The 170 impoverished students at the Nueva Creación primary school still attend classes in wood and tarpaper shacks perched on a dangerous cliff face, but their future is beginning to brighten. Ground has been broken for a safe new school on 5,000 square meters of land donated, and cleared, by the city of Zihuatanejo.
The construction project is a community partnership that includes the City of Zihuatanejo, providing building materials; Por Los Niños de Zihuatanejo ,AC (a Mexican non-profit), providing the labor, Los Niños, Inc. (a U.S. non-profit), providing computers and teaching materials; and International Rotary Clubs, providing the classroom furnishings.
Por Los Niños de Zihuatanejo, the charity founded to administer and distribute the funds raised by our annual SailFest events, has established the Nueva Creaciòn Building Fund to solicit additional contributions for this project. Nearly 50% of the necessary funds for construction labor have already been raised through local and international efforts.
The local community response to the new school project has been especially gratifying.
Zihuatanejo’s finest musicians have donated their talent to produce a CD featuring 20 of their favorite songs; all proceeds will go to the building fund. An All-Star benefit concert, celebrating the release of the CD, will be performed on February 1st at Club Blue Mamou.
An elite group of Zihua gourmet chefs is planning a Fiesta Gastronòmica, an evening of fine dining, music and dancing, to benefit the new school. The date and venue of the event are still pending.
Even the kids! The eleven Nueva Creaciòn sixth grade students crafted bracelets from donated beads, sold them at SailFest 2005 events and raised an astonishing $1,450, which they promptly donated to Por Los Niños de Zihuatanejo.
The volunteers of Los Niños, Inc, have dedicated themselves to addressing the day-to-day needs of the school; providing uniforms, shoes, backpacks, books, school supplies, teaching materials, scholarships, teacher salaries and nearly everything else necessary to keep the doors open at this poorest of schools.
Most of these impoverished children would not be attending school without your generous and compassionate support. Many walk more than a mile each morning, past their unaffordable neighborhood school, to attend Zihuatanejo’s only “free” school. They, and their parents, are sincerely grateful for the opportunity that your donations provide.
