Last year, our Co-director Karla began networking with the local school to see how children residing at Centro de Esperanza might be included. She was successful getting 22 children (Mexican and foreign) accepted into the neighborhood school at mid-year. Mid-year and non-native students are not permitted at Mexican schools, so the kids were entered “unofficially” as “listeners”….. but otherwise treated like any other local student. They wore the same uniforms, had the same books, tests and activities. They thrived with a schedule they could count on, meaningful lessons, achievements, and new interactions away from their constant parental care. One graduated as the Mexican equivalent of “valedictorian” of her class!
However, as often happens working in a different country, there were unexpected financial consequences to this endeavor! Education here is very expensive personally for families. We realized much too late that it actually costs about $1400 per student per year for grade school. Uniforms, books, activities, supplies………even graduation program costs for grade school kids……add up. But the BIG expense is that Mexico has enacted a new law that requires kids to buy lunch at school each day to improve health and avoid excess sugar, salt and calories in diets. Consequently, over half of that $1400 (over $700 per child) is for the cost of the school lunch for that child every day! We can’t send the kids to school each day with a bag lunch from Centro, no matter that ours are darn healthy too!
This fall, if we still have 22 grade school age kids at Centro de Esperanza, we could be looking at a $30,000 expense…….over half of which is for school lunches!
This is just one of the many ways that things are changing now that Centro de Esperanza is “home”, not a temporary layover for asylum seekers.
