Past Reports: 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005
Scholarship Report 2008
T
he scholarship program continues to grow. Each year I am amazed at how God continues to deveop this program and use it to help more students and families.
This year a total of $18,228.52 was raised for the scholarship program. Below is a summary for how the scholarships were distributed this year.
Total number of scholarships – 167
Total number of university students – 20
Total number of students in Preschool through 6th grade – 115
Total number of students in High school – 32
Of the High school kids 6 are in tech programs studying everything from mechanics to computers to sewing
Number of students in Christian schools - 77
Number of students in Private/tech schools - 70
Number of different Christian schools – 24
Here are a couple of stories…
Jefferson is a young deaf boy who comes from a poor family. Being deaf or having any disability in a third world country is very tough when it comes to education. First of all there are not many schools that are tailored for deaf kids or any kind of handicap. And the schools that are created to reach out to those kids are private and quite expensive. For Jefferson the one plus is that the school he attends is close by so they don’t have to worry about the expense of transportation. He is the oldest of 3. The monthly cost of the school is 230 cordobas or $11.80 which may not sound like much but for families that live on $50-$150 a month, that is quite an expense. Plus that is just the monthly cost of the school; there are always more costs like materials, books, or whatever the teacher may ask for during the course of the year (a mop, soap, a little extra money for a class party, etc.) The exciting part for Jefferson is that just recently the school was able to get hearing aids at a greatly reduced cost. We helped him financially (the hearing aids were about $400) so by the end of this month he should have them. While he can’t hear much I guess he can hear some sounds and hearing aids help to increase the sound and allow him to learn better. His mom is also very involved with his schooling and is taking classes on Saturdays to learn sign language in order to talk with him but also to be able to translant, so a potential job in the future. Jefferson’s situation is definitely not easy but his mom and him are making the best of it and going forward.
April Havlin runs a home for women who are coming out of prostitution. She also has a Bible study once a week in which women come to participate but don’t actually live at the women’s shelter. This is my third year of working with her and giving scholarships to kids of the ladies that come to the Bible study. While the group of kids has changed a number of times over the three years; it is exciting to see that 5 kids have been in the scholarship program for 3 years and another 9 kids have been in for two years. With each year, those that are already in the program get priority for continuing to receive their scholarship before I let new kids in.
Xiomara is a young mom of three boys all under 12 years old. She comes from a poor and rough neighborhood. She also used to be a prostitute but God used a missionary named Helen to radically change her life. She has been a huge help to me this year in paying many of the scholarships at the schools that are in the rough neighborhoods. Since I have taken Samantha along on all of my visits to the schools; Xiomara’s help was double in the sense that she would hold Samantha and play with her while I was paying and she knew the exact directions in the neighborhoods. Her boys have been receiving scholarships for years now and continue to do quite well in their studies. She is an incredible example to me of how God can work in rough circumstances and really change things around. She also was a recipient of a scholarship a couple of years ago in learning how to cut and style hair. Helen is now in the process of opening a hair salon with Xiomara and a couple of the other gals that received courses.
Idalia is a teacher at the school in the Managua dump (this is not that gal that lives in the dump; I never heard back from her). She has been studying to be a teacher and started receiving a scholarship this year when I found out how hard it was for her to continue paying the monthly fees.
Raquel is another teacher who is studying on Saturdays but her major is in systems engineering. She along with her mom are teachers at the Dios con Nosotros school. In meeting with her recently I discovered how rough it was for her to pay the monthly costs plus all the extra costs that studying at the university entails. I have just recently started scholarahipping her.
One last story for you…we gave out over 400 backpacks this year and a majority of them were to kids and youth in the neighborhoods that surround the sports center. Most of the kids around here go to public schools where there is no monthly tuition; however buying backpacks and school supplies is a big burden on families. In August the kids were back in school after their mid year break and were receiving their reports cards. Many of the kids that live close to the sports center and come often to play were coming up to me with the reports cards to show me how they’ve been doing. One young boy, Carlos Alberto, who is 13 years old but only in 2nd grade and did not pass 2nd last year, was proudly showing me his report card and telling me that he was going to pass this year. It is little successes like that that make it all worth it!
Check out the 2006 report & the 2005 report.
Donations can be sent to:
Eastside Development
PO Box 301471
Portland, OR 97294
Or you can make an donation online.
From all the children, their families, and the university students as well as Thomas and I - thank you so much for being a part of this effort to help change lives through education! May God continue to bless your lives as you have been such a blessing to many children and young adults here in Nicaragua. Muchisimas gracias!
