Tuesday 13 December 2011

Congratulations Ramon!

In an article in La Prensa Grafica, ABC student Ramon Sanfeliu is shown receiving a diploma from the Ministry of Education in recognition of being part of the Jovenes Talentos programme. Ramon has been representing El Salvador in the Mathematics Olympiads, including in Amsterdam (where 105 countries participated - see photo below) and also in the championships in Costa Rica, amongst others.
Well done Ramon!

Making a difference in our community - sharing Christmas spirit.

As 11th graders we are feeling the commitment to make a difference in our community. Our mission to make a change started in 9th grade, with our 10th Mixed tutor group, and since then we’ve been working with the Orphanage “San Vicente de Paul” in Usulután. The 25 boys that live in this place are very important for us and we’ve built a special bond with them after the constant visits and have now become part of our lives. To this date, we have visited them five times now and with our last visit on the 10th of December, we’ve made our relationship even stronger.

The purpose of our last visit was to share some Christmas spirit with the boys and bring them joy like we did last year. We arranged ourselves with the purpose of making a “Christmas shoe box” which contained a T-Shirt, school supplies, sweets and toys for each boy. We also collected beans and rice with the help of a charity swim organized by one of our classmates and collected enough money to buy some clothes, food supplies and even some pools for the children to enjoy. We also counted with the support of parents who kindly donated more supplies to help the orphanage.
Sharing some time with them has really opened our eyes to reflect upon what we have and be grateful of who we are. This experience has definitely left a footprint in each of our lives and has definitely made each one of us a better person.

This inspiration to keep helping those in our community comes from Jeremy Gilley’s quote “if each of us do our bit, collectively we will make a major contribution” and this motivated us to help these children with what they need and show that there is always someone that cares for them. Now we have all learnt that true charity is the desire to be useful to others without having any recompense and that making someone smile is the best present that we can have during this time of the year.

Javier Monterrosa and Mariela Gutiérrez 
11th Grade