What price an education........(part two)

We have always felt that by helping the children here we are helping the future of Honduras. Education is not as valued over here as it is in the States. Children often are not encouraged to attend school by parents who never attended school, they have to stay home and care for younger siblings in order for the parent to work, they have to go to work to support themselves and or their families and of course the fact that many do not have the funds for the basic supplies. We can not do much about the children having to work or watch younger children (even though we do feel that a no cost daycare could provide much needed assistance in the community, interested? Contact us at our e-mail) but we can do something about the lack of encouragement and that is so easy. We daily encourage the children to attend, we ask to see progress reports and notebooks, we attend graduations and make a big fuss over the children. No it is not the same as a parent but the children do know that we care. And finally the funds, this is something that we can do something about. Last year we began a scholarship program for lack of a better term. The education is suppose to be free but children are required to have uniforms, shoes, and basic supplies as well as books. The cost runs about $ 50.00. Yes I know that many of us spend that amount on a new pair of name brand shoes or a pair of jeans with a special tag on them that we rip off and throw away. I am not saying that we should not buy nice things for our children and that it is not a joy to be able to provide them with "some" of the things that they want, but what I am asking is that you take a minute to consider investing $50.00 into a child here in Honduras.

You may ask how we chose the children. We take recommendations from the church, we also have all of the children that eat at the Manna Project. When we first began we had all of the children fill out paperwork which included the school that they were attending and the time their school was in session. We did this for a variety of reasons. First so that we could schedule their lunch time around their school times. We did not want the children to have to chose between eating or school. Second was because we wanted to locate the children who have not had the opportunity to attend school. Now armed with this information along with the personal relationships that we have with the children, and after much prayful consideration we feel that we will be able to chose the children who need the most help and who will benefit from the help. It is hard. We can not help everybody and there will be people who do need help and will not receive it. But I do know that just because we can't help everyone that doesn't mean that we should help no one.

We are having the children fill out an application in which they agree to keep a 75% average, they will have regular attendance, respectful attitude in the school and that they will turn in a progress report. We are doing this to help insure that the children that we are helping are children who do want to attend school. We want to use the donations in the wisest way.

If you would like to sponsor a child you can contact us. If you just want to make a donation you can make the checks to :

Church of Christ in the memo please write: Kluge, school sponsorship


Central Church of Christ
6221 Proctor Rd
Sarasota, FL. 34241

klugefamily@gmail.com

The following pictures are some of the children who need your help.........

Natalia: she can already write her numbers to 10, her name, Mama, and Papa

She loves to play school

Belki is 5. She is sweet and out going, she has four older brothers and sisters who have never been to school.

Lespi is 7. She wants to go to school so bad. She always talks about going to "kinder"

I want to thank you in advance for your thoughts, prayers and your donations. you can make a huge difference in the life of a child. Will you please consider this ministry.