Tomorrow I have a meeting with my youth group. We meet a couple times a month and play games for the first half-hour or so and then do some educational type of activities about health, adolescence and values.
I´m also planning a dental health day for the kindergarteners and 1st graders in the next couple weeks.
A project that I´ve spent a lot of time on lately is the WYD committee, a group of myself and fellow Peace Corps volunteers that provides scholarships to talented but underpriveleged youth who want to go to high school or college but would not be able to without a little bit of help. I´m honored to have recently been chosen to serve as one of the co-presidents and we are working hard to plan for the next coming school year. These scholarships are not easy to get. Last year, there were well over a hundred applications and only 24 girls won scholarships. We give as many as we can, but there is only so much money to go around. I want to emphasize how smart, motivated and resourceful these kids are. In El Salvador, education is unfortunately a privilege and not a right, but we are hoping to do a little bit to change that for 30 or so kids this year.
Here is a little write-up about the committee that we put together.
HOLA! We are Mujeres y Jovenes en Desarrollo (Women in Youth Development or WYD) El Salvador, a committee of Peace Corps Volunteers (PVC’s) and local Salvadoran non-profit organizations, which facilitates a mentoring program to underprivileged rural Salvadoran young women*. The main focus of the program is to provide “life skills” and “scholarships” to the partici
Life-Skills
In addition to their normal community activities, PCV’s in this program commit to provide one-on-one mentoring to a young woman* in their rural community that has enormous potential but lacking guidance and opportunities to make the most of their natural talents. Besides receiving ongoing encouragement and support from their PCV mentors, the young women* are sent to an annual weekend seminar in which they are introduced to a number of life and leadership skills with the main goal of building self esteem and provide a passion to overcome their unfortunate circumstances. The seminar is designed and managed by the PCV mentors.
Scholarships
The program also provides educational scholarships to the participants, who without outside assistance would not be able to continue their studies at the high school and university level. As part of the process of matching participants to PCV mentors, each potential participant submits a scholarship application which are reviewed by an impartial committee consisting of local educational professionals. Furthermore, each participant must attain a minimum grade of 70% in each subject to have the scholarship renewed annually. Currently the program is providing annual high school scholarships of $300. The first $250 of that goes directly to the student, and the other $50 covers the cost of the life-skills camp that they attend to supplement their formal education. The funds are administrated by PCV mentors and used by the participants to cover direct cost of their education, transportation, and school uniforms/supplies.
Also, you can get to know the students you are supporting and follow their academic progress on our Facebook page. Just search for ´WYD Scholarship Program.´ Our current Facebook page displays several profiles and pictures of students benefitting from our generous Friends of WYD donors, and in the future you will be able to communicate with your sponsor student via Facebook and Skype.
How can you help
Please click here to make a donation to help provide scholarships. Every dollar helps. If ten people who read this blog donate just $30 each, together we will be able to send a brilliant young student to school who wouldn´t have the option to study otherwise.
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