Automobile Tech and Welding, and bronze in Mechanical Engineering CAD.

The boys from Guadalajara in Mexico travelled to Indonesia to compete in the International Junior Math Olympiad (IJMO). The IJMO is an international mathematics competition which is held annually in different countries across Asia, featuring participants from countries around the world. Not to be outdone, our young Brazilian student, Maria had her achievements in the Korean language recognised and was invited to participate in the International Korean Education Youth Camp held in Seoul in November 2023.

In Guatemala to reach children in greatest need the Sisters travelled extensively in November and December. During their community work they saw increasing hunger and desperation within these families, particularly in the rural mountainous regions and for many of the young girls this was resulting, not just in malnutrition but in early marriage and child rearing (some as young as 13) marking an end to childhood and the beginning of a future of poverty.

In the midst of their community work in December, the sisters were approached by a local hydro electric company aware of a particularly deprived and inaccessible community of families located in the heavily forested remote hills of Alta Verapaz.

With the offer from the company to reach this remote area by helicopter, the Sisters in Zona 13 and Zona 6 visited in December and met hundreds of deprived youngsters living in extreme difficulty, cut off from education and the hope of a better life. With such a poor start in life, these children could not hope to reach the basic level of skills necessary for a secondary education but they needed and deserved our help and so 11 girls and 10 boys were offered a place at our schools for 2024. With additional transport help from the hydroelectric company these youngsters joined the 550 new children who we welcomed into our schools on 8th January.