Nueva Esperanza-New Hope Girls Inc. finishes it’s first school year!

I can hardly believe that it has only been one year--so much has taken place! This time last year we were registering girls in our barrio that had NEVER studied. Girls ages 5-12 who had never had a book read to them, used a paint brush or a pair of scissors, couldn’t write their name or even hold a pencil correctly. But we were determined they would leave their first experience with school forever changed.

In 2011-2012 we served 20 girls in our donated postage stamp size school house.

While they all started on ground zero, they soon divided themselves into two ability groups. We were focused on three subject areas: literacy, math and English and were determined to make up for lost time...you should see them now!

They will greet you in English and write their name with ease, thanks to our intern Katie Nehm. Marta Vicente continues to provide Montessori training and our foundation of materials is growing. We have several reading like first and second graders, and we are so proud of the incredible work that Greici has done with the girls! There is a layer of glaze removed from all their eyes that has been replaced with a spark of new life and new hope in each of their precious faces and we look forward with great expectation to the year ahead!

Even though regular classes are over we had dreamed of a summer school or camp experience for the girls. We feared that summer was too long for these vulnerable new learners and God provided a teacher! Amanda Metzler will be teaching a three week summer program with a focus on English learning. We also have a generous donor providing for a pilot lunch program so we can provide a full day program and prepare budgets for coming year!

Thank you Lord for providing for these girls is ways we Never could. You are so good to us and we are so blessed to be invited to participate in this incredible work. Each time we take a moment to look at all that moves around us, we can’t help but shout, “Look what the Lord has done!”

"But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God's instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted." Peter 2:9 The Message (MSG)