Points of View

You can always look at things in different ways ... just take what happened at one of our programs a month ago. 
 
Our point of view:
Sister Omaira is the director of Hogar Santa Rosa de Lima, a home for 50 girls in Cúcuta, Colombia. She is never late and never misses an appointment. When she didn’t show up for our phone conference call last month, we were worried. When we tried to call her, all our attempts were systematically rejected. This was an important call to discuss next year’s support for her program, and we wondered if she was no longer interested in our partnership.
 
Sister Omaira’s point of view:
At Hogar Santa Rosa de Lima, there are only five old computers for 50 girls. Only three of them work well, and none of them has a camera. When the girls told Sister Omaira that they had a Zoom meeting with a teacher, she gave them the iPad she uses for international calls so they would not miss the class. She knew the meeting with A Chance In Life was important, and that lending the girls her iPad would mean missing the call … but life is made of priorities.

Mahatma Gandhi once said that “action expresses priorities.” Sister Omaira’s actions showed us how seriously she takes the responsibility of caring for the girls in her community. She knows how important education is, particularly during these unsettling times.
 
What the girls in Colombia are experiencing has unfortunately become the norm in many of the countries where we work. With schools closed, the only way to continue learning is with access to technology.
 
About 90 percent of all students (1.57 billion) worldwide were out of school due the pandemic. Although distance learning solutions are available in four out of every five countries with continued school closures, at least 500 million young people are currently excluded from these options because of a lack of access to technology, hardware or internet connectivity.
 
Children and youth in vulnerable and disadvantaged communities are particularly at risk of educational exclusion. The pandemic is deepening the education crisis and widening existing educational inequalities. In our recent En Primera Persona video series in Latin America, limited access to distance learning was a concern for almost all of the families that were interviewed.
 
A Chance In Life is working hard to provide the children in our programs with the tools they need to continue learning at distance, but we need your help.
 
Your donation of any size will allow us to provide the students in our program with internet data plans (starting at $10), cell phones, tablets, laptops and printers. Will you help today? Click here to rush your gift to us.
 
There are always different ways to look at things. But when it comes to your generosity, we at A Chance In Life all unanimously agree that you are amazing. Thank you so much for your help.

Gabriele Delmonaco
President and Executive Director

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