Locations of Young Children Served by Project Amigo

Colonia Rotaria Housing for Poor Families
Quesería Migrant Labor Camp | Escuela Constitucion | La Nogalera | Suchitlan

    A Sponsorship is a way in which you, a donor, can establish a relationship with a poor Mexican child that can deepen and expand over the years as that child grows into adulthood.

As a Sponsor you will receive a photo of the child and annual progress reports. If you visit Colima, we will arrange for you to meet your sponsored child. A minimum donation of $95 US is requested to sponsor a child.

    Sponsorship donations help pay for the Christmas fiesta and beach trip which are hosted each year by Project Amigo and the Colima Rotary Club, as well as medical, dental, and educational services provided by Project Amigo volunteers.

For more information, see Sponsoring Young Children and Services to Children. To sponsor a child, fill out the On-Line Sponsorship Form.

Donate to our children's programs by using your credit card on-line:

Colonia Rotaria Housing for Poor Families

    Colonia Rotaria is a neighborhood of simple, but dignified houses built for poor or homeless families with funds donated by Rotary Clubs in the U.S. and matched by Rotary International through their international Low-Cost Shelter Program. The land was donated by the city of Colima; Project Amigo served as the project manager for the Colima Rotary Club, the sponsor of the project. See our Colonia Rotaria page for more information.

    The families living in Colonia Rotaria were chosen by a lottery conducted by the Colima Welfare Department. To qualify they had to be poor, with a mother present in the household, and include children attending school.The houses they were given are built of unfinished concrete blocks, and consist of two rooms plus a small bathroom. Many of the families have built a lean-to onto the backs of their houses for cooking over a wood fire.

Quesería Migrant Labor Camp

    Quesería is located high on the slopes of the Colima Volcano. The surrounding hills, composed of ancient volcanic soils, provide ideal conditions for growing sugar cane and a large sugar refinery is located in the town of Quesería. The men who cut the sugar cane that feeds the refinery are indigenous people from the state of Guerrero to the south. They are recruited by and work for several different cabos, "bosses" or labor contractors. The labor contractors provide housing for the families of the cane cutters in barracks at a labor camp.

     The housing consists of one concrete block room per family, with an attached lean-to for a kitchen. The women usually cook on wood fires. The families speak either Nahuatl or Zapoteca, indigenous languages, among themselves, and the children must learn Spanish before being able to attend public school. See our Quesería page for more information about Project Amigo's services to the children in the labor camp.

Escuela Constitucion (Constitution School)

    Escuela Constitucion is a government-run public primary school that serves 350 kids, mostly poor and indigenous, in the village of Cofradía de Suchitlán. Children attend school from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

    Families in the village make their living in the fields cutting sugar cane, picking coffee, planting and harvesting corn, or in minimum-wage construction or housekeeping jobs. Most adults have completed less than a 3rd grade education. Their children are their hope for a better future.

    The Volcanoes of Colima are clearly visible from the school. Cofradia’s elevation of 4,500 feet above sea level causes it to be one of the few places in the state where it is chilly in the months of December through February. Students at Constitucion need sweaters and jackets in the winter.

La Nogalera

    La Nogalera is a tiny indigenous village 2 km. south of Project Amigo's headquarters in Cofradía de Suchitlán. The community has a kindergarten and a three-room primary school, both run by the government's Department of Public Education. The primary school serves 63 students in first through sixth grades.
    Families in the village of La Nogalera make their living in the fields cutting sugar cane, picking coffee, or in minimum-wage jobs such as labor in construction or housekeeping labor. Most adults in the community hae had little or no education. Their children are their hope for a better future.

    One student from La Nogalera has been a Project Amigo scholarship recipient for several years after finishing primary school. She is now studying Law at the University of Colima.

These kids DO have promise!

Suchitlan

    Escuela Gorgonio Avalos is a government-run public primary school that serves 550 kids in two shifts in the village of Suchitlan.  The children are mostly poor and indigenous. 
    The village has approximately 4,000 inhabitants, some of the oldest of whom still speak their native language:  Nahuatl.  

Families in the village make their living in the fields cutting sugar cane, picking coffee, planting and harvesting corn, or in minimum-wage construction or housekeeping jobs. 
    The school received a water purification system two years ago that not only provides clean drinking water at school, but a tap that allows the children to fill larger containers to take home.

Colonia Rotaria Housing for Poor Families
Quesería Migrant Labor Camp | Escuela Constitucion | La Nogalera | Suchitlan

This page last updated August. 2009.