Cande Daniela dreams of a better future not just for herself, but for others as well: “Where I’m from there are a lot of people who die without the help of a doctor. I want to help those people.”
Cande’s parents are doing all they can to help her and her four siblings reach their dreams, and they know that education is the key. Neither her mother nor her father was able to go to school, and now her father works as a janitor while her mother stays at home. “We long for our kids to study,” she says. “Money for school expenses comes out of our budget for food. We’re also working to start a small business so that we can earn more.”
Cande with her mother and brother
Cande, for her part, is taking full advantage of the opportunities that her parents have worked so hard to provide to her. She is at the top of her class this year, an accomplishment symbolized by a bright blue-and-white sash that she humbly slips over her head during school assemblies.
But until recently, Cande’s opportunities were limited in spite of her family’s great sacrifices. Her school, Chitay Las Rosas, is a telesecundaria—a school so remote that it has trouble employing teachers, so the government sends educational content on DVD and VHS for students to watch on an old TV.
But this year, things are changing for Cande and her classmates! Thanks to supporters like you, the GLP was able to develop a new mobile Computer Center model just to reach schools like Chitay Las Rosas, where it would take too much time and money to build a brick-and-mortar center. Instead, Chitay’s center consists of 40 laptops stored on a secure cart that can be wheeled from classroom to classroom. And just like with the brick-and-mortar model, staff from our partner organization helped Chitay hire and train a computer teacher! (Say goodbye to those boring VHS tapes, kids.)
Our new mobile computer center model uses laptops stored on a rolling cart.
“It’s a beautiful thing to be able to study with computers,” says Cande. “I got really excited when I saw all of the laptops, because I had never touched one. I had seen them, but only on TV. Every day I tell my parents what we are learning. They think it’s excellent for me to have computer class because it will help me so much in the future. The computer will be a tool I can use to defend myself against any problems I face.”
Cande already understands that computers will be a vital tool for problem-solving in her future career, and thanks to the project-based methodology used in GLP computer labs, she’ll get plenty of practice. Former Computer Program students have used the computers to perform everything from cost/benefit analyses of crops grown in their town to research for a campaign against underage drinking. With Cande’s intelligence, drive, and positivity, there’s no telling what wonderful things she’ll do with computers during her time in the program and beyond.
One thing’s for sure—she’s now much closer to achieving her dream of providing medical care to the people in her home town. “Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity,” she says. “This is a beginning that we’ll take even further.”