There is a dramatic decline in children attending school in Yamaranguila after each descending grade.

Much of this decline is due to the increase in cost. In the mountain villages there simply are no schools to attend after the sixth grade. Mercy International believes education must be an integral part of changing a child’s future.

Starting with four students in 2002, Hope and a Future has grown until over 50 students were awarded scholarships in 2007, thanks to the generosity of donors just like you from across the United States Students receive spiritual guidance and emotional support through weekly youth activities and discipleship groups.

Through team involvement each student home is provided a concrete floor and eventually running water and a toilet where needed. These scholarships are offered in conjunction with local school assistance, everything from pencils and notebooks to teacher training, character presentations, and recreational equipment.

Through Hope and a Future the entire school atmosphere can change.

A Typical Hope and a Future Student: Dora Gomez

Applied: Fall 2004, Age: 13 years old From: Buenos Aires, Yamaranguila
Family: Parents: Abilio and Maria Candelaria and lives with five brothers and sisters.

Dora is the fourth child in a family of six. She graduated from the sixth grade in 2004 but she has been unable to continue her studies due to a lack of resources in her family.

Dora continues to have a desire to study in the local middle/high school. After helping her mother for a year in the home, and with a new baby brother, Dora would love the opportunity to continue on in the seventh grade. Though her father has occasional daily work cultivating the crops of others, he also works in his own fields to provide the little that he can for his family.