June 23, 2013
No Uniform = No School. We Can Help!
Back in January we received the following letter from a dear friend in Nicaragua.
Dear Justin,
I have in my hands a list of 35-40 kids ages 6-15 years old, from very very poor mountain area, who's parents are not planning to send them to school this year because they said they can not afford to buy clothes and school supplies.
Some have more than one child so they will choose to send one and keep the other at home, sometimes they even put them to work. I want to see if there is any way I could help them with the help of God.
The family sends you regards. Take care and may God keep you in his loving hands.
Love always,
Hector & gang.
After a few back and forth conversations, we learned that for roughly $25 we could outfit a child with a school uniform and the necessary school supplies. Hector came up with the idea that we could create a voucher that a family could take to the local store and exchange the voucher for the uniform and supplies. Brilliant.
This past week we mailed a $1,000 check to Flutemaker Ministries, who will disperse the money to Hector in a few weeks. It is the first of several thousand dollars we have been saving to meet some educational needs in Nicaragua and are blessed to report to you that, you are a part of helping these kids go to school!
As hard as it may be for us to relate to keeping our kids out of school because we cannot put a school uniform on them, this is sadly the reality for many families in areas such as this one.
The photos in this email are from a trip we made several years back where we visited some remote schools. At the school at which this photo was take, there was no running water because their well pump had broken and they did not have the funds to fix it. Again, unthinkable to us, as are also the outhouses they use as bathrooms. Yet, these kids were there.
My Crazy Dream
I have a crazy dream to begin connecting schools here in Cincinnati with schools in Nicaragua. How cool would it be for our schools to have a "sister school" in the Third World with whom could build a meaningful relationship? With technology these days it is not inconceivable for us to be able to have a Spanish III Class Skype their English class once a week and exchange real dialogue.
Or how about a Cincy based soccer team being able to go down there and travel around to different schools using soccer as a way to connect? Then there are tons of ways in which we could help meet needs and even facilitate helping the Nicaraguan kids come to the USA as foreign exchange students. I could say more, but you get the idea!
Dream with me. These are the things that swim around in my brain when I think about the future of Carabello Coffee. Sure, I want to roast you killer coffee. But things like this are what move my heart to want to do it. Wanna help us? Let us know!
More to come...