Classroom Units Funded by Church in Mexico
Diocesan Press Service. February 28, 1974 [74058]
Nancy E. Howard, Editor, RAPIDAS
TLALTIZAPAN, Morelos, Mex. -- In rural Mexico schools are not built but classrooms are, usually two at a time. In the municipality of Tlaltizapn, State of Morelos, in what is called "the upper part," two such units existed but the third unit to complete the six grade primary school was lacking. The town as a whole was not interested in giving its one-third share of the cost of the unit (the cost of school building is shared 1/3 federal government, 1/3 state, and 1/3 local), because the people of "the upper part" were newcomers, immigrants from the nearby state of Guerrero.
The small Episcopal congregation in this sector shared the concern of its neighbors that the children were unable to complete their primary education and worked with them to raise the necessary money. However, these are very poor people and they were unable to gather the full amount. The Episcopal Church in Mexico heard of this thwarted project and decided that it fit the criteria of self-help as spelled out under its Social Action Program. And in September the simple two-classroom unit was ready for "the upper part " scholars.
CUERNAVACA, Morelos, Mex. -- And the rolling snowball grows. In Colonia Las Delicias in Cuernavaca, the Board of Governors of the Episcopal Orphanage (Internado), made up of members of St. Michael and All Angels' Church, had for several years been operating a three grade school in the Internado for those boys excluded from the public schools for lack of space and for children of the neighborhood. (The Internado makes a home for approximately 45 boys, most of whom were picked up from the streets of Mexico City by the children's protection agency.)
However, the Board felt it should not be in the school business and in addition was concerned about the many neighborhood children unable to attend school. When it learned that government plans for building several classrooms in the colonia were stalled because some of the local funding was lacking, the Board voted to contribute the missing sum. Even before the money could be handed over, work on the classrooms was begun because the building people had learned through its Tlaltizapan experience that the Church's word could be trusted.
Indeed, this past year proved to be a banner one for the Cuernavaca Internado Board. In 1972 an endowment fund drive to make the Internado more self-sufficient was initiated (in addition to support from St. Michael's it receives money from the Diocese) and before 1973 was over the goal of $50,000 U.S. was surpassed.