Provide a Critical-Thinking program for 40 teens

One of the biggest questions concerning on-the-ground non-profits and charities is what is going to happen when the founders step aside or can no longer do the work.

At the Integral Heart Family we have a solution to this question already manifesting through a group of six senior students who are carrying on our mission and vision in the best way imaginable.

Today we will tell the story of one of our senior students, Saul, and how our Critical Thinking and Philosophy classes made him one of our brightest stars and also changed his future.

Saul is 21 years old and currently studying to be a psychologist. He lives in Jocotenango (a dangerous slum area) which is about three miles from Antigua, with his dad, grandmother, two aunts, one cousin, his girlfriend and his little dog Rex.

When Saul was 9 years old, his parents divorced and his mom decided to completely abandon him and his two brothers. Saul has also a sister, but when she was born she was adopted by a relative of the family who couldn’t have children.

Although the mother would come once in a while to visit, she never supported any of the needsof her other children. This left Saul’s dad with all the responsibilities for food, health, clothes, housing and school. Nonetheless the father, a mason, always wanted his children to study and to have better opportunities than he did.

But at that time Saul had a very different opinion than that of his father.

He did not like to go to school and even had to repeat some school years. When it came time to attend high school, Saul suggested dropping his studies and going to work, but his dad would not allow him to do so.

But then, in the middle of his first year of high school the expenses were too much for his dad so Saul had to stop in the middle of the year.

So his dad brought Saul with him to work as a mason's helper. On one hand, Saul began to understand the sacrifices his dad was making in order for him to continue to study; he didn’t fully understand it but thought that if he was going through so much trouble there must have been a good reason to do so.

On the other hand and after months hard work, Saul decided that he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life doing manual labor and that the only way out was to get a college education.

He also didn’t want his dad to feel that he had failed Saul for not being able to give him a proper education. So, over the next year and with some effort and money saved he began studying again.

This is now 2012, the same year that we met Saul for the first time. He began studying at a school run by another local charity in which he didn’t have to pay monthly fees, only books, uniforms and materials. But, as he tells us, he was just going through the motions with little genuine interest.

At that same school we were teaching philosophy and critical-thinking concept to the  students of the graduating class. Saul came into this class and, in his own words, was fascinated about the “crazy stuff” we were talking about and how he never in his life had thought about any of this before.

He joined the class and we quickly noticed his great interest. His curiosity and interest in the philosophy class helped him to develop his interest in his other subjects and he went from not wanting to attend to school to wanting to go to college, and even beyond that.

Because of the generosity of Sustaining Sponsors of the integral Heart Family, Saul could find sponsors who paid for his studies and he has been with us constantly since 2012.

Today he is studying to be a psychologist; he quit an earlier idea to be an auto-mechanic because of this love of philosophy. He is also a part of an intense program run by the our foundation called the Isa’s Kids. In this program six of our philosophy superstar students have embarked on a three year journey of intensive, full time training to be teachers.

As part of this training, they also tutor the youngest students of the Integral Heart Family and also help them with their homework since many of their parents don’t know how to read or write.

These changes in Saul, his sense of responsibility, reliability and courage has far exceeded our expectations and this year he has represented us in some official events here in Guatemala. In his own words:

“Now I realize that life offers us many options and we only have to find out what is it that we really want for ourselves and others. I understand now that in the same way I am being guided through this healthy path and I, too, can eventually guide others too.

In Integral Heart I found a way out towards a different way of living. I learned that in this life we are the only ones who place our limits on ourselves and others. We are the ones who prevent ourselves from doing great things. I also learned that in order to achieve something we need to act.

I have received psychological, nutritional, and financial support. And now I am even more eager to keep learning as many things as I can (because you never can stop learning), to keep growing as a person and to help others as much as I can.”

Thank you so very much for making this possible because without you Saul would probably be working as a masons helper today. And there are many other ‘Sauls’ that you are helping, so thank you very much.