Because of the costs attendant to sending their children to school after the sixth grade, many families are not able to do so. In families of several children, the parents need to choose which child may attend school. In some cases only boys go to school because “the girls will only get married and don’t need an education.” The chance of a girl with a baby returning to school is greatly reduced and without an education her future is limited to domestic work or working in taco stands or a family business. Support from FANLAP puts the emphasis on aptitude and attitude, regardless of the number of children in the family, whether they are boys or girls, and whether they have a child.
Our scholarship program started in 2000, when we provided a backpack, school supplies, uniforms, gym clothes, school shoes and tennis shoes to five students to 7th grade. Since then our program has expanded and presently the number of students helped is determined by donations received. We also pay public transportation costs to and from the school, and in the case of senior high students also pay tuition.
Students must maintain a high scholastic average established by the scholarship committee and approved by the board of directors of FANLAP. In return for what they receive, students perform community service such as cleaning/painting in our building, picking up garbage in the neighborhood, painting over graffiti, tutoring other students who need help, and other work approved by the scholarship committee. We also give community service credit to those who help with our annual Subasta.
School year 2009 2010, we implemented a “homework club” to provide students tutoring and mentoring. This develops a closer relationship among the students and permits us to maintain contact with them so problems can be identified before the student drops out of school. All students who are part of our scholarship program are required to participate.
While we established this program to benefit students of junior and senior high school, we have had some sponsors who wished to send students on to an institute of higher education.
If you would like to sponsor a student at any level of education, or to make a general donation to scholarships or one of our other programs, click on our donation page to see how you may do this. Or contact us here or by telephone at 121-2166.
For more information concerning this program, please read our annual report in the “news” section.
