Say Yes to Women's Education of Oaxaca, Mexico.

August 7, 2024

Santiago Chazumba, Huajuapan de León, Oaxaca

To the donors of Fondo Guadalupe Musalem,

My name is Guadalupe. I am 15 years old and I am from Santiago Chazumba, Huajapan de León, Oaxaca.

I feel so fortunate to be a Fondo Guadalupe Musalem scholarship holder. Thank you for the economic support that you offer me so that I can attend high school in my community (COBAO, plantel 18). Without this support, I would have had to stop studying because my family’s economic situation is very precarious.

I am the oldest of the three children of a single mother and I must do my part to cover the costs of our daily life. My brother, Alex, is 13 years old and we work in the afternoons and weekends but we are paid very little since we are still minors. The money we earn we use for some of the things that the school requires. We don’t have our own home; we live with my mom’s uncle in his house but we would like to have our own home. 

Since I was little, I have always really enjoyed going to school and participating in cultural and sports activities. In kindergarten, my classmates chose me to be the Spring Queen. In elementary school, I participated in the marching band, playing the drum. I also participated in the traditional Mexican dances. In fifth grade, I was chosen to part of the parade presentation, but the costume was expensive and my mother couldn’t buy it because she had to pay for my little brother’s medical treatment. He suffered second degree burns in an accident. So, my brother Alex and I started selling gelatins in the evenings during the week and in the mornings and afternoons on the weekends. Together we earned enough money to pay for my costume and that is how I was able to participate in the Nov 20^th Parade [Mexican Revolution Day].  I planned to be the captain of the color guard in 6^th grade but because of the pandemic, we only had classes on-line. It was also because of this (the pandemic) that my uncle offered us to stay with him because his house had internet service. Before this we lived with my grandparents.

The pandemic continued when I started junior high school and it was quite complicated because the internet failed a lot and I didn’t understand some subjects like music and English but I sought help and investigated online. I also asked for help from the music teacher. After a while, I had a much better understanding and I even joined the local municipal band which participated in some religious and cultural events in the community. I learned how to play the alto sax. Even though I still have a lot to learn, I would love to play other instruments like the clarinet and classical guitar.

Throughout the past three years, I have alternated music classes with basketball; I enjoy them both very much!

Last year I started to work on weekends as a dental assistant. I have learned some things, and I can now say that I would like to study dentistry.

This week, I began my preparatory class so as to be able to begin high school. I am very happy to be able to continue studying thanks to the scholarship I have been given, though I worry about one teacher who is quite old and doesn’t hear well; she will teach us Chemistry. I am afraid of not achieving a good grade to maintain a 9-point grade average.

In my last year of junior high school, I was a little depressed because some of my classmates talked about their plans to study in high school or college in another place. Among the most enthusiastic were those who were going to study at the local COBAO.  Meanwhile, my mother suggested that I stop studying for a few years and later return to study high school in the “open system” because she couldn’t afford the expenses. This scholarship was a blessing for me and my family; my mom and brothers are so happy, like me, for this great opportunity.  I will make every effort to maintain this scholarship, including working to receive a future scholarship for the university. I would like very much to be a professional woman, to be able to help my mom and my younger brothers.

In my family, I have seen many women suffer because the get pregnant very young and become mothers at a young age. Even worse, many are single mothers. Some live with their partners but they suffer psychological, physical and economic violence. I have seen this up close with the women in my family and it is because of this that I believe that by studying and developing myself to earn my own wages I can free myself from this same fate.

By studying high school and with all of the extra training from the Fondo Guadalupe Musalem I can learn many things, not just theoretical but also practical things, in order to make better life decisions.

I am enormously grateful to all of the generous and good-hearted donors to Fondo Guadalupe Muselam.

By supporting the education of young Oaxacan women, you support a whole family and a community. I would add that you also support a country and the world.

Your help generates a radical change for the common good.

Thank you so much for everyone involved in this noble cause.

Attentively,

Guadalupe Anaelin E.B., 1^st year scholarship student for the 2024/25 school year.