|
Current Be A HERO Project: Expansion and equipping of the Puerto Escondido School for the Disabled in Mexico, in partnership with Heritage Christian School of Kelowna, BC.
Our Partner Organization: Heritage Christian School
Heritage Christian School is a ministry of the Kelowna Christian Centre Society (KCC), and was founded by Pastor Dave Kalaman in 1986. Heritage Christian School is registered as a Group 1 Independent School with the Ministry of Education in British Columbia, Canada. In keeping with our philosophy to have students discover, develop, and use their God-given gifts in service to others, we take our Grade 11 class to southern Mexico each year for a period of about 5 weeks. While there, they assist in local building projects, get to know Mexican kids their own age, and generally enhance their educational experience by developing a global perspective. Our school has three main elective programs: Industrial Arts, Computer Technology, and Drama-Film-Television. In Mexico, we look for opportunities where students in all three areas can make a positive contribution to the local community using skills they’ve been developing for 2 or 3 years at HCS. While serving and giving of themselves for others, our students always learn that they receive much more in return, by way of cultural and spiritual experiences.
Puerto Escondido School for the Disabled
The 100 children currently attending Puerto Escondido’s School for the Disabled suffer from a wide range of physical and mental disabilities: from autism and cerebral palsy, to Down’s syndrome and fetal alcohol syndrome. This school has limited government funding for teaching staff from Kindergarten to Grade 6 only. After this, students must leave the school to find what employment they can in their disabled condition. The school receives no government funding for building projects. The six small classrooms at the school have all been built through the fundraising efforts of parents and local community members.
Beginning April 2006, 25 Heritage students, with the support of professional builders and healthcare workers, have traveled to Puerto Escondido to assist in the long-term improvement of the School for the Disabled. Each year, Heritage students (with the aid of adult professionals) volunteer their time and talents to build classrooms, install computers, and train children to use new mobility equipment for the physically disabled. Lives in both Mexico and Canada will be indelibly changed, and the global community brought that much closer together.
Film and computer students from Heritage will make a quality video of the entire process. By training global citizens to fight poverty today, we ensure victory in the war on poverty tomorrow.
The project is aimed at 2 major goals:
- To directly and substantially improve the quality of life of hundreds of disabled children in Mexico.
- To train global citizens to fight poverty. We seek to train life-long leaders in the fight against global poverty, and to build international relationships between able and disabled students.
In 2006, the first year of the project, the students, together with Be A HERO raised the funds, and participated in building a large covered area to provide the disabled children an area to play and learn shaded from the intense sun. It was completed in three weeks, with the help of Mexican tradesmen, though the students did the grunt work of digging the foundation, pouring cement, and rigging rebar. The Heritage School students also spent a lot of time tutoring, teaching crafts, playing with, and organizing fun activities for the Puerto Escondido students. It was an amazing experience for all of them. Not only did they find great satisfaction serving others, they learned a lot of Spanish and a lot about Mexican culture. Another project that the students were involved in was the construction of a home for the pastor of the local church – his first house (at 55 years old).
Proposed Project
Instead of short summer mission trips, our goal is to help build a school that will dramatically improve the lives of vulnerable children in Mexico and simultaneously train Canadian students in the care of disabled children, in Spanish culture, and in global citizenship. This school will be a meeting place not only for different cultures, but a place where people --rich and poor, able and disabled—can discover their common bond of humanity. We truly believe this local school in the small town of Puerto Escondido, Mexico will have an impact on cultural relations that will be felt around the global village. Investing in this program provides dividends both in Mexico for underprivileged kids, and in Canada, by demonstrating to our own youth what privileges they have and how much they can do to make the world a better place.
May, 2007: We will take computers and educational software to enhance the instruction of these vulnerable children. These computer aids are designed to train disabled children in communication skills, mobility skills, and vocational skills. Our own students will assist in the teaching. We will add one more classroom to meet the increasing demand for services from this school.
May, 2008: We will begin to train able students to train disabled students in the use of mobility equipment for physically disabled children. We will add one more classroom to prepare the school to move from a K to 6 curriculum (Kindergarten to Grade 6) to a K to 12 curriculum. (By this date, the school will have 10 classrooms in total).
May, 2009: Future projects will include extending the curriculum and teaching support to educate children to Grade 12, and to increase the capacity of the school to help more disabled children in the Puerto area. We will also seek to provide vocational training to assist students in their transition from the school to the world of work. This will require building both a carpentry shop and cooking class, as well as equipping the school with a variety of new tools.
Budget for proposed expansion at Puerto Escondido School for the Disabled
| Project |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
Construction Materials
- Two classrooms each year (2007-2008)
- Shop and Cooking classroom (2009)
|
40,000 |
40,000 |
100,000 |
School Equipment (tables, chairs, etc)
- Computer Equipment
- Mobility Equipment (new and used)
- Tools/Equipment for Vocational Training
|
2,000
15,000 |
2,000
5,000
50,000 |
5,000
5,000
10,000
40,000 |
| TOTALS: |
$57,000 |
$97,000 |
$160,000 |
100% of all funds donated for this project will be applied directly to the project. Be A HERO does not keep anything for administration. Be A HERO is able to do this because the Hero Partnership and Pillar Program participants designate their donations specifically for administration. If you would like to invest in this project, we accept donations by cheque or by credit card. Click here to donate.
You will be sent a receipt for income tax purposes early in the following year.
|
