Halloween at Nueva Vida, 2013

18 October 2013

We had our Halloween Celebration for the girls at Nueva Vida yesterday. 

 A little early this year, but next Friday they are off school so you fit these things in when you can.

As you can probably imagine getting 24 girls corralled, and listening to instruction can be, well, interesting.  But Tricia does a fabulous job!

The girls got dressed in costumes and faces painted.  

We play games; 

Pin the Nose on the Witch, 

Ghost Toss,

 grabbing a moving donut on a string with only your mouth, 

and of course apple bobbing, 

which is really difficult when you are 6, 7, or 8 

and missing your two front teeth.

And of course the Trick or Treating - they had 4 stops for candy

And then there was cake - 

we also celebrated the October birthdays of 

maestro Brian, Vanessa, and Eskarlet.

unfortunately we didn't taken the group foto till after the games,
and a lot of the cute facepainting got wiped off after the apple dunking.

Exciting updates and News at Nueva Vida!

The staff at Nueva Vida have exciting news!  

Hogar Nueva Vida will experience an exciting transition this fall. We are extending its services to a greater number of elementary age girls by offering a day program rather then the current overnight residential program.

Over the past three years, we have observed a significant decline in the number of girls living at Hogar Nueva Vida. This decline has prompted the following question: What are the current needs of the community in the south of Merida?

The answer has been this: There is still a great need to assist in the education of elementary age girls in a supervised, caring environment, but the need for them to stay overnight in a residential setting has abated due to better living conditions of the families. Many families do need support in supervising, caring for and educating their girls, but they don’t want them to be away for the whole week. Thus we decided to transition from a Sunday night to Friday afternoon “hogar” to a 12:00p.m.-7:00p.m. daily “estancia”.

The number of girls expected for next school year is already double the number of the girls currently at Nueva Vida. We are happy to say that of the seven girls currently living at Nueva Vida who were planning on returning for next school year, five will be able to participate in the estancia program since their families live nearby. We will continue to offer a caring, supervised environment, a nutritious lunch, showers, help with the girls’ homework, enrichment classes and the chance to develop responsibility by doing chores.

The differences are these: The program and facility will be called the “Estancia Nueva Vida”. Enrichment classes will be more frequent and structured. English and computer classes will be held more consistently, and art, music, field trips, and educational media will be added to the enrichment time as well. Also a new tutoring block will emphasize academic concepts rather than just the concrete mechanics of a given discipline often found in their homework time. We will be using the newly and beautifully painted “sleeping” rooms for tutoring and enrichment activities.

Obviously, the other major change is the daily schedule. The girls will attend public school in the morning and arrive at Nueva Vida around noon. They will do chores, eat lunch, play and have a large group activity centered around values and community building. This will be followed by a four period rotation consisting of homework completion, tutoring of concepts, showers/reading time, and enrichment classes. By the time this is all finished for the day, it will be 7:00 PM when family members will arrive to take their girls home, and everyone will get a good night’s rest to repeat the process again the next day!

overnighter to the beach

The girls had a fun weekend overnighter to the beach -  thanks to the generous loan of John and Dorothy Andrews' beach house.  

Way to go Andrews!

And inspite of some rain the girls all seem to be having a great time!

a few little updates!

A few little updates about Hogar Nueva Vida

School ends in June which means 2 girls Monserrat (Monse) and Alfa will not be able to return. Only up through grade 6 are girls allowed to participate at Nueva Vida; this is due to schooling needs and issues.

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Reesa reports that  the internet at Nueva Vida is up and running. And that she often accesses the wi-fi there for teaching materials and fun songs that help the girls to learn English during her weekly visits.  She thinks it is a great learning tool for the girls, and resource for the tutors.  Thank you so much to the Cheryl Cowen for the generous donation of the year of connectivity.




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Purpura Plastika (PPK) began teaching art to the girls, and the girls loved the classes.  

 Unfortunately they had to put the project on hold because they did not receive some grant funds they were hoping for to be able to buy the supplies and in some cases to hire people to help.  


They continue to look for opportunities to raise funds. 

 

  I am in discussion with Alberto, the founder of PPK, and as soon as I know what we can do to help I will let you know!

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The Merida Men's Club is once again helping out with much needed repairs; currently they are trying to  clean, scrape, repair, and seal the roofs, do some painting, and install a tinaco.

a freshly painted dormitory

an exterior makeover

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Roberta seated, with Theresa admiring the lovely jewelry Roberta makes.

Roberta so generously created and donated a necklace,
complete with special carrybag for each of the girls.  These were presented to the girls on 30 April, which was Día del Niño.

just look at these happy girls!

In addition to the gifts the girls got to go to the swimming pool

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This  article in today's Diario, and translated here -  shows that there is awareness and that there are groups inplace that offer similar support and assistance as Nueva Vida.  Unfortunately, as in all government programs they can't reach all the children in need.    I am so proud and thankful for the work of Nueva Vida, and in our (IWC) support.  - Thank you each for your involvement. - DebiK

http://yucatan.com.mx/merida/peligroso-entorno-infantil

Dangerous childhood environment

Thursday, May 2, 2013 - Printed edition In: Human Rights , Merida

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• Mérida South Children living in high poverty stricken households
• A DIF work detects serious problems

Part of the child population of Merida lives in an environment not suitable for healthy development in physical and psychological aspects, and one reason for this is the material poverty of their families and ignorance that brings.

In work done with the DIF marginalized families south of this capital city shows that there are children who grow up in homes hit by unemployment, the omission of care, violence, alcoholism, malnutrition and lack of discipline and development of values ​​in children, among other obstacles.

The director of that institution, Gabriela González Prieto said that these problems are controlled through various programs. One is on pensions that are delivered each month to families of 1,611 children.

Another is called Building Families and is for households with children in precarious and vulnerable position.

The latter program benefits 354 children and adolescents. Some of these are members of five families "of the streets", ie that children have a supplier role in the economy of the family.

Minors of the remaining families are as companions to their parents in informal jobs (masonry, electrical, carpentry, housekeeping support, focus on market stalls, etc).

As an example of the picture they see in the South, detailed the case of the San Jose Tecoh, which found that unemployment and lack of permanent job affects 70% of the families involved in the program said.

Family violence is present in 50% of them and the same percentage is observed with the problem of alcoholism and malnutrition and underweight children. - Hansel Vargas Aguilar

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Mérida Murder Mystery Dinner Theater

How Cool is This?   

The Mérida Murder Mystery Dinner Theater committed all proceeds from the sale of tickets to be given to three local charities here in Mérida.  And this year Nueva Vida is one of the incredibly fortunate recipients.  Here are Tricia and Ron receiving the check on behalf of Nueva Vida!

Bravo,  and a HUGE Thank You to the Mérida Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre “Murder in Mérida:  Love Hacienda Style”, writers, producers, staff, actors, supporters, and theatre go'ers.

Good fun, good food, for a good cause!

The 2nd Annual Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre is about the begin.  

This year it is called "Love Hacienda Style", 

and you can read all about it here.

Now why am I promoting this here?  Well because Hogar Nueva Vida is one of the 3 charitable ventures that will benefit from the proceeds of this fabulous show!   So not only can you support the cast, crew, writers, directors, patrons, underwriters, etc,  you can also support your very own Hogar Nueva Vida!

Good fun, good food, for a good cause!  you can't go wrong!

an HNV volunteer tells about her experience

A new volunteer at Hogar Nueva Vida 

is blogging about her experience, 

you can read about it here

http://carolinatomerida.blogspot.mx/2013/01/i-am-blown-awayby-two-things.html