Estella Borgoño

Estella Borgoño (name changed) is 14 years old and is enrolled in CENIT's Adopt-a-Dream program, as well as being a student in ESTAR, CENIT's primary school. Estella was forced to leave school when she was eight to supplement her family's meagre income. She was selling fruit and candy in the streets of the Santa Maria neighbourhood. Estella spent nearly three years working up to 14 hours a day in these dangerous and polluted streets. Luckily, one of our street outreach volunteers working in the area befriended her and enrolled her in Adopt-a-Dream. She was paired with a godparent in the United States who pays for Estella's school costs, medical and dental care, and monthly groceries for her and her family. Estella was also enrolled in CENIT's Nivelaciones program, which is designed for children who have missed substantial amounts of school, to help them catch up to their appropriate grade level. Today, Estella is a full-time student in good standing at CENIT and will start her first year of high school next year. She no longer works in the streets and dreams of graduating and owning a store or working in a beauty salon one day.

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Literacy Classes

Aim

This project aims to teach CENIT parents to read and write in Spanish.

Project Information

This program teaches basic literacy to illiterate parents. Classes are guided by workbooks, and progress at the pace of the student. Most classes are individual although this depends on the interest of the students: classes may take place at CENIT, but often involve the volunteer going out to the market stands so that the women can learn to read without having to sacrifice any valuable work time.

Volunteer Requirements

The volunteer for this program must be at CENIT for four months, and must speak an advanced level of Spanish to be able to communicate well with the students. The volunteer must be incredibly patient and flexible, and must be ready to accept the reality that many times students may not show up for class. Despite this, the volunteer must try to get the maximum number of weekly hours with the students, remembering that the road to literacy can be a difficult path. Ideally this volunteer would have some experience working with illiteracy, although with the workbooks, these classes can be taught by anyone who is truly willing.