Let’s begin with the things most of us already know about the cycle of poverty and how that affects education. 1) People in poverty often struggle to keep their kids in school. 2) In some cultures, kids leave school to go to work and help earn money for their families. 3) It’s also fairly common for some cultures to educate boys and not girls.
Now we’re going to move on to the things that are more unique about the area served by S4P. Because the ministry serves a variety of economic levels, Allen and Trish are trying to speak in averages. Most of the areas served by S4P are incredibly insulated–they are far from paved roads. The residents of those insulated villages don’t see the opportunities that are available in other areas.
The farther a child lives from the road, the greater the likelihood that his or her parents never attended school at all. It wasn’t a matter of not prioritizing education. School simply wasn’t an option for those parents because there were no schools near them. None. Zip. Nada. Even when the Sowers family arrived on the scene 16 years ago, many of the communities had a lot of kids and not a school in sight.
Given that cultural perspective, sixth grade graduation is a big deal. There are caps & gowns, pomp & circumstance, and great rejoicing. In the U.S., high school graduation is seen as a minimum expectation. In the areas surrounding Gracias, graduating from the sixth grade is met with the same level of enthusiasm we tend to reserve for graduate school. It means the child has exceeded expectations! Trish said, “There is absolutely no way to place U.S. expectations on these families and expect it to make sense to them. If a child learns to read, write, and do basic math competently, they are better off than previous generations of their families.”
Allen shared, “Many of the coffee harvesters we hire can’t sign their own names. They either sign with an ‘X’ or they have one of their kids sign for them. It’s not weird here. It is seen as the norm.”
Trish explained the complex emotions she personally feels surrounding this issue. She said, “I feel bad when I see a sponsor upset and grieving because a child has left school. At the same time, I know the child's family is ecstatic - and it’s important to celebrate with the families. When a child can read and write, that is thrilling to their families! We want to celebrate the successes and encourage more. We’re trying to get municipalities to build more middle schools. As more children graduate from the sixth grade, this becomes more likely. And even if we have kids that didn’t finish the sixth grade, more did than ever before. If we used the U.S. standard to judge our success rate, we would… quit! We can’t judge things that way in this culture.”
“In many locations where we work, the population attending elementary schools has doubled since we started our program,” Allen chimed in. And gradually, more and more children are continuing on to higher grades!
“That is both gigantic and a small step,” Trish said. “We recognize that.” Sponsors look at one child. Sowers4Pastors must look at education as a community-wide thing. She added, “From our point of view, looking at the big picture, the program has been super successful. But it's understandable that sponsors are disappointed when their children leave the program."
The program has been so successful that other communities are taking notice. Talgua is a municipality that has some of the sponsorship programs within its boundaries. The school board from Talgua went to S4P and asked them to start programs in all of their schools, which would have included about 13 additional elementary schools. S4P had to turn them down because the ministry does not currently have the resources or manpower to handle that many more schools. If you know Allen and Trish, you know what a difficult decision that was.
Allen said, “Talgua wants the kids to go to school. So do we! If a church comes along and wants to start a program at some of these schools, maybe we can make that happen. But we will still need more staff–particularly more North American staff. We’re praying that God would raise up another missionary couple or two who want to settle in and work with us for the long-term. If you are seriously interested in this, we would love to talk with you about the possibilities!"
Let's end with some prayer requests:
- Please pray for the sponsors who have lost sponsored children, and for the children who have left school
- Please pray that the impact of the sponsorship programs would impact these entire communities and help them recognize the value of higher levels of education.
- Please pray that the Pastors running these programs will impact these children and these communities with the Gospel!
- Please pray that God would provide the staffing and resources needed, so that S4P can help even more children attend school and hear the Bible lessons!
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