Last month we celebrated Language Day and we celebrated with the opening of our school library with a collection of around 5000 books!
Our library project started over a year ago when our partner organization Educambio donated over 5000 books to us. Books included children literature, science textbooks, novels, magazines, comics, and more both in English and Spanish! We went through a process of selecting books one by one and piling them into categories. It took two months and many hands to help. By February the room was ready, the shelves installed and the flooring all set up.
It was April 23rd, Language Day, and our students gathered to witness the opening of our library. Some shouted, some leaped of joy and they all happily went one by one into the room to experience the delight of reading books. Students now have a beautiful tote bag which they made and decorated by themselves to take books home for the weekend.
Having a library in our school means we have opened a new door to knowledge and learning. Books will allow our students to travel in time, learn about the people who changed the world and dream of the places they will go! Malala Yousafzai said: One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Let's keep changing the world together!
Our 140 students and their families appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Lilibeydy Manrique
School director
Dear friends and supporters,
It's a new year and we are all excited to receive our new students.
We worked hard in the Holidays to have everything ready for this new year. We painted the school walls again, we gave the doors a new color, we built the computer lab and the library and we had a beautiful wings mural made! It all looks so pretty, welcoming and inspiring!
Last Tuesday we opened back the doors of our school to welcome 130 students enrolled for year 2019. It was so exciting to see new families walking by the door to join our learning community. Please watch the video to share our excitement.
We also wished our prom 2018 of 15 fifth grade students all the best in their journey and will invite them to participate in an English program especially tailored to their needs, knowing that they won't have the same English instruction in the new schools where they are enrolled now.
It is also great to share that 20% of our school population is studying under the sponsorship program. That means that 26 students have a scholarship and there are a few more waiting to receive one. Thanks to your support on GlobalGiving YOU are making education possible for a child in need.
Finally, we would like to tell you that we have written a book to tell our story. This task took over six months. During this period we did interviews, surveys, we heard personal stories and also did a self reflection of our growth process. It is so rewarding to see the result in a 70 page book that we are sharing with our friends. The book is now available in Spanish and will share the English version with you once it's ready.
We wish you a blessed new year 2019 and we hope to continue counting on you to write a new chapter in the history of education for Colombian children.All yours,
Lilibeydy Manrique - Cofounder and director
Links:
“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” Malala Yousafzai
We had a goal this year: provide more opportunities for children in our community to attend school. Although we have a small tuition, there are still families we can't afford to send their children to our school. We decided that had to change this year so we had an idea. We began a sponsorship program that would subsidize 12 children to go to school for free and we accomplished our mission.
Nicolás used to attend our school. He is a smart kid full of potential. He is good at Language and Math. You can talk to him for hours and he will always have something to say. It was all fine until his parents broke off. His father left the country and is not in touch with him anymore. His mother had to double her working hours in order to offer her son a home, food and protection. But a minimum wage was not enough so she decided to take her child out of the school and send him to a public school which is free of cost. We were sorry to see him go but there was nothing we could do.
This year, March to be exact, his mother knocked on our doors. She regreted having taken Nicolás out of our school. He was in a large group and barely had any classes. He kept on telling his mother how much he yearned to go back to La Fontaine. We started our quest for a sponsor and we found him! Joaquin, a young professional who knew of us was willing to take charge of Nicolás's educational expenses. Through a partner organization, Educambio, we launched the sponsorship program that not only allowed Nicolás to return to our school but also let us welcome a few more new students. Today Nicolás is number one in his fourth grade class and excels at English.
Our goal next year is to have 40 students under our sponsorship program. Through your recurring donations you are helping build a scholarship fund to broaden our impact in the community. $35 dollars a month can make a big difference to a child in need. We invite you to learn more about us on the links we share here.
Thank you again for building peace and justice in the world.
Sincerely,
Lilibeydy Manrique
Links:
Dear friends,
We would like to start this month's report by thanking you for being such great support to our mission of creating change through education. It has been a challenging exciting year so far and many of our projects wouldn't be possible without your help.
Last May we started a new English program with high school students who belong to public schools in the area. Public schools don't offer quality English classes so through this program we will be able to help senior students be better prepared for the State exam they must present in order to go to college. We opened 100 scholarships!! and it has proved to be a successful project that will last four more months.
In the meantime, we have established new partnerships with local universities and international organizations such as AIESEC, an NGO that brings international volunteers to developing countries in order to share their knowledge and culture with underpriviledged communities. Last May we had Jin from China and Carsten from the United States; Clara from Switzerland arrived last month and next week we will have two more volunteers from Mexico and Germany. This has been an enriching experience for both 137 children from our school and the other 100 students enrolled in our English classes. Volunteers do class interventions, culture exchange activites, helps us with media and design, among other things.
Finally, we are exited to let you know that in a month we will be opening our ICT classroom and library. There two spaces will serve our school children and will also be available for the community on Saturdays. With technology, new doors open for Fundación ABLE to broaden our impact and reach out to youth and women.
Stay tuned through our social networks and soon our website. We will let you know when it's ready!
We encourage you to keep supporting us and being part of this great dream: CREATING CHANGE THROUGH EDUCATION.
Thank you! ¡Muchas GRACIAS!
Happy New Year to our friends and supporters!
2018 looks very promising. We kicked the year off with the restoration of our school facilities. Our new place is looking great with our 134 students from preschool to fifth grade. It is amazing to see how in our fourth year we have almost tripled the number of students enrolled as we increase our impact in the community. This year, 8 students were granted a scholarship to pursue their studies with us. We will continue to look for sponsors that are committed to contributing monthly to the education of a child.
Our afterschool program has been paused since the end of the year break and mostly due to the difficulties we have had with raising the funds to make this program financially sustainable. In March 21 we are travelling to the capital city in order to attend the final of a social entrepreneurship contest where we participated and that will be a great platform to look for partnerships and strengthen our afterschool program.
Thank you for being with us in this journey for a year already!
All the best,
Links:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
Make a monthly donation & get 
