As I shared in a previous post, several of the older children are attending Vocational School at a facility in a nearby community. Some are in cosomotolgy while others take cooking, carpentry or advanced English. Since these are classes that are taught through hand on demonstrations, the youth need to pitch in on the materials for those projects. These expenses can add up as there are over a dozen kids going and each need about $10-20 each week.
The girls have been cleaning apartments, washing cars, making jewellry, picture frames and gift boxes as a way to earn the money needed. The boys have started a piñata business. A home owner in the community is allowing them to used a delapitated facility but it works perfect for the space they need.
The girls business is a bit slower as they depend on volunteers to hire them for the work and teams to buy the goods. The boys have been making about 200-300 piñatas per week and estimate they receive about 9 pesos which is about 80 cents per each piñata. It takes them over an hour to make each one, so as a wage they aren't earning much but it is meeting the needs for vocational school so far.
Since most of the kids are so busy with academic school in the mornings and then voacational in the afternoon, some of the younger ones are pitching in to get the numbers needed. As Christmas approaches and fiestas involving piñatas is the popular and frequent event in December, they have been working hard to make as many as they can.
Pan de Vida started 14 years ago and most of the kids were 12 and under. Now many of the original kids are older and ready to move into secondary school and the Directors are working out logistics for scholarship funds in order to allow them these opportunities. We pray that the provisions for their education will continue.
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