We all know, that one of the most significant challenges that extremely poor families face is, building a secure and adequate place to call home. For the Wayuu tribes of La Guajira it’s no different. Their communities are made of family members and relatives, that agreed to live together in a large private piece of desert land, passed down from generation to generation, called Rancheria. It takes quite a ride on dirt roads to reach the heart of the Rancheria, where the main living quarters is located. Consider the whole Rancheria to be their private home. Their living room, called luma, or enramada, is a beautiful rustic canopy that has a flat roof, no walls, and is made with robust tree pillars and branches. Near the enramada, you’ll find the main house, which is literally their bedroom, and considered a very sacred place. No outsiders are allowed in, unless invited due to a high level of trust and friendship. There, in less than a 10×10 sq.ft. space, parents and their 4 or more children sleep, and it is a favorite place for weaving mochilas and caring for the little ones. This main house is made out of mud and dried canes -materials that are free and at hand, and that provide protection from the heat. Nevertheless, they still lack more functional, secure, and adequate structures to benefit their way of life.
Take for example, their schools. The far distance from the closest main road to most Rancherias makes it impossible for the Wayuu people to commute daily with life outside their marked land. Therefore, their school system is home-based, and each Rancheria has its own. The most common thing to find in a Rancheria is school in progress with kids having classes under a tree, or under a very fragile canopy made out of thin branches. The majority of Wayuu children study under harsh conditions, withstanding wind and sand, sitting on broken and rotten chairs, or wood boards held by cement blocks, and, rain or shine, they show up every day to learn.
Unless the Rancheria has a certified school building, furnished, with capacity of 60, and set with a lunch room and food program, children will most likely only complete studies thru 5th grade, using the government’s basic learning program designed specially for indigenous communities, leaving children unfulfilled at age 12 and 13, and with the only option to marry and have a family at such an early age.
In AHAVA HOUSE we’ve fully committed ourselves to build ethnic schools in Rancherias we serve, where God leads us, and where it’s needed the most. We want to provide our Wayuu children a decent, more enjoyable and complete education, in hopes and trust of a better future. Even though we’d love to provide homes for all the families living in these Rancherias, we opt to play it on education, through the building of schools and acquiring the necessary certifications, because we believe that once this new generation skips marriage at 13 and completes studies through High School, then, they’ll be the ones building their own homes and providing their next generation with a better life. We’re doing it ONE RANCHERIA AT A TIME.
Our focus on education began in 2006-2007, when we took over 80 bags of cement and 1000 cement blocks to Rancherias Cari Cari and Arenalitos, to build additional classrooms and expand their existing ethnic schools. On April of 2008 we completed construction of our first, from the ground up, ethnic school, Koleejia Miichi AHAVA -AHAVA HOUSE SCHOOL, in Rancheria Ipamana. The children moved from studying under a tree to having classes under a roof in their own school, furnished, and certified -even without having the lunch room ready, we got certified!
At the present time we have 56 children enrolled in Koleejia Miichi AHAVA. 56 lives that already have been changed thanks to the love of our faithful donors and volunteers. This July 2019 we’re moving forward with the construction of their lunch room and food pantry. We’ll be building picnic tables, a canopy with kitchen cooking area, and a small storage room. We’re also adding screens to the school windows, because there’s water coming in through the windows when it rains and wetting the chairs. We need your help to be able to do all this. Thanks in advance for your contribution and love for our Wayuu kids.
Through our Build & Fix program, we build, repair, and maintain buildings that serve as churches, schools, and community lunch rooms to poor communities in Colombia. We also support building and renovation projects that improve the life of poor families and communities, focusing on structures that represent a threat to children, or spaces in need of remodeling for health and hygiene reasons.
“For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.”—Hebrews 3:4