By Chris Baca ’11
THE ROUNDUP
Completing high school is something that many people in today’s culture do not see as a major accomplishment.
However, for the residents of two villages in El Salvador, this is a near impossibility.
This sentiment was shared by Michael-Owen Panzarella’11 who said in his blog, “In America we are forced to go to school through 12th grade.”
“Here in El Salvador it is a luxury,” Panzarella added.
Brophy students and faculty have been going on the El Salvador trip in the summer for six years now.
Among other things, the service has students helping the people in El Junquillo and La Hacienda; two poor, isolated villages in El Salvador.
The people that live there are completely subsistence farmers and place a very high value on education for their children.
The children wake up early in the morning to make the few mile trek to a bus stop that takes them to another village to attend school.
This is all fine, until the students hit the sixth grade when, as Mr. Tim Broyles said best, “The kids receive free education through sixth grade, beyond that it is financially impossible.”
The kids are “eager to go to school, but unable to do so,” he continued.
To accomplish the goal of education for these children, the Family to Family organization was created.
The creation of Family to Family can be attributed to the most recent group that has gone to El Salvador, which included Mr. Broyles, Mr. Chris White and student leader of the new club Panzarella among others.
The Brophy community is already helping these children with education; however, as more of them grow up, the cost of school also grows.
“For the past three years the scholarship program has been funded through the Turkey and Lenten drive,” Mr. Broyles said.
Unfortunately, this is not enough anymore as going from junior high to high school the price of school doubles.
As the price goes up for more of the kids, the Brophy volunteers needed some way to compensate for the tuition rise and Family to Family was created.
The organization is now tasked with the fundraising and donations to help these children go to school and hopefully have a better future, not only for them but for their families as well.
Family to Family is off to a fast that start due to a car wash held on Oct. 2 which raised $900.
Donations, Information, student profiles, and Brophy volunteer blogs can all be found at: www.familytofamily.us/CLI/Family_to_Family.
If you are interested in joining this group contact Mr. Broyles at familytofamilyorganization@gmail.com.