TLAU employee Walter Ulloa has sent information regarding the Centro Escolar Virgen de Guadalupe in the small village of Cutumay Camones in the department of Santa Ana. Thanks to a donation from Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Newton Grove North Carolina and the continued beneficence of all TLAU supporters, the future of this school and the young minds that rely upon it just became brighter.

Virgen de Guadalupe currently has 100 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. With hopes to serve more of the village’s children, the school has solicited the support of TLAU to build two classrooms, an office, a storage room, and a small covered play area (similar to the one in the picture) to keep the students out of the hot equatorial sun.

I’m not sure if you can tell from this picture or the ones linked to below, but Cutumay Camones is a very poor area. According to Walter, most of the students at Our Lady of Guadalupe come from families that root through trash at a nearby landfill, hoping to find something to sell on the street. Hopefully, your help with this school will begin to chip away at the vicious cycle of poverty and delinquency that afflicts so many Salvadoran youngsters.

There is still one problem, however. Currently, Bishop Romeo Tobar Astorga of the local diocese does not have title to the land that is needed for this project. He says he will start the process of petitioning the government for ownership of the land, and because this project would definitely improve upon Cutumay’s existing educational infrastructure, he will likely succeed. But as always, a few prayers wouldn’t hurt.

For more photos of Our Lady of Guadalupe, click picture above.