Our 5K Walk to Support the Kids in Oaxaca will be Saturday, March 30, 2019. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. We’ll meet at Canyonside Park in Rancho Peñasquitos (12350 Black Mt. Rd. San Diego, 92129) behind Ballfield #4. Please see the Flyer for additional details. Hope you will join us!
Dear friends of the Oaxaca Education Fund!
Thank you for your generous donations at our superfun Walk in May, as well as the collections at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Nativity Parishes in San Diego, and the University of San Diego, and for buying the crafts and other items we sell to raise funds for the children and young people of the 5 villages in Oaxaca! We have enough now to buy the supplies and will be raising more throughout the year for the high school fees for 140 and the partial scholarships for 15 university students.
We have some very sad news too. Our dear friend Terri Trujillo, who was leader of Migrant Outreach at Our Lady of Mount Carmel for many years, passed away suddenly on June 21. We and the people in the villages who knew and loved her will miss her loving and concerned presence and quiet generosity. Safe journey to the everlasting home, Terri! You are much loved by those you leave behind.
Annual Distribution Trip to Oaxaca coming up August 18-26!
On August 18, 2018 our team of seven will arrive in Oaxaca City. We will head out in our rental van to buy the truckload of supplies for 1600 children and youth in Huajuapan de Leon, and pick up the hundreds of primary level workbooks donated by Montenegro Editores in Guadalajara once again this year! Then we will leave for the villages on Sunday Aug. 19, to pack and distribute all those school supplies with the high school students and the village authorities. It’s a heavy task, but very rewarding. Mike Akong will treat many many patients at his free acupuncture clinics, and we will visit the 27 orphans and disabled children we help every month. We will meet with the youth, and have some prayer services and perhaps Mass in the village churches. They will make us their best food, which in Oaxaca is really saying something, and we will enjoy their friendship. We will catch up with the students and hear about their exciting and challenging experiences at university in Oaxaca and Puebla.
All of this thanks to you, our donors. We and they are so grateful that you care about them and their futures.
In preparation for our annual trip to the Sierra Mixteca this summer we will have our OEF 5K Walk on Saturday, May 26, 2018 – the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. We hope you will make us a part of your holiday weekend as we gather in Canyonside Park for a walk into the Peñasquitos Preserve. Details to follow…
OEF 2018 Sponsor Sign-up Sheet
Check out the Gallery to see recently posted photos of last year’s trip to the villages. We are so grateful for your help as we continue our mission to provide a pathway to an education for the children of the Sierra Mixteca, an education that we hope will help free them from the bonds of poverty. Siempre adelante! God bless!
Update from the Oaxaca Education Fund!
From August 5 to 12th, six of us went to the villages in the Sierra Mixteca to see our friends and do the annual school supply distribution. Present were Mike Akong and Patti Palm, our acupuncturists who saw over 165 patients, Marti Martin and Cecy Ayala from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in San Diego, Linda Arreola from the Diocese of San Diego and Catholic Relief Services, and una servidora, Christauria Welland. We loaded up donated hundreds of primary school workbooks from Montenegro Editores and purchased supplies from our donations for 1600 children K-12, with the help of friends from San Jorge Nuchita. We spent the next week meeting with the families and autoridades of 4 villages. We also had the excitement of providing small scholarships to 13 young people who had just graduated from high school and had registered at university, 11 from San Jorge Nuchita and 2 from San Juan Pinas. We are very proud of them and of their desire and initiative. We will be helping them twice a year with fees and transportation costs. For the two students that received the highest grades in San Jorge, we are providing more. Students are studying engineering, nursing, teaching, and anthropology.
Oaxaca has been struck by 2 severe earthquakes this month, Sept. 7 and Sept. 19. The villages are far enough away from both epicenters that they suffered minimal damage, and no loss of life. Nevertheless, it was a terrifying experience, and the closest city, Huajuapan de Leon, where we buy our supplies, saw several buildings collapse.
We also lost a dear friend, an 18 year old student, Jaime Tello, who died from an accident in San Juan Pinas on Sept. 15. He wanted to go to university next year. He was a generous and joyful young man, and will be sorely missed.
As our ministy grows, we need your donations more than ever!
