So the road for these kids is a real short one and and of course the big picture, you
know, immigration, gang violence, narco traficantes, I mean the whole deal, right, international
crime and it really begins with the eight-year-old, there's a there's a connection here.
We have all these kids that we identify and every morning we're going to round them up,
the roundup, and we're going to make sure that they go to school, we're going to challenge
them, we're going to challenge their parents, and in the afternoons we're going to bring
them in, we're going to sit them down and we're going to open up their books with them
and we're going to work with them.
Well this eight-year-old kid, Brian, you know, who has no idea about the big picture yet,
right, he has no idea, you know, of what's in store for him, for life for him, but he
learned how to read this week and for the first time he's actually reading.
Well, I mean I couldn't think of anything more valuable to do this week and we thought
we'd talk about college education, yeah that's important, we have all these kids now at the
bottom though that college education, I mean if they don't get through the third grade.
To flourish the human spirit needs love, accountability, encouragement, education, and community.
Against a backdrop of rural post-war violence and gang and migration crisis, the Tamarindo
Foundation creates a safe space where these life-giving qualities exist and dreams can
grow and be realized.
Operating in Gorjila, El Salvador, the Tamarindo Foundation has enabled the transformation
of hundreds of group members' lives by constantly adapting to ever-changing challenges.
Thus multifaceted by necessity, the Tamarindo offers a wide range of programs including
women's wellness classes, tutoring nights, sports leagues, sex education, community potluck
dinners, and college scholarships.
Manilu is one of 16 current members of the Foundation attending college on the Tamarindo's
John Cortina Scholarship.
Well, my full name, my full name so that you know that Manilu Chavarría Alparo is 26 years
old.
I'm already old, I started at the Tamarindo since I was about 12 or 13 years old, every
year at John Cortina, we have the responsibility of being present at the academic night, also
to be part of the Tamarindo Foundation and the Peca John Cortina, to be a social service
in the community.
The Peca John Cortina helps us to be able to give our knowledge to others, to be inspiration
for the children of the Tamarindo Foundation and also to achieve something in the future.
I saw a lot of people coming and they had great dreams and they wanted to accomplish many
things in life, so I was motivated for them to do great things also in my life.
So Mother Teresa's point is like, yeah, you don't step over bodies on the way of the revolution,
you stop.
And so the Tamarindo is about stopping all the time, identifying what needs to be done
and it's about physically putting yourself before the problem and using resources to solve
it.
And sometimes it's not even that much, it's you that we need, it's that person to person,
it's like putting your body before the spiritual.
Thank you very much.
