Facilities
Currently, the community of Idente Missionaries occupies three different areas in Bolivia;
Santa Cruz
the country's second largest city; and San Miguelito and
San Ignacio del Velasco remote towns near the border of Brasil;
and La Paz, the capital.
Santa Cruz
Missionaries administrate two different day schools and one night school
on one campus. Each
school serves a different group of students and is also formed by a different
principal and faculty. The total number of students served is 2000. The elementary school operates from 8 am to 12:30 pm; then the high school operates from 2 to 6:30 pm and then again from 7 to10 pm in the evening at which time a vocational component is added. The children are well behaved and are interested in learning and the tender atmosphere shared by the administration and faculty enhances this.
The school is part of the parish of St. Peter and St. Paul in the Guracal area of Santa Cruz. The Parish was constructed by the missionaries and local city dwellers in the late 1980's shortly after the adjacent school that was built in the mid 1980s, when the missionaries had first arrived. In addition to this Main Parish the missionaries also serve at five other out post churches, or chapels as they are called, that are also apart of this Parish.
The missionaries also built the kindergarten and first grade and the area provides ample space for needed expansion. Adjacent and apart of the Parish and school is also a medical facility including three examination rooms and a dentist operating room.
The missionaries also constructed a recreational square that provides a place for the children to exercise in inclement weather, but only two sides of the structure have walls. It also functions as an auditorium, having a small stage for school productions and graduations.
After the missionaries constructed the parish school and medical facility
next to it, the municipality constructed a town square.
San Miguelito
San Miguelito is a boarding school and farm administrated by the missionaries in a remote part of Bolivia, near the border of Brasil. The children who attend this boarding school are some of the more fortunate, as there is no tuition. The missionaries are able to provide a complete academic and agricultural education for these boys as well as room and board, all financed from the raising and sale of cattle. The farm is approximately four square miles and is the home of a herd approximately 1,000 cattle.
One of the greatest needs in this area is to raise additional money to afford the small children in surrounding area a simple glass of milk each day. The nutrition
in this region is terrible, and it has been determined that supplying a fresh glass of milk daily to these children will make an enormous difference in
their health and growth.
San Ignacio de Velasco
In San Ignacio de Velasco the missionaries administrate two day schools on two
campuses. With the help of volunteers, the missionaries have constructed
additional classrooms and buildings. The children at their schools have their
nutrition supplemented through a milk program implemented by the missionaries.
These two day schools serve approximately 1000 day students. The missionaries
also administrate the local university in this region. While the university
currently serves only a small number of students, the bishop in the area has
aided the missionaries in procuring a site for a university campus. With the
help of architectural volunteers from Spain, the missionaries have
architectural drawings for the university.
La Paz
Over 12,000 feet above sea level, surrounded by mountains close to the Andean range, there is a warm shelter in sharp contrast to the cold air outside. In a world lacking tenderness, the City of the Child Jesus in La Paz appears as a place of love and affection, a Christian home for abandoned children and youngsters.
The City of the Child Jesus in La Paz lodges 120 children, all of them boys between the ages of 5 and 18 years. Both the good work carried out by the administration and the good name that this center is earning in the surrounding areas have allowed opening its doors to the local student population. So this coed vocational public school fulfills the needs of almost 500 students. This is a place where children find the love they had lost.
There is one instructor for every 20 children, the same one that accompanies them in their studies and in their lives. Comfortable bedrooms help the young bodies to rest at night whereas ample reading and study rooms prepare the future citizens in sciences and the humanities
The City of the Child Jesus receives its main funding from the production made in our shops: bakery, carpentry and other shops. This is about 30% of the income. Also a Spanish NGO "Help in Action" contributes 25%. Theoretically, the State helps us with 16% of the total budget. The money was allocated from last year's administration, although that payment is not made on time.
The operation of the different shops such as those of carpentry, locksmith, bakery, pottery, textile, and agricultural economics serves the double purpose of preparing the youngsters and allowing for the self-sustenance of the City
A percentage of the production of bread, vegetables and livestock is earmarked for the nourishment of the students. Another considerable portion is sold in different stores around the city of La Paz providing needed economic revenues for the sustenance and education of the children.
Work and spiritual care in the City of the Child Jesus are two essential pillars in the children's formation. There are always moments for reflection and prayer in the life of everyone collaborating in the City of the Child Jesus.
A third pillar is education. This coed vocational public school Child Jesus not only benefits children living in this Center but also children of the surrounding areas. The school City of the Child Jesus offers the students a formal education and the possibility of learning computer skills, and being trained in one of the five existing workshops.
