Many prayers were answered this year when Siloe School in Oaxaca, Mexico officially opened to 28 elementary students! Siloe School is a private Christian school run by our Mexico Children’s Program. Our program has always supported education by providing tutoring and covering school supplies and fees, but this is the next step in giving children in this community the best education possible.
We know that education is a key factor in breaking the cycle of poverty. LEAP Academy University Charter School Founder, Gloria Bonilla-Santiago says, “If you provide children with quality education options, support families and children holistically in a community setting and enlist the support of universities as partners with community, you produce better academic results and improved community outcomes. Then what happens? Eventually, the cycle of poverty breaks. One family at a time.”
In the impoverished communities of Oaxaca many children do not have the supplies and support they need to excel in school, so they end up dropping out. Oaxaca has some of the highest dropout rates in all of Mexico.
Siloe School is opening doors that have never been opened in this community, with plans to grow in years to come. One of the mothers of a child attending said, “I went to a very small school in a village and we didn’t have enough teachers, so I wasn’t able to learn a lot of the things that I should have. My daughter is in 4th grade and she already knows a lot more than I do.” This common sentiment both breaks our hearts and encourages us to do better for the next generation.
Siloe School students are being given unique educational opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise. Recently, they were able to attend an International Book Fair in the city. During the fair, they attended reading and writing workshops with a published children’s book writer, opening up an entire new literary world for them.
We take a holistic approach to caring for children in our programs, and place great emphasis on primary and advanced education because we know this breaks the cycle of poverty, changing the trajectory of a child’s life forever. Please join us in prayer for Siloe School as they build and grow in the years to come! We can’t wait to see what God has in store for these children.
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5 yrs. old
Entered the Program: August 2024
Jemimah lives with her parents and three siblings in a three-room sheet metal house with a dirt floor. The house has access to electricity and they fetch water from a neighbor’s tap. They have an outdoor kitchen and use firewood for cooking. They do not have a bathing facility but use a pit latrine that is in poor condition.
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