I call it love of the community

The Nejapa Outreach Center (CDA) is small with an entrance floor of earth, it has very few rooms. Nevertheless, it is there, free for the whole community, there is homework club, crafts, computer science, music, school reinforcement and family circles. There is even a library! And there is Amelia Marroquín, who has run that center for seven years and is its only employee. All the other people who teach are volunteers. “I call it love of the community”, she says.

Amelia works at the CDA, has a second job, a son and studies Psychology at night.

Before the pandemic, ConTextos held eight family writing sessions in Nejapa in which 25 women participated, Amelia was among them. “It was very interestingshe says - because the mothers were learning how to educate their children with positive language”.

What is said here stays here. And that routine allowed us to open up

One of ConTextos’ training sessions routines is “What is said here stays here and that routine allowed us to open up”.

“The mothers,” Amelia says, “began to bring out everything they felt: ‘what happened at their house,’ ‘how difficult their childhood had been’, or ’the fact that having so many children has not been easy.’

The routine was installed. Today the moms who need help come to talk to Amelia. In confidence.

“I think that children need attention and that the roots are their parents. If we are not able to reach the parent, we are not doing anything for the children”.

During the sessions, when it was her turn to write, Amelia dedicated all her words to her son.

Eduardo, Outreach Center Leader