To our darling padrinos & madrinas,
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, we would like to give our agradecimiento / appreciation and gratitude to you for your support! Back in 2003, the community of Malingua Pamba, in the Andes of Ecuador had a one room school house with one (unmotivated) teacher. The students ‘drifted’ away from attending around age 9. We are very proud to report that we just had our 7th and 8th Universidad Técnica de Cotopaxi (UTC) graduates. In Ecuador, students are required to execute a thesis project (not just write a thesis). Freddy, our seventh UTC graduate created a ‘cactus energy bar’ complete with protein, vitamin, calorie analyses. Read on to find out the larger ramifications of his creation. I would like to elaborate on the ‘off the chart’ achievement of our 8th UTC, Raul.
Science Lab Funding Progress as of 11/17
There are several ways to donate:
* check written to Centro Educativo La Minga, Inc. & use the enclosed stamped envelope
* click DONATE (using Paypal) from our website: www.escuelaminga.org.
* add Centro Educativo La Minga, Inc. as a preferred charity when using Amazon (no cost to you)
Abracitos a todos! Don’t ever forget that ‘you are SO FINE!’
pam gilbert
CEO/Founder of Centro Educativo La Minga, Inc. (a 501(c)3 non-profit charity)
Raul was born with several deformities, notably lack of full use of one arm plus an ‘asymmetrical’ face. Remember that our communities are agrarian – having a child who can’t work the fields is a real hindrance. On top of that, at a very early age, his mom passed away. I do not know what gave Raul the strength of purpose, but when he heard about the ‘new’ colegio (middle-senior high school) in Malingua Pamba back in 2004, he made the 2 hr walk each way from Guantualo. (He was in the same high school graduating class as Enma whose wedding and UTC graduation we celebrated last year & was described in last year’s newsletter.) He was the only child walking over from Guantualo. “Who would have ever thunk it” that this shy, introverted boy would now proudly claim the title of “Licenciado” – the title of a university graduate?!! His thesis was the development of a new variety of cheese.
As you probably recall, last year we petitioned for what I thought/hoped would be a One Time Contribution to help construct a Science Lab. Unfortunately we did not meet our goal as you can see in the “progress thermometer”. The Ecuadorian Dept. of Education has granted us an extension to get this built. (Yes, we have a Memorandum of Understanding that they will provide the Science Teacher as well as all of the supplies/equipment; we ‘just’ need to build the facility.) Here are some interesting / potential ramifications of a Science Lab with a mini-Industrial Kitchen component:
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biology experiments -> very useful for our agrarian communities
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kitchen component can be used to mass produce items such as Freddy’s cactus energy bar which could employ members of the community; hence, an incentive / reason to stay in ‘el campo’
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making of mortiño (native Andean blue currant) marmalade (mortiño is an organic and desired fruit) and, of course,
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the development of interest in science!
As you know, 100% of any donation goes to helping with education and/or the specific project that you have designated i.e. Science Lab. We would not exist without your help & we only ‘pester’ you once a year!
