El Buen Pastor kindergarten offers Argentine children a different tomorrow

In Argentina there are 15.7 million poor, nearly 60 percent of them are minors, and in some sectors in society this reaches 80 percent¹. A great many of Argentine children are born, grow up and develop in a context of extreme poverty.

When we developed a place for these children in the neighborhood called “La Juanita” nearly 40 years ago, we intended to respond to the needs of a large sector of society that found no answers from the state. The kindergarten “El Buen Pastor” ("The Good Shepherd") has been a place of refuge for generations of families who have entrusted us with their children. And at the beginning of the children’s intellectual maturity (3–5 years old), this is absolutely important.

At this kindergarten, a project of the Reformed Church in Mar del Plata (a city 400 km. south of the capital of Argentina), we offer a high-quality educational plan, psychological support, Christian orientation, and a place of referral for families in their struggle to survive.

Since the state does not provide enough funding for our educational activities, El Buen Pastor survives because of contributions from some of the parents and the solidarity of friendly organizations and churches that believe in the importance of providing children with an opportunity to develop and grow up. A chance in life!

We do not know what will happen with the girls and boys who return to the classrooms of this kindergarten, to play, to dream, to laugh and hope, to run and look toward the future with eyes full of life and expectations.

What we do know is that, while these children continue to sing, while these daughters and sons of this land continue to smile, while the children who run and play in the streets and go to school continue to challenge the poverty imposed by an unjust model, there is hope. And we can continue to believe that the world can be different, that another society is possible, and that the Kingdom of God is not a far-off illusion but something between all of us we can help build—a different tomorrow, closer to what God has in God’s heart.

The Rev. Gerardo Oberman
“El Buen Pastor” Kindergarten
Reformed Churches in Argentina

¹Hunger is a crime. The infantilization of poverty in Argentina. Claudio Lozano et al, Intitutio de Estudios y Formación, CTA, Buenos Aires, june 2005.