This summer we held off on the school supply and book distributions till early October, since in August when we normally go for the mission trip, the Delta variant was hitting the villages very hard and several people passed away. We lost Leonides Alejo, the co-founder of the Oaxaca Education Fund and our godson, who since 2012 had guided and managed the yearly distribution, the biannual high school fees, and the monthly orphan stipends. He succumbed to diabetes, and passed away on Aug. 12, 2021. We will miss him very much. His daugher Vanessa Alejo has been the manager in San Jorge Nuchita for the past 2 years now, as his health deteriorated. Our condolences to the whole, beloved family.
A book is a rare and precious possession for the children! Special thanks to Maria Elena Aguilar and Ediciones Montenegro, Guadalajara.
You can donate securely via Paypal online on our Donate page.
If you would rather send a cheque made out to Friends of the Poor, it can be mailed to 14356 Marianopolis Way, San Diego, CA 92129
Details of the Walk from Marti Martin, our intrepid Annual 5K organizer.
June 12, 2021, 8:30 a.m.
CANYONSIDE PARK
12350 Black Mt. Rd. SD 92129
What: A 5K walk in Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve (starting in Canyonside Park).
When: 8:30 a.m. registration, 9:00 start.
Where: We’ll start in Canyonside Park, behind ball field #4.
Why: We are helping the children of migrant workers who worked in our area stay in school in Mexico.
Suggested donation: $20.00. Children walk free. Checks should be payable to Friends of the Poor. We will also accept credit cards. Participants are invited to solicit sponsorships in any amount. All contributions are tax deductible; receipts will be provided upon request.
Stay in Touch: Text 858 437-4001 if you plan to come and we’ll let you know about any updates.
In 2020 we were unable to go to the villages due to the coronavirus pandemic, but thanks to your donations we had what we needed to purchase the supplies and provide the scholarships for the high school students and the 20 university students we help.
Our nursing students and our local managers did a stellar job organizing, picking up, packing and safely distributing the supplies. We sent funds to purchase masks and sanitizer, since they often lack supplies.
So far there have been some fatalities of a few friends in the villages, but since they do not test we don’t know if they had Covid or not. What we do see is many more deaths of our village people in Santa Maria, CA, than is usual.
The children have continued with their studies in spite of everything, with take-home work, and we still don’t know when they will resume regular classes. The young people have struggled to do their university classes online. Fortunately, through the generosity of our regular donors and through the Anna Seethaler Clinic in Oaxaca (tashinc.org), we had enough funds to purchase laptops for each university student. TASH also took on five of our university students to assist us with the growing cost of their education and to increase their chances of success.
We hope to be able to go this year, 2021, as we miss seeing our dear friends in the villages, and being there to support the dreams of the students. Our team is all fully vaccinated, although in the villages the great majority are not.
Last fall another young mother died of undetected cancer, and we have added her three little children to our list of orphans being cared for by their grandparents. Their father is out of work during the pandemic, but we hope he will be able to resume providing for his family before too long.
We move forward in hope, trusting in Divine Providence and the goodness of others to continue to provide for the education of the children and youth of the Sierra Mixteca.
Without your support since 2012, either as a walker, a sponsor, or a donor from afar, we would never have been able to come this far! 1600 packets of school supplies, 130 high school children sponsored, scholarships to 20 university students, and monthly food stipends to 32 orphans and disabled children. THANK YOU!!
Group photo of the Walk crowd from 2019.
You can donate securely via Paypal online on our Donate page.
If you would rather send a cheque made out to Friends of the Poor, it can be mailed to 14356 Marianopolis Way, San Diego, CA 92129
The children thank you for your generosity and kindness. We wish you could all be there to see their smiles when they get their workbooks and their big bag of supplies!
We are off to the Sierra Mixteca again! On Saturday Aug. 17, 2019 we will leave Oaxaca City for Huajuapan de Leon, purchase the supplies and head out on Sunday to the villages. Our team of six will be expertly supplemented by the high school students, authorities and teachers in the villages, for sorting, packing and distributing. It gets more streamlined every year!
Students packing with Martha, 2018
Thanks to everyone who has donated to this year’s fund! Without your help, over 1500 children and youth would be without new school supplies and workbooks, 150 high school students would find it much more difficult to stay in school, and 16 university students would not be the pioneers they are, and an example of courage and perseverance to their peers.
Special thanks to Maria Elena Aguilar and Editores Montenegro for the generous donation of beautiful workbooks for every child in elementary school, over 700 children. The excitement of the kids when they get their books is indescribable!
Estela Alejo, San Jorge Nuchita, Bachelors of Science in Nursing 2019
Jorge Ivan Bazan, San Jorge Nuchita, Bachelors of Science in Nutrition
We are so proud of our new graduates and will welcome more new students into our little scholarship program this year!
Every month we send a food stipend to grandparents who are raising their grandchildren, usually because their parents died in accidents in Mexico or crossing the border, or because of untreated illness. In 2019 there are 33 orphans and disabled children who benefit from a little more security because of your donations.
In 2018 we began to take reading glasses to one village where the women are master embroiderers, but have to stop early due to presbyopia. Now they can keep up their creativity and find joy in their art again. We got such a great response we are taking more pairs this year, some for all the five villages.
If I can see this, I can embroider again…
Happy for abuelita.
Thanks to all, and please keep us in your prayers as we set out once again.
Photo credits: Martha Martin, 2018
If you wish to contribute to the many ongoing needs of the children and families, please go to our Donate page. All donations are tax-deductible.
WE ARE PRIVILEGED TO SERVE CHRIST IN THE CHILDREN AND TO BRING HOPE TO THEIR FAMILIES
The Oaxaca Education Fund invites you to participate or to donate to the Annual 5K Walk on March 30th, 2019 in Penasquitos Canyon!
DONATIONS MAY BE ONE TIME OR MONTHLY, WITH YOUR CREDIT CARD VIA PAYPAL OR BY CHECK. ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE. PLEASE GO TO THE DONATE PAGE.
Penasquitos Canyon
This is one of our biggest fundraisers of the year and an excellent opportunity to catch up with many of our dear friends who served the migrant workers in Rancho Penasquitos for so many years! Thank you for your solidarity with the poor and for your passion to keep the children of the Sierra Mixteca in school!
Photos courtesy of Martha Martin and Michael Akong
OUR PROJECTED BUDGET FOR 2019: $32,000.
1500 packets of school supplies for all the children K – 12 in 5 villages
Biannual assistance to 125 high school students
Biannual partial scholarships to 15 university students
Monthly food stipends to 33 orphaned and disabled children
Administrative costs are zero. Volunteers staff all aspects of our program
FIVE VILLAGES
San Jorge Nuchita
San Juan Piñas
San Marcos Zochiquilazala
San Jorge Rio Frijol
Santos Reyes Zochiquilazala
The parish church at San Juan Piñas
WHY OAXACA?
The Sierra Mixteca is in the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico, at 8000-9000 feet, incredibly beautiful, but isolated, and forgotten by the government. The Mixteco people are an indigenous group with their own language, known as the People of the Clouds. For decades they have come to work in agriculture in the U.S., especially California, to make a better living for their families, in the absence of paid work in their villages where there is only subsistence farming.
Gathering firewood at 9000 feet
BEGINNING THE OAXACA EDUCATION FUND
The Oaxaca Education Fund is the natural outgrowth of Migrant Outreach at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, which started in 1985 to attend to the spiritual, educational, and material needs of the Mexican migrant workers living and working in the fields in McGonigle Canyon, Rancho Penasquitos, San Diego, California. Over the years, until the end of agriculture in Carmel Valley in 2009, we had up to 120 dedicated volunteers from the parish on the weekend at Mass in the canyon, taking turns serving a hot meal. We made fast friends with many of the men who attended. When most of them returned to Mexico or left to work in other areas, we were concerned about the struggles the families in the villages were having to find the funds to keep their children in school. Their education and future were in danger!
Families wait their turn in Zochiquilazala
In 2011, the migrant men from the Sierra Mixteca who were still in Rancho Penasquitos recommended that we ask the village authorities if yearly school supplies would help the families keep their children in school. In 2012 the Oaxaca Education Fund (OEF) began, with supplies for one village with 750 children.
Maria Silva organized the first distribution in 2012
For the past seven years (2012-2019) OEF has made an annual mission trip. The school supplies distribution has grown to 5 villages.
Thrilled with their new school books and supplies!
A total of 1500 children and young people are provided with supplies. A generous benefactor in Guadalajara (Editores Montenegro) provides workbooks for the hundreds of children in primary school!
Young people and parents in San Jorge Nuchita helping to pack the bags of school supplies
The volunteers go to Oaxaca for 9 days in August. We buy supplies, pack them with the students, & distribute them over 5 days. We visit the orphans and other families, and meet with the students, parents and teachers. We attend Mass or prayer services. Two volunteer acupuncturists treat over 140 patients in the villages over those 5 days.
Acupuncture patientS, San Jorge Nuchita
GROWTH OF THE PROGRAM
2014: We began to help with high school student’s biannual fees in 2 villages, to encourage them to stay in school. The total number is 125 this year.
2014: We began to assist recently orphaned children with a small monthly food stipend: a 4 year-old girl whose parents had both died in a car accident, and another family of 5 children whose mother had died of cancer, and whose father is incarcerated. Now there are 33 children enrolled. Their stories of grief, loss and deprivation are heartbreaking; their resilience is inspiring. We are honored to help out a little with the hardships they and their grandparents face, to give them a future filled with hope and love.
Her grandparents raise her lovingly
Brothers, San Jorge Nuchita
2017: We began to give partial university scholarships twice a year, to 15 young people. Two have graduated, a nurse and a teacher, and 15 are still in process. The cost averages about $500 each per year.
Estela will graduate with a nursing degree in summer of 2019 and serve the local villages.
2018: We took reading glasses for the women embroiderers in one village, so they could continue their art and pass it down to their children. Many had stopped their embroidery art when presbyopia set in. Their excitement was wonderful to behold!
