We're especially thankful to Margaret Lawless for setting this up. Margaret is 19 years old and has been volunteering at Buen Pastor since last year. She's from the suburbs of Philadelphia and will be attending Swarthmore College next year as a Sophomore.
Buen Pastor is now partnering with Givology to provide school uniforms for the girls at Buen Pastor. If you would like to pitch in, just go to the profile page and donate as little or as much as you like. Once the uniform project is fully-funded, Givology will transfers the funds to Buen Pastor who will then buy next year's school uniforms.
We're especially thankful to Margaret Lawless for setting this up. Margaret is 19 years old and has been volunteering at Buen Pastor since last year. She's from the suburbs of Philadelphia and will be attending Swarthmore College next year as a Sophomore.
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Buen Pastor made the cover of the CHOPPER, Guanajuato's weekly paper! When Octavio Hernandex Diaz came to pick up his high school daughter, he had never heard of Buen Pastor. His daughter volunteered afternoons helping the girls with their homework as part of her required community service at the private school she attends. Diaz was impressed by what he saw. As he took a tour and met the people there, he began documenting with his cellphone: volunteers from all sectors of Guanajuato, Madres who have dedicated their lives to empower women and girls, the living spaces, classes, guidance counselor, catechism class, art, play, and most of all laughter. You can imagine the surprise when Madre Lourdes found herself on the cover of the Chopper surrounded by the children she had been prepping for communion. Diaz ends his article with: "All the Madres of Buen Pastor are examples of what Guanajuatenses should admire, value, and recognize not only on International Women's Day, but always!" You can read the article online here: "The Sisters of Buen Pastor perform a quiet yet very important social work." Thirty year old John Neff came to Guanajuato from Orlando the beginning of March. Since then, he’s opened up his own practice offering affordable chiropratic therapy. He’s also begun volunteering at Buen Pastor, offering adjustments and neurological testing for the girls and madres. Through the Clinic Abroad Program with Palmer College of Chiropractic Florida, John has made six trips to Third World countries offering chiropractic care to underserved populations. Now, he offers his expertise and thoughtful care to the Buen Pastor Community. John’s philosophy is that the body has the power to heal itself if given the instruments that it needs, such as nutrition. He also includes brain balancing in his work which can help with attention deficits, learning disabilities, depression, anxiety, and pain. We all look forward to seeing his work evolve with the girls and madres. On February 19th and 20th over 35 participants sold homemade and organic products, and promoted conservation organizations in Guanajuato's Tianguis Ecológico (Ecological Fair) in Guanajuato. Some of the products sold included: medicinal plants, sweets, solar water heaters, honey, cheeses, salsas, handmade soap, whole wheat bread, chocolate, organic coffee, and ecology-friendly diapers! There was a table set up for Buen Pastor. Madre Patti and Madre Elvira were there with volunteer Maggie. In the photo above, Maggie is modeling one of the aprons that the madres were selling. 19 year old Maggie came to Buen Pastor last year and fell in love with the girls, as she did with her. When she left, she promised to come back, and she has. She'll be volunteering until May, diligently helping the girls every afternoon for hours with their homework and letting them braid her hair. She's even begun fundraising for Buen Pastor. Some of the new books and one of the educational games made possible by the Ashland Rotary grant have arrived. The girls loved the educational puzzle and immediately started working on it. Each puzzle consists of a single word spelled out and an image of the word. The little ones will be spelling “pato” or duck in no time. Each book was carefully chosen for this set of girls. The one in the photograph is of a jealous older brother who steals his younger brother’s pacifier or chupon. Then there is a story of an adorable wombat who sleeps a lot and loves carrots. Not only are the books great for the girls in terms of learning how to read, practicing patience and developing listening skills, and developing fortitude, they’re a wonderful opportunity for volunteers to practice their Spanish, learn tenses, and develop a relationship with the girls using books as vehicles. Everyone wins. It’s been nearly a year since Katie Clancy started teaching art classes at Buen Pastor. When a friend introduced her to the work at Buen Pastor, she started dreaming, and dreaming big. She began creating an art curriculum for girls and then sold her own photographs to use as start-up funds for the initial art class at Buen Pastor last January 2010. Since then, she’s taught visual storytelling. She’s explored identity and relationships with the girls using self portraits & portraits. Now, she’s teaching surrealism and storytelling. Katie wants the girls to know that anything is possible when delving into play. Surrealism removes limitations of reality, where one can form their own reality. Starting from here: anything is possible. Katie’s goal is to bring a network of artists under the umbrella of storytelling, to help the girls create their own empowering tools of play and limitless possibilities. You can follow Katie’s progress at her delightful and educational blog, eStudio473. The Muskoka Foundation utilizes modern day explorers to do good as they travel around the world visiting developing communities. One of these explorers, Eric V. Ibarra of Las Fotos Project, spent last week with five girls from Buen Pastor teaching them photography basics. Each day after school, Eric provided a lesson in photography. After the instruction, the girls and Eric explored Guanajuato with a keen eye and a camera lens. Every girl took over 100 photographs each day. After the shoot, the group would meet back at Buen Pastor to evaluate the images and select favorites. It was fantastic seeing their enthusiasm and their talent grow throughout the week. On Saturday evening, November 13th, the girls showed their top five photographs at Antik in Plazuela Baratillo. The group sold 6 prints, totaling $300 pesos. The following day, friends and family of Buen Pastor's new photographers were invited for a showing. The girl's images were hung along the main entrance of the internado and received countless compliments from their families and fellow classmates. It was an emotional show, full of happiness, pride and joy. Buen Pastor thanks Eric V. Ibarra for reaching out to us and helping these five girls develop their eye to what is beautiful and widen their horizons in the empowering world of photography. Thank you Muskoka Foundation for six new gorgeous cameras and a printer. We'll put all of it to good use! You can see the girls photographs at Las Fotos Project Facebook. Eric V. Ibarra, the instructor of the Muskoka Foundation photography program, arrived this Wednesday. Five girls have been selected to participate, and Madre Lourdes will be joining them as she’s always wanted to know more about photography. Madre Elvira asked Eric if she could take part as well. How can he refuse Madre Elvira? For three weeks in July, five young ladies and one guy laboriously painted, weeded, planted grass, artfully placed mulch, and transformed the girls’ playground. They even painted a basketball court. Unbelievable! What’s more: not only did they volunteer their time, they spent their own money on supplies. The girls are going to love coming back to this in September! All the madres were so impressed by the self-initiative these volunteers came with. Madre Lourdes told me this is a remarkable example of spirited service. The volunteers would come and work all day and then stayed with Mexican families when they weren’t doing good things at Buen Pastor. I hope they had a wonderful experience in Guanajuato. I also hope they know how much the madres appreciate what they did. This is truly amazing. Ana, a University of Texas at Austin student, is completing her internship for her Masters in Social Work. Ana has been working on a grant that aims to provide solutions and education surrounding domestic violence in Guanajuato. This project aligns with her concentration in Community and Administrative Leadership (CAL). On a more micro level, she volunteers at Buen Pastor, working with three of the little girls that need a lot of one on one. She’ll be with us until mid-June and it’s going to be hard to let her go. |
AuthorHi, my name is Juanita and I'm excited about the wonderful things going on at Buen Pastor. I update this blog to share snippets of everyday life here with you. Thanks for stopping by. EspañolEste blog está disponible en español Archives
December 2011
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