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December 1999
Dear friends:
Whether you think 2000 is the beginning of the third millennium
or the end of the second, there has been a lot of extra anticipation
about New Year's this time, hasn't there?
Presbyterians in the United States will finish the Year of Education
in July 2000 and begin the Year of the Child. I want to share
with you a little about education and about children in Colombia.
I myself do not work with children directly, but the church here
has a vast children's ministry, including an extensive network
of Presbyterian schools. There is at least one Presbyterian school,
known usually as the "Colegio Americano, "almost everywhere
we have a church. Some take up an entire city block; smaller ones
use church buildings. Our seminary offices are on the grounds
of the enormous Colegio Americano of Bogota (some 3,000 elementary
and high school students), and one of our functions is to prepare
chaplains and teachers of religion for these schools—religion
is a required course in every public and private school in this
country.
The Presbyterian schools fill an important need. There simply
are not enough teachers and classrooms for all the children in
Colombia. In the Urabá Presbytery, for example, the influx
of desplazados (displaced persons who flee their homes because
of violence) means an even greater burden for already overloaded
school systems. In the small town of Apartadó, population
100,000, an estimated 9,000 children were not able to attend school
this year.
Back in 1996 the state government, instead of building new schools,
decided it would cost less to subsidize poor children in private
schools such as the Colegio Americano of Apartadó. The
principal of this school, Aracely Morales (Moderator of Synod
since 1997) greeted the program with enthusiasm when it was launched.
"Our teachers went out into the poorest neighborhoods,"
she recalls, "enrolling children who had never before had
a chance to study." Almost overnight the school doubled in
size, and friends like you helped provide new classrooms through
generous gifts to the PC(USA) Extra Commitment giving program
(ECO project #862562).
The state scholarship students include 10-year-old Luis Eduardo,
whose family left their wilderness farm after his father was killed
by masked men before the horrified eyes of the rest of the family,
including his pregnant mother. Viviana, 13, is another scholarship
student who lost both parents in the violence four years ago.
She lived with her grandmother till last year, when she returned
home to find that the grandmother had disappeared. Nobody knows
what happened. Since then no family member has taken responsibility
for Viviana—sometimes she stays with an aunt, sometimes with
a married sister, but the teachers at the CA have quietly taken
her under their wing and provide for many of her needs (out of
their own pockets—this help is not part of the scholarship).
Such children are mere names to you, but they are real people
whose future is in the hands of the Colegio Americano of Apartadó.
"This is a mission field," says Heriberto, a seminary
graduate who now serves as chaplain. In addition to required religion
classes, he has formed an after school youth club and visits regularly
in the homes of the children.
But this ministry may have to change. During the first two years
the scholarship program worked well, but since the second semester
of 1998 the government has sent no funds. State and national budgets
now give low priority to education, and the program could be canceled
next year—with nothing to take its place. The faculty and
staff of the Colegio Americano have not been paid since August
1999, and the school may have to deny enrollment to the scholarship
children for the new school year, which starts in February.
What is the tuition in this excellent private school, with its
reputation for high academic and moral standards? Just $25 a month,
$300 a year. But a single parent like Luis Eduardo's widowed mother
has all she can do to feed her children. Even where there is a
working father, he probably makes the minimum wage (about $100
a month), and the family may have a number of school-age children.
When Luis Eduardo learned his scholarship might not be renewed,
he begged for a chance to work at the school to pay for his studies.
When Viviana heard the news, she fainted (but that may be in part
because she hadn't had enough to eat, teachers say).
The school has remained open so far because of massive loans
from the Urabá presbytery, from the Synod and from the
other Presbyterian schools around the country. The entire Presbyterian
Church of Colombia has rallied round to help. And now, through
the same ECO project that was set up for classrooms, a number
of churches and friends in the States have begun to provide scholarships
for this coming year to help cover the deficit and keep the children
in school. Aracely has asked me to express her appreciation
personally as principal and also on behalf of the Presbyterian
Church of Colombia, for this moving show of support, and she promises
the children will write to thank those who sponsor them.
Like Luis Eduardo, Viviana, and so many other Colombian children,
the child Jesus was a desplazado, forced to flee with His parents
to Egypt to escape a massacre. But in spite of this tragic beginning,
he was able to grow "in wisdom and in stature and in favor
with God and man." God has given us the children of Colombia
so that we may help them grow as Jesus did. I am a step removed
from this process as I help train chaplains and teachers for our
schools, but I feel privileged to participate in this way. You
are also participating as you pray for the Colegio Americano of
Apartadó, for Presbyterian schools in other cities, and
the children of Colombia who must overcome so many obstacles as
they look forward to the promise of a new year, a new century
and a new millennium.
Blessings on you . . .
Alice Winters
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