The first time I met Cristina in 1998 she was carrying a bundled-up infant and rushing down the rutted, dusty road in Anapra to board a green and white employee bus that would take her to a foreign-owned factory in nearby Juarez, Mexico. The baby, Margarita, would be handed over to her husband, Jose, who after finishing his shift would be returning to Anapra on this same bus. The Columbans had recently purchased a simple pallet house in Anapra and Cristina, Jose and their four children were our neighbours.
Both parents worked in an auto supply factory, soldering parts onto the automotive harnesses that carry electrical wires to operate the lights, radio, windows etc. Between them they made about $60.00 (AUD) a week. One afternoon, Cristina was rushed home from work with terrible pain after the soldering machine she was using exploded causing chemical burns on her hands and wrists. While she was home recuperating I got to know her and her family better often over a plate of stuffed chilis or some other tasty Mexican dish that Cristina expertly prepared. Though she had only finished a couple years of primary school, she had a deep concern for the children in Anapra who were often missing school or not even registered to attend. She shared with me her dream to have some kind of programme where she could help these kids get the education that she had never received.
Cristina returned to work and requested a position where she wouldn’t have to solder. After being refused she decided to come back and work in the community. Call it Divine Providence or whatever you wish, but at the same time, a young missionary couple who lived nearby decided to return to the States and asked Cristina if she would continue the children’s library that they had begun. Cristina said “Yes” and her dream began to take shape.
Jose nailed a couple of sheets of plywood onto some two-by-fours and created a neat little porch right in front of their house to protect the young students from the piercing desert sun. We obtained some tiny plastic tables and chairs and soon there was a little gaggle of laughing children coming after school and receiving help with their homework, reading and writing and, of course, getting a little treat from Cristina!
I noticed that some of the adolescents were not attending school and asked Cristina if she could visit the parents and find out why. Some had no birth certificate and so Cristina became a self-taught social worker who went to the registry of births and deaths and using whatever documents the parents had, eventually got them birth certificates. When I saw some of these same children were not attending school, again I asked Cristina to investigate and she said the parents couldn’t afford the various fees for the public schools. At that point a light went on and we said the After-School Programme was not enough. We needed scholarships, too.
Through the generosity of Columban benefactors and a host of other donors we started what came to be known as the Good Shepherd After-School and Scholarship Programme. After more than 15 years of slow but steady growth, the programme is now housed in its own building with five classrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms and an outdoor space where Cristina has egg-laying hens, some vegetables growing and a nice area for our Guadalupe, Christmas and other 'fiestas' for the children.
Our programme has about 280 students from kindergarten up to university. As the children advance through the programme they learn to help the smaller students and eventually some become Cristina’s official helpers. Compared to Australia and New Zealand education costs, ours are not great. But in comparison to a daily wage earner in Juarez, especially a single parent, they are formidable.
But our programme is not just about scholarship money or paying bills for the students. It is a personal commitment on the part of Cristina to know each and every student and to be personally engaged in their education and home life. When she found some of the smaller children going to school without having had breakfast, she opened the Children’s Library in the morning and started serving them breakfast and helping them with reading and writing.
When young women become pregnant and want to quit school, Cristina encourages and accompanies them until they at least finish their high school studies. When there are disciplinary problems it is often Cristina who intervenes with the school and as intermediary with the family to get the student back on track. Some complain that she is too strict and demanding with her requirements of discipline, good manners and above all, school attendance. But at the end of the day, whether they are graduating from middle, high school or university, they are teary-eyed and hugging Cristina with grateful hearts.
Cristina recently asked me if we could afford to help parents and adult drop-outs to return to high school to finish their secondary education. In faith we have stepped out to try to expand the dream a little further. It made me recall the time after we finished building the first classroom space 14 years ago, Cristina, herself teary-eyed, yet laughing, exclaimed, “Padre, this is a dream come true!”
With your help and God’s grace, may the Good Shepherd Children’s Programme continue to grow and bear fruit in the lives of these worthy children and young people in Anapra so that one day, they too, might be able to see their dreams become reality. And, by the way, the little bundle called Margarita, with whom I began the story, is beginning her second year of university, majoring in… what else? Education!
Columban Fr William Morton now works at the Columban Mission Centre across the border in El Paso, Mexico.
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