2009 GOALS: 

SELF AWARENESS, ENGLISH AND PARENT CONFERENCES

Part of our goal is to broaden the girl's experience and knowledge.

• The birth gender valuation and girl's interest in having fewer babies, prompted discussions about conception, fertility cycle and who determines child gender. The girls are now charting their cycles with basil thermometers, compliments of the very generous donation from Mabis Company, and fertility cycle beads. They will hopefully be the teachers in their villages. None of our girls had ever been taught anything about the fertility cycle or baby gender.

• Each girl was given a Spanish copy of Chiquita's Cocoon by Betina Flores. It is written for Latina women whose culture keeps them down. Each girl had to do a report on what they got out of the book. The variety of responses was interesting, from the control of the church, male machismo, to their value upon giving birth to male versus female babies

• Parent conferences were required to any girl who was not meeting the requirements of grades, English class attendance and/or email writing to Godparents, and all families as time permitted. It was also a good time to discuss parent commitment through the remaining of their daughter's education. Generally, this was very successful as now, we all know the program expectations and future rewards for the girls, hence their parents after graduation. Unfortunately, one mother decided a good beating would make the necessary changes. Culture change is sometime slow and painful to see.

• I also presented the fertility cycle beads instruction and beads to some 150 villagers. We will continue with this in future visits.

• The girl's collective GPA continues to rise. The girls are surprising themselves with their results.

2008:

• OUR GIRL'S EARNED AN 86% GPA!!!!!! in a country that does not grade inflate GPAs reached a high of 94% with 5 girls earning 90% or above. There is a feeling of striving for excellence with the group. The energy seemed to enfold the new ones as well as older ones who used to be struggling to maintain their grades. I spoke with one of the girls' who had been struggling with us for some time. She said there was definitely a change over the last 3 years.  

• Home Visits: the objective was to visit the becada and applicant homes to see how the girls live and to revisit Spirit objectives with the families, particularily the fathers. The visits were often challenging, such as Glendy via a road that is impossible in anything less than a truck.

  In many houses, they slept in one room. In some houses, they only had one room. However, they were so happy with the visit and sharing their lives with their madrinas, current and future. A number of chickens lost their lives for the occasions.

  Generally, the fathers are very happy with the program. I took the visits as an opportunity to explain the Spiri education benefits, with salary differences. The mothers are 100% behind their girl's educational opportunity.

• Management change: We took a chance on two becada parents as the new local management. One is a bookkeeper and the other a strong minded single mother. It was an inspired decision, as communication is close to immediate and after only a month, the girls have a Sunday English practice program. These two managers are dedicated to making Spirit even better. They also seem honored to be the local directors. I look forward to seeing more wonderful changes, as they gain confidence and success. They will be the first step in application evaluations. Their on-the-ground life among the poor will be invaluable.

• School relationships: We are working closely with the director of the Genova middle school, the two Coatepeque high school directors and a school social worker to help access need and academic ability.

• A native English speaker Sandy, from Canada started teaching our girls. She is academically well trained and loves working with girls who want to learn. She is limiting her teaching to Spirit girls and the girls love her lessons. I took down the first laptops, purchased from jewelry, coffee and handicraft sales. We hope to continue to provide computers from our fundraising efforts.

• Continued dental care for becadas and offered treatment to their families, thanks to volunteers from Australia, Bermuda, Great Britain and the US. Offered family care as a reward for their sacrifices.

• Home visits to reinforce program goals and access family commitment to their daughter's education. Attitude is much improved.

• Becada Merlyn won first in country and second in Spain for her senior research paper.

• Distribution: a huge donation of NEW DESIGNER clothes from Kelly Knight & Swatfame. The girls had never had such an opportunity of choosing clothes, much less new and high quality.

• Welcomed in 10 new girls.