After School Program Benefits the Whole Family

After School Program Benefits the Whole Family

Observed on August 12, International Youth Day was created to raise awareness of challenges and problems facing the world’s youth. This year’s theme, “Transforming education” highlights efforts to make education more inclusive and accessible for all youth.

Chalice’s PENNT Sponsor Site in Bolivia works with youth at a high risk of dropping out of school. Thanks to the generosity of Chalice donors an after school program was successfully implemented at the site to support the education of 600 children and adolescents with daily care in education and nutrition. Through school support and a healthy meal, the site is helping to increase marks and reduce the percentage of failure and school dropout.

This program is making a huge difference in the lives of Mariela and her four children - July (10 years old), Adalid (8 years old), Katherin (5 years old) and Giovani (3 years old).

Mariela and her husband moved their family from the city of La Paz to Cochabamba City with the hope of improving their living conditions. Things were going well until her husband died and Mariela was left to both work and care for her children alone.

She found work as an assistant to the fruit merchants of the nearby market, unloading fruit trucks as well as counting and distributing merchandise. Her work began at four in the morning until four or five in the afternoon, depending on how many trucks came that day. With no access to before and after-school care, she would leave lunch ready at home and nine-year-old July was in charge of her younger siblings. July was expected to watch her younger siblings, clean them, give them breakfast, leave the younger children in daycare and go to school with Adalid. At noon, July would pick up her brother and she would have to return home and serve lunch. Obviously, this is too much responsibility for a nine-year-old. Many times Mariela came home to find the food wasn’t eaten and the children were busy playing with each other. The children’s studies began to suffer.

The family’s situation changed thanks to the school support program and they are all doing much better. July is still in charge of getting her siblings out the door in the morning but now once they leave school and head to the support program, they all receive a hot lunch and can work on their homework while being supervised in a safe environment. While the three children are doing their schoolwork, Giovani is being cared for with the other preschoolers. Mariela is very grateful for this program which gives her peace of mind that her children are being cared for so she can concentrate better at work. They consider the program very essential for their lives.