Dear Friends of the Americas Foundation,
The mission of the Americas Foundation is to give aid to disadvantaged children
and promote binational community development. The primary approach of the
Foundation to achieve these goals has been to provide talented, intelligent
children living in underdeveloped neighborhoods the opportunity to study,
experience the Arts, and begin to realize their potential.
The children live in "Ciudades Humanas Perdidas" , areas where the
publicity of Powerful National Interests has expunged the knowledge of the
human reality of their communities and desolate living conditions. The parents
have ambitiously migrated to undeveloped areas to pioneer better lives. Hard
work and initiative assure their survival. However, their progress and the
lives of their children are severely limited by their lack of preparation,
education, experience and availability of social support or relatives.
Demographics tell us that the children living now at the U.S./Mexico border
will be the workers and adults of North America. They will most assuredly
live throughout Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. However, the children of the
border Colonias, which are shantytowns or ratified squatters' settlements,
are the most under served of citizens, have the least social support and receive
the least public attention of the community at large.
The philosophy of the Americas Foundation is that by addressing the needs
of a talented, under served population we are preparing people to help themselves
and others in the future. The contradistinction of the experiences of hardship
and an education facilitated by "Social Responsibility" will hopefully
motivate the children benefiting today to create the "Social Institutions"
needed tomorrow. It is an investment in people that could be called "The
Thirty Year Plan".
During 1998, the Americas Foundation directly spent $102,000 to realize it's
goals of cultural enrichment, educational opportunity and community development.
The La Esperanza Kindergarten and Elementary school received sponsorship of
over $7000 a month to subsidize the basic education and Arts education of
265 economically disadvantaged students. Programs of professional consulting
and community organization resulted in a community of 8000 people receiving
sewer installation and its main entry road paved.
A campaign was launched for a borough of 29 communities with total population
of 180,000 to have its first High School. The Colegio La Esperanza elementary
school graduated its second generation of sixth graders and the Jardín
de Niños kindergarten graduated it's eleventh year class. Friends of
the Americas Foundation celebrated the "Tenth Anniversary" of the
founding of the Colegio La Esperanza elementary with it's gala "Noche
de la Esperanza" at the Hotel Real del Mar on the Coast of Baja California.
The program of "Cultural Injection" received a major boost when
the Carl J. Herzog Foundation of Stamford Connecticut agreed to sponsor the
Russian Ballet Dancers Valeri and Tatiana Tchekacheva of St. Petersburg, Russia
to teach Ballet and Theatrical Production for a year at the La Esperanza Schools.
Valeri's wonderful choreography and the children's talent was discovered in
the Spring dances of the "Top of the World Celebration", the presentation
of the Christmas "Pastorela", the "Russian Dance" of the
"Noche de Esperanza", and the World Premier of the full length Ballet,
"Titanic" at the the Centro Cultural de Tijuana.
There was little funding for construction during 1998. The installation of
hard wood floors to make a dance studio and the finishing of the new classroom
designed jointly by James Hubbell and Angel Benson were the most major efforts.
Classes were held on two patios converted to porch structures because of greater
need for teaching areas and limited funding. Every Saturday of the year, volunteers
worked on tile mosaics, carpentry, landscape architecture and maintenance.
Jim Hubbell directed artistic efforts one Saturday each month.
Although 23 teachers, secretary, and construction/maintenance people are employed
by the La Esperanza Schools, the Americas Foundation itself was a 100% volunteer
organization in 1998. The volunteer board and committee leaders raised funds,
organized events, purchased and transported materials, organized a rummage
sale, coordinated mailings, provided accounting, coordinated educational programs,
acquired legal services, designed and built windows, doors, wrote articles,
supervised construction, coached soccer, dealt with government agencies, realized
a Christmas present campaign, refurbished computers, petitioned for public
services and hosted dinners in their homes. In addition, they coordinated
their efforts with Rotary Clubs, Soroptimist clubs, Princeton Alumni Associations,
Sister City Organizations, Episcopal churches, Unitarian Churches, Conservation
Organizations, The American Lutheran Church, Public Works Boards, Municipal,
State, Federal and diplomatic authorities, individual volunteers and other
small nonprofit organizations.
Twelve years of service, innovation and accomplishment have brought the Americas
Foundation and the La Esperanza schools to the stage where it is equally important
to continue creating dynamic solutions to the problems of poverty as it is
to establish the security of the institutions created to insure the longevity
of service and benefit. The La Esperanza Schools are 40 % constructed.
The schools have been planned to offer a full arts program, sports program,
music and theatre program, language and computer science program and basic
education program to talented children three to twelve years old. Scholarships
are awarded to 265
students on need and competitive bases. Each year children of 29 Colonias
compete for academic scholarships by taking a rigorous qualification examination.
The schools are working to educate, train, inspire and spark the creativity
of the children and the community around them from the most local to the state
and international level. Through Art, the great spirit of volunteerism, human
contact and innovation, the Foundation has continually helped people, at the
same time disproving destructive stereotypes, breaking through class prejudices
and helping to prevent the conflicts and social warfare common to impoverished
communities, not to mention the ignorance and misunderstandings that exist
between the divergent border cultures, English and Latin.
The year of 1998 was more than anything a year of establishment and accomplishment.
The Foundation and the schools gained prestige and local acceptance. The innovative
programs beautifully realized thier humanistic goals, motivating proposals
for a children's film studio program, construction of a community library
and new classrooms as well as a determination to find continued support for
the Classical Ballet and Arts program and steady scholarship sponsors.
The Americas Foundation is one of the very few organizations working in the Colonias of the U.S./Mexico Border. Our continued efforts and accomplishments are beginning to inspire others to initiate social service projects in these forgotten, yet populous areas.
I myself am continually inspired by the potential of the children themselves and heartened by the sincere interest of others to better the lives of disadvantaged children and their communities. It's not easy to help others. For twelve years the Americas Foundation has worked to establish the opportunity for those who "wish to help", to "actually help" those in need.
It's definitely working!
Christine E. Brady, President
The Americas Foundation
Fundación de las Américas