Project Amigo is working to end poverty through education. Education is a powerful tool to create brighter futures for the world’s children who, in turn, benefit the nations they live in. For three decades, Project Amigo has worked with rural children in Mexico to continue their formal schooling up to and including the college level. Each year, Project Amigo works with more than 300 students from preschool to university. Sixty-two students have graduated from university, and 95% of those students are employed. (The university program began in 2006.)
 
There are three components to our work: 
 
1) ACCESS to education for disadvantaged and marginalized children of Colima, Mexico so can they achieve their highest potential.
 
2) SERVICE opportunities for volunteers from developed countries to do valuable humanitarian service and become friends with disadvantaged youth in Mexico.
 
3) FRIENDSHIP to create understanding between children and adults from developed countries and their peers in Colima, Mexico.
 
And I can't help myself from including a story about this amazing young lady:
Brenda, 19, Medical School Student

Brenda and her sister Imelda - who is also a Project Amigo (PA) scholar in university - lives in a migrant camp. Her parents work cutting sugar cane and picking blackberries, grueling work with a subsistence wage. Because of the dedication of her parents and the support of PA, Brenda stayed in school, earned top marks, and was accepted to the University of Colima Medical School where she is now in her second semester. 

Her family of six lives in a small, concrete, two-room house with no windows. Brenda gets up at 6 AM, takes an hour-long bus ride to Colima, attends classes all day, and returns by bus around 8 PM. Any free time is spent studying and helping her family in the house. Project Amigo is encouraging Brenda to live at Casa Amiga, a 24-bed dorm built and operated by PA for PA university scholars. Brenda will be able to build friendships, eat nutritious meals, study in a good environment with Internet access, and avoid the daily two-hour bus commute. She will be able to return to her family on weekends. Her chances of success and achieving her dream of becoming a doctor and helping her family will increase tremendously. 

Brenda’s parents are tremendously proud of her and glow when they speak about her. Migrating to Colima from the state of Guerrero 10 years ago, they said they have always known that education was the key for their children to live a better life. They have saved every peso toward that effort and required their children to stay in school and not join them in the fields to earn more money as is common. Brenda’s dad said, “Some people believe you should prepare your daughters for the kitchen and for marriage. We believe you should prepare them for their future.”

They are an inspirational family who show us that even against all odds it is possible for the human spirit to overcome almost any obstacle.
 
Jenna Saldana
Co-Executive Director, Project Amigo