Putting the Pieces Together

ANTIGUA, Guatemala--For most of the kids who frequent the library where I am volunteering, the favorite activity seems to be working on jigsaw puzzles, or in Spanish,  rompecabezas  (headbreakers).

Some choose coloring books, others like to read to themselves or with an adult. But rompecabezas--a quiet activity you can work on alone or with a big sister--definitely are the big winners. The ones with a dozen large pieces are great for the littlest kids. Older kids like more complex puzzles, the ones with the little pieces and the prettiest pictures. (Evelyn, at left, finished this 300-piece puzzle in about an hour.) It school vacation time, so there's no homework to do, after all.

The library is part of the Family Development Center run by Common Hope (Familias de Esperanza), a proyecto--project--just outside the touristy center of Antigua. The main goal of Common Hope is to break the cycle of poverty by helping poor kids get an education.

Here, you don't do that by putting up posters with Stay in School slogans. To support the kids, the project helps with school fees, uniforms, supplies and the like. (Primary school here is technically free and mandatory, but in reality it's neither. In the school year that just ended, the government for the first time forbade public schools charging enrollment fees. These fees were small change by U.S. standards, but huge for a peasant family with next to nothing. Enrollment throughout the country soared.)

To support families and thus keep the kids in school, Common Hope also helps with medical care (there's a clinic at the center) and employs social workers. In addition, there's a popular program that builds houses through a sweat equity system somewhat similar to that of Habitat for Humanity.

There are about 2,600 affiliated kids, that is, children who are enrolled in the program. Most of the money comes from people (generally foreigners) who sponsor individual kids by paying $30 or $60 a month. Sponsors receive occasional updates on a child's progress and notes from him or her. Many of the sponsors first come in contact with Common Hope through regular tours the group gives to people visiting Antigua. (That's how I fell into it several years ago.)

Of course, the organization always welcomes new sponsors. But if you're headed down this way and have a little extra room in your suitcase, the kids would also appreciate any jigsaw puzzles you happen to bring along.