I went for the first time to visit Mano Amiga of Chalco School nine years ago. But I have always been familiar with the school story that this year is having its 20th anniversary. It was built in Chalco, just 40 minutes away from Mexico City. In the 80´s it was a small town with unpaved roads, no sewage, no electricity or running water and a lot of dust named the poorest town in the country, in fact in 1988 it is in Chalco where the then president of Mexico launched his program to help poor communities in the country. The school was at first laminated litlle classrooms for around 80 preschool kids where my mother used to do social service, so I always heard about it at home.
The first laminated classrooms from 20 years ago.
When I finally got to visit I was living in New York, working in a Charity Organization that raised funds for education to benefit poor and underprivileged children all across Latin America. As a Mexican, I wanted to do some good for my country and I proposed to help this school. So we went down there, visited and fell in love with the children and the school. Chalco, the town was growing with paved streets, lightening and running water, public transportation and local businesses. The school was fundamental for the change and was growing with it. What started only as a preschool has now over 900 students and goes all the way through high school. Of the 9 generations of graduated students, most of them have gone to college getting scholarships from private universities in Mexico City.
The graduation class of 2005
Yesterday at my last visit, I was amazed by the change from last time, seven years ago. In these years the school has continued to grow offering the children and their families a true chance at life, giving education to the students but also to their family. As the children achieve better education they can continue their studies and have more possibilties to get a better job to help support their family. Also the parents get free classes about different subjects from English to the best way to raise and help their children.
Preschool children in a classroom
Film Annex is giving the opportunity for these students to pay for part of their tuition by offering them through its website a small scholarship writing and translating blogs to Spanish. High school students will be praticing their English and building their social profile using Linkedin and other social media through Film Annex website for future employment opportunities. And they will benefit a lot from the help because as the director explained to me, when they are in high school their parents do not want to provide for them anymore, they want them to stop studying and go to work to support themselves. As the students do not have internet access or computers at home the school will let them use their computer classroom to work on this project.
Computer lab where students will be translating and writing blogs with Film Annex to support their education
