Read or watch Pastor Alvaro's story here.
Close to the church and Shalom school exists a community called Las Conchas. Las Conchas was a community where families were looking for peace. In the areas around Las Conchas, the violence had increased due to the presence of gangs and drugs. Hundreds of families moved to this sector.
Several years back, our church as well as several American Baptist churches started to work in this sector. We divided this into several areas:
1. The construction of a community center for development. Where women could be empowered academically, both in their practical side, on their moral side, and on the side of their families. We are building and now we are concluding this level in the community center.
2. We initiated construction and support of family homes. These homes provide access a living room, a kitchen, a dining room, a small bathroom, and 2 small bedrooms. This causes the family to change from the close tight quarters where the family cooked the children studied…children, mother, father, aunts and uncles slept, etc… to a more spatial home where the family could have a more appropriate atmosphere.
In addition, we initiated a nutritional program in the school where women from the community and from the church come to pray and distribute the food on a daily basis. The amazing thing about this is that the statistics in Guatemala show that there is a 15 to 50% abandonment in the schools. This is real data from our own Ministry of Education and not from the World Bank or the United Nations. The abandonment is due to many children traveling north or simply because the conditions at home have deteriorated.
However, the particular case in Las Conchas is that the school is the only one that does not have abandonment. None of school has experienced abandonment. Over the last few years, we started a food sponsorship for children, which started with about 400 children. We are now feeding 568 children on a daily basis. What does this mean? Instead of children abandoning the school there has been an increase.
Why this increase? I think there are two strong and powerful reasons: The cry of these mothers praying not only for their own children as well as for other children in gratitude for what is being done for their children.
The second reason is that the children have a nutritious meal on a daily basis. This has been an incentive for the children to come to school which has been an incredible impact. Their grades have increased because they are not hungry when they attend classes.
There is an immense gratitude in our hearts, first to God and then to each person that has been able to help with the sponsorship of these children’s meals, the construction of the community center, and the training of the community leaders.
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