A GREAT new project for AGAND! Join us.

November, 2009

NEW PROJECT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

As you know, since the new Adoption Law was put in place, AGAND cannot continue with the adoption program, but we still feel that it is important do our part to care for children in need. We also hope to “stay in the game” as changes are made by the National Adoption Council in the future. Many ideas have been talked about, but to be honest, Haydée and I feel that an Early Childhood Education Center to serve about 40 children daily would be a resource for mothers who work at minimal wage jobs. Many of those kids are left with older siblings, or a neighbor, or locked in their small dwellings while the mother is away. Many have little food, no education, and no good role models as they mature.

If we could make this dream a reality we would like to divide it in two areas; care for the children, in appropriate age-groups, with special attention to education, healthy food, health, and moral and spiritual values. To begin we would receive children from 1-6 years of age, increasing ages as there is need.. The other area of interest is in working with their mothers, forming a “parent-school” whose focus would be improving self-esteem, good work habits, and moral and spiritual values. This would produce a continuation of what the children learn at daycare. Of course, this would fill a tiny part of the great need in Guate-mala, but it would plant a seed which, when it germinates, could help change our country.

You might wonder about the desire to continue to work with children—well, they are our past and our future! It is the area we know best, having worked with children for more than 33 years. We have the experience, the equipment, the physical plant……everything except the funding to make it a possibility. For this reason I am asking for your help.

These will not be children in an adoption program, but we will be able to improve the quality of life for many families with few other resources. There will be a fee of Q.100 or about $12 a month for each child—enhancing their sense of responsibility and pride in caring well for their children. They also will be “required” to attend a Saturday class for parents. The real cost per child will be about $80 per month.

We will evaluate the objectives of this program within 6 months. In the long run we hope to have the satisfaction of seeing young families grow and become increasingly productive adults, and their children growing up with a good moral base for the future.

Many times we are critical of the many irresponsible young people, and we talk about the irresponsibility of their parents, but often this is a consequence of not having the opport-unity to learn and grow in their childhood. If the parents, or in most cases, the mothers, of the children in the daycare, do not receive adequate and timely instruction then the child-ren who are in daycare have no continuity at home. That is the premise that moves us to want to work in both areas.

To donate : http://www.agand.org

Mirna Vargas, Director AGAND Guatemala mirna@agand.org
Judy Oltrogge, AGAND USA judy@agand.org

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