Learning Center to benefit 500 in Central Mexico

This is a little bit about a young boy named Juan Daniel, Ojala gave him an opportunity.

Juan Daniel came to the Ojala Ninos program when he was 10 years old, in 2010. He began to work with stained glass, in a project cutting small pieces and making designs on small vases.He created beautiful pieces that the program volunteers wanted to buy.

At age 14 Juann taught 3 of his peers at Ojala, who also started producing stained glass art, together they showed their work at a local weekly market and sold everything.

Juan Daniel didnt continue his academic school after 9th grade, but went to work with a local brick making family. This is common practice among rural families that need an income from as many family members as possible.  Juan Daniel continued to work without professional instruction with an amazing array of design ideas. Three dimensional and flat. Throughout the years they have readily sold to residents of San Miguel Allende and visitors from all over.

One day we were given a large donation of supplies from a professional stained glass artist, Juan investigated how to expand his own work using these materials. He worked after hours at home learning the techniques using lead.

Juan Daniel is now 19 years old and is a regular instructor at Ojala Ninos, to the new younger children, two times a week. He continues to grow as an artist and as an instructor and no longer needs to make bricks, he has time for music. Playing the guitar is another passion of his.

Hope is an Illusion without opportunity.

Our goal is a future learning center that we want to establish for Ojala Ninos and the community of San Miguel Viejo, we continue to evaluate and bring new learning opportunities for the children of all ages and hope to expand to include adult learning opportunities. We need  to create community space inclusive of classrooms, gardens and adaptable space for events on the Ojala Land.

Thank you for your continued support!

The wondeful folks who guide our children in their daily classes offer inspiration because of their passion to share their talents and life experience with the children. Opportunity is something that comes from a much larger exspanse of experience that we encounter outside our limited environment. Opportunity comes to our children because WE find those opportunities in our lives and bring them to our community.

A story: I met a man during a shuttle ride from the airport back to San Miguel de Allende. He came from Boston and was coming to meet a medical team that wanted to explore how they might bring their clinics to Mexico. They'd always worked in the Philippines and the Dominican Republic. I offered names and organizations that might give them opportunities. They set up a clinic the next day in a local church that served a large neighborhood  in San Miguel de Allende. The man contacted me and invited me to visit their clinic. While there, another doctor asked me how they might maximize their efforts in our town. I suggested they come to the rural, indiginous community, like where I live and work with Ojala Ninos. They were very excited about this idea. They agreed to come to San Miguel Viejo the next afternoon to meet members of the community. I scrambled to contact neighbors and asked them to come to Ojala's site to meet these new, strange people. Everyone gathered the next day and shared... about what the medical team could offer and what the community needed. The medical team were thrilled to find such a perfect place for their work- and the folks in the community are looking forward to having valuable medical support. An OPPORTUNITY came from a serendipity meeting on a shuttle ride and became a huge OPPORTUNITY for a whole community!

We continue our vigilance to keep bringing the world of wonder and opportunity to our children. We continue daily free classes, offered to all children- and acooperative for mothers who are learning skills to make products that sell well in several markets. We are in need of the expanded space provided by donations through GlobalGiving. Thank you!

Ojala means hope- Hope is an illusion without opportunity.