Mauricio (23) came to our re-entry school from an alcohol and drug rehabilitation home at the age of 16 without knowing how to read or write. Despite not having the support of his family and living alone, he made it through thanks to the academic, economic and emotional help he received from Hogar de Cristo. We need your support to replicate Mauricio's success story and provide an opportunity to hundreds of teens.
According to the Chilean Ministry of Education, there are 227,000 children and adolescents who are not attending classes, a figure that increased by 21% as a result of the pandemic, school closures and face-to-face classes. Young people like Mauricio, who are growing up with the consequences of being born into vulnerability and poverty, need our support in every way to have a better future.
Mauricio was able to finish his studies up to second grade in our school. Today he is about to graduate as a nursing technician, thanks to Hogar de Cristo's Sumate Foundation. "I owe it all to the Colegio Padre Alvaro Lavin". In our schools, the students have the opportunity to learn a profession that allows them to pave their future. His story is a clear example that, with support, we can change the reality of hundreds of young people.
With your help, we can get hundreds of young people back to school and break the cycle of poverty. Hogar de Cristo, through the Sumate Foundation, has been working for 25 years on educational reintegration, we have four re-entry schools and socio-educational programs throughout Chile, which go in search of out-of-school children to re-enchant them and, with support, show them that regardless of their limitations, it is possible to fight for their dreams.
