What's New at Project Amigo?

New University Students | Video about Christmas Work Week | Casa Amiga | 2008 Juneau Work Week | 2008 Vision Work Week | December 2007 Work Week | College Students' Retreat | Project Amigo E-News

New University Students

We’re proud to report that thirteen of last year’s high school graduates have been accepted to the University of Colima!  They are:

Javier Apolinar Maximo, Computer Systems Engineering (Coquimatlan campus)

Evelyn Arzac Apolinar, Foreign Trade (Manzanillo campus)

Jose Candelario Salvador, Computer Systems Engineering (Coquimatlan campus)

Goreti Torres, Environmental Studies (Colima campus)

Tricxi Munguia, Mathematics (Colima campus)

Jessica Manzo, Foreign Trade (Manzanillo campus)

Amelia Castro, Pre-school Education (Colima campus)

Rocio Beltran, Finance (Colima campus)

Nallely Medina, Software Engineering (Colima campus)

Luis Angel Villaseñor, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering (Coquimatlan campus)

Ana Alicia Gonzalez, Software Engineering (Colima campus)

Maria Belen Espinoza, School of Nursing (Colima campus)

Christian Emmanuel Chavarin Ochoa applied to Medical School at both the University of Colima and the University of Guadalajara.  He was accepted by both Universities!  We are proud of him and of his achievement!  After much deliberation and weighing of advantages and disadvantages, Christian has elected to attend the University of Guadalajara’s Medical School.  We applaud him; and we are also sorry to lose him from our scholarship family.  The University of Guadalajara is beyond Project Amigo’s service area for high school or university students.  He was successful finding support for his studies from within his family, and we will be cheering him on and looking forward to seeing him when he returns to his village during vacations.

Project Amigo's college scholarship recipients lend a hand at the Christmas party. Many of them remember when they were little and the party was for them!

New video about the Project Amigo Work Week Experience

If you cannot see the video above, please click here.

Rushton Hurley is a high school teacher in Santa Clara, California, who started and runs NextVista.org, an online library of free videos by and for teachers and students everywhere. He attended Project Amigo’s December Work Week. To learn more about the efforts of NextVista.org, contact Rushton at rh@nextvista.org

Rushton has been a Japanese language teacher, a principal of an online high school, a teacher trainer, an educational technology researcher, and a school reform consultant who has worked and studied on three continents.  In early 2006 he started an educational nonprofit called Next Vista for Learning, which is dedicated to providing free video insights about academic topics, service to others, and introductions of communities around the world.  In addition to his regular work, he devotes time to the community through Rotary and as a member of the city of Santa Clara's International Exchange Commission.  In early 2005, he was awarded the Baha'i Unity of Humanity Award in Texas for his work developing online and international programs for at-risk students.  He also juggles, though he has never received an award for it.

Rushton Hurley fitting a child with new Christmas shoes

Christmas gifts of clothing for each student

Rushton Hurley (left) with two friends in their new duds.

Casa Amiga

Casa Amiga is a boarding facility in the city of Colima for Project Amigo’s higher education scholarship recipients. Major donors who support Casa Amiga include:  Project Amigo Board President Catherine Munson, The GROW Foundation, Mason City Rotary Club, and Fremont Rotary Club.

Background

Former long-term volunteer Marylee Bytheriver realized in 2001 that several of Project Amigo’s scholarship recipients were not going to be able to attend good high schools or, eventually, the University unless a way to house them in the city of Colima was found.  She rented a house, and hired housemother Doña Chela to make the house a home for deserving women scholars.  

A new Casa Amiga

As Project Amigo’s scholars move through the grade levels, the number of students needing this valuable resource in order to attend school has increased. Today, Project Amigo owns its own Casa Amiga – purchased and remodeled in 2008 with generous contributions from its Board President and members, and individuals who have sponsored rooms in the memory of loved ones.  Much of the remodel labor was provided by the scholars themselves during their summer and Christmas holidays.  It was furnished thanks to a Rotary Foundation Matching Grant with co-sponsoring Rotary Clubs Corvallis Morning, Centerville-Farmington, Villa de Alvarez and Colima, and Rotary Districts 5110 and 5420.  Currently, Casa Amiga houses up to 22 young scholars – all of whom are studying at the University of Colima.  

Project Amigo thanks the Rotary Clubs and individuals who continue to contribute generously to allow us to keep this valuable service available to our scholars.  We anticipate the student population of Casa Amiga to increase to 28 scholars by 2010, and we urgently need to add two bedrooms and a bathroom to the upstairs.  If you would like to name a room in the honor or memory of someone you love and respect, please let us know.  We need your help.

Casa Amigo's enthusiastic residents greet visitors at the front door.


Brightly colored bedrooms provide space for sleeping and studying

Casa Amiga's bright new kitchen.

Special Work Week for Juneau Rotary Clubs

Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Juneau Glacier Valley, along with Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Juneau Gastineau created their own custom-made Project Amigo Winter Work Week the end of January, 2008.  Leaving behind their world of ice and snow, they let the warmth of Colima and her people seep into their bodies and hearts. 

It was an extraordinary time – they built shade structures over the public washing areas used by the women at the labor camp in Quesería.  They distributed books and used clothing to poor rural primary schools.  And they savored their week in the sun until the very last minute.

“I thought I might make a small difference in a child’s life, but found they have made a big difference in mine.  I hope this experience dances in my Alaska dreaming forever.  When all else fails, just touch a child...”
-- Virginia Smiley, Juneau Glacier Valley Rotary

"As many who have gone before us know, it is not easy to state our feelings in a simple sentence or two, but I'll try.  I have been in Rotary for shy of 29 years and have always been very active, but Project Amigo is clearly the highlight of my Rotary experience. 

Meeting the children, seeing their faces and knowing that there has been tremendous progress in education because of your work simply goes to the heart in all ways.  It would be easy to get overwhelmed with all the things that "could or should" be done, but more important is what has been accomplished.  Seeing the children who have advanced their education and learned other ways that they can give back and help in their own community while moving forward themselves.... well, it's very impactful on us as individuals.
  
I also am one to look for important "forks in the road" of life ...... chance meetings that are not chance.  When Leslie and I walked into the "Hall of Friendship" in San Antonio at the Rotary International Conference, we could have gone any one a hundred different directions, but our decision to have lunch, Leslie's decision to go look for a table to sit while I got the food, and Ted's offer to her to join him at his table.....was it all “chance”..?  That simple set of actions opened the door for many Juneau Rotarians to share the experience of Project Amigo.  Leslie and I only regret it has taken us this long to be among those who traveled to help." 
-- Craig and Leslie Dahl, Juneau Glacier Valley Rotary

Completed shade structure over washing area at Queseria labor camp.

Virginia Smiley with new friend.

Happy children with new books.

Vision Work Week 2008

Twenty-five volunteers from the US and Canada, working with local Rotarians and Project Amigo scholarship recipients, helped 1,159 poor children and adults in four rural communities to a life with better vision.  The clients received thorough vision tests and examinations by volunteer optometrists from Oregon, Kentucky and California, before being fitted with appropriate correctional glasses donated by Lions International.  

The jubilation expressed at the distribution station, as a clearer world came into view, energized the whole team over and over again.  Fitters went into bouts of laughter as older gentlemen expressed their wonder and joy at being able to see the pretty volunteers at the other side of the room. 

"This was one of the most gratifying and wonderful weeks of my life.  What a gift to meet and serve the great people in this area of Mexico."       
-- Catherine Fleshman, Bear Creek Valley Rotary

This happy patient rejoices because he can see the pretty girls across the room.

Rotarians from Oregon (USA) and Coquimatlan (Mexico) review and compare data before sending patient to next station.

December 2007 Work Week

The event that launched Project Amigo in 1984 (a Christmas party for 45 children in a poor rural village) enjoyed its 24th annual repetition with more than 200 children in attendance this year.  The volunteers who helped make the party happen included Rotarians and non-Rotarians and their families from California, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and Washington, as well as Rotarians and their wives from the Club Rotario de Colima.  They wrapped more than 500 gifts, fitted all the kids with new shoes, and served them pozole and cake at the Fiesta. 

During the week, the group learned that three migrant labor camps in Colima were facing a crisis.  Workers had been brought in from southern Mexican states to cut sugar cane; but the sugar processing mill was on strike.  Therefore, the workers were without work or wages --- and food.  Passing the hat among the volunteers and the Colima Rotarians brought enough income to supply all three labor camps with rice, beans, cooking oil, cereal and sugar to tide them over until the strike ended and they were able to work. 

“This was my first adventure into the heart of Mexico and it has been amazing.  We fed the hungry, clothed the needy, and loved everybody (everything a vacation and service are all about).”
-- Liz Taylor, former Rotary Youth Exchange student (to France) from Susanville Rotary

“This is our fifth year with Project Amigo.  We do a lot of volunteer work, and Project Amigo is the most rewarding experience of all.  We strongly believe that education is the key out of poverty – and we so appreciate being with Project Amigo’s staff and other volunteers who are working toward the goal.”
-- John and Margery Cox, Casa Adobes Rotary

“Project Amigo lights the way to success for so many children who will make a difference in the world tomorrow.”
-- Carolyn Anderson, Valley of the Moon Rotary

Click here for the
2009-2010 Work Week Schedule.

Click here for descriptions of
other recent work weeks.

Volunteers on December's work week sort and package the emergency food for distribution. And then enjoy the smiles from the recipients!

Games are just part of the fun at the annual Christmas Fiesta.

Margery Cox shares a hug.

College Students' Retreat

Accounting major Guille Valle Vazquez learns how indigent migrant workers live.  "Thank you for giving me the opportunity...to learn more about the conditions in Quesería."

Child Development major Angeles Juarez teaches children to brush properly.

Gley Ramos, Business Administration scholar, clips fingernails as part of a "clean hands" campaign.

Back at the Hacienda, students share their thoughts and emotions about their experience at the labor camp.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to know Project Amigo better, to know my classmates better, to know myself better and to learn more about the conditions in Quesería. - Guille

Project Amigo E-News

To read the complete text of the Winter 2009 Project Amigo E-News, click here (pdf file).

To read the complete text of the Summer 2008 Project Amigo E-News, click here (pdf file).

To read the complete text of the Spring 2008 Project Amigo E-News, click here (pdf file).

To read the complete text of the Winter 2007-08 Project Amigo E-News, click here (pdf file).

To read the complete text of the Summer 2007 Project Amigo E-News, click here (pdf file).

To read the complete text of the Winter 2006 Project Amigo E-News, click here (pdf file).

To read the complete text of the Fall 2006 Project Amigo E-News, click here (pdf file).

Utah State football players Carlos Cuevas (75) and David Disman (55) pose for a picture with Project Amigo Scholars during Hyrum, Utah’s Independence Day parade. Meegan M. Reid/Herald Journal

Read more here and here.