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Rio Bravo: a HoTPCA partner project
Rio Bravo is located in Tamaulipas Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas (7 hours by car from Austin). The town is long and skinny, with a rail line that bisects the town. Amigos de las Escuelas, an official non-profit spin off of HoTPCA, takes volunteers down twice a year Thursday-Sunday over Thanksgiving and Spring Break to do volunteer work – primarily construction and painting - but also engaging children in play, and doing science demonstrations for the elementary children. Spanish not needed, but welcomed. Recently we have expanded from our original goal of building classrooms for the ever-expanding elementary school in the neighborhood known as Ferrocarril # 4, to assisting kindergartens and elementary schools in other neighborhoods with limited economic means. We have built modest cafeterias to allow breakfast service, play structures, where there were none, planted trees, and built fences to keep children safe from traffic. To distribute the many donations we collect from generous Austinites and Houstonians we now have a “Store” where goods are priced in “Community Service Points.” Local moms, dads, and even children, can work doing community service to purchase items in the store. We have also enlisted a large local volunteer staff to provide tutoring in the elementary school, particularly focusing on reading skills. The volunteers are trained and supervised by social worker/psychologist Marco Gonzales. In contrast to earlier years, volunteers now stay in a modern motel, within walking distance from Ferrocaril # 4. The colonia residents often feed us dinner and sometimes lunch, which provides a real “taste of Mexico.” Please join us on our next trip to Rio Bravo. Want to go? Contact Sam at 731-7662 or Rob robforee (at) austin.rr.com 339-2398. Or check outwww.my-amigos.org for more info. |
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