Part 12 "Scheel Center"

Class of 2009 at The Scheel Center

Photo from The Scheel Center's Website at

http://www.scheelcenter.org/home.html

Michelle writes:

The Scheel Center is another school that opened in 2008. There are 150 students here. They receive a stipend to attend school; otherwise they would be working to help the family. The school serves students 8 years old and up and has had a 27-year-old student.  

I got to help in the classroom with math. I haven't been in a classroom, since my kids were in elementary school. The students did very well with the lesson. My job was to walk around and check their work. Luckily, I understood the task, but the language is another issue! I am not sure which grade it was, but the students varied from kids that looked like 4th-graders to a boy who was bigger than me--maybe junior high or high school age.

Student's Vegetable Garden

Here, the focus is on trade skills: cooking, carpentry, computers, gardening. Students from Texas A & M have come here several years to assist with  the gardening program. These skills will then be used at the local hillside homes.

Tires for Terracing

Compost Bin

Scarecrow, Guatemala-Style

Also at the Scheel Center, there is a full-time dentist and a doctor’s office, but no funding for a doctor as yet. There is space for a pharmacy, with beautiful wood cabinetry built on site, but no pharmacist. Funding, as always, is the limiting factor.

All families are interviewed as to need by a full-time psychologist. I am amazed at how many services they are able to provide with such limited staff and small space. Everyone multitasks. 

Tomorrow I will help with food distribution to the families. Off to spend the afternoon with the babies!

For more information about the Scheel Center, go to http://www.scheelcenter.org/home.html

Right now, The Scheel Center is in the process of raising $10, 000 to fund their school here.  Their deadline is Easter Sunday, April 24th, and they've already raised $4,000. If you want to contribute, please go to www.globalgiving.org. Type "Scheel Center" into the website's search box, and you'll find donation options that will benefit The Scheel Center.

[Cheryl's note: I've started a blog for The Scheel Center. To see profiles of some of the volunteers and the staff and to learn more about what they do, go to: http://scheelcenter.blogspot.com]