Tulancingo is located in a semidesert valley in central México. The view is beautiful and green with big cactus trees standing on the horizon.

The area of Tulancingo holds great history from the ancient Toltec and Otomi cultures. Although the inhabitants are mostly dedicated to farming and agriculture, a few other industries are also in the community. Their major products are dairy, meat, maize, barley and vegetables.

Tulancingo is the community where Proyecto Hormiga has worked with the support of Compassion México for more than 10 years now. They serve nearly 170 children from the community and have raised many children in their classrooms.

Most of the children here come from families with single moms or with parents who work either on the farm, as masons or in the nearby fields. The salaries are too small and the money earned to support the families is not enough.

The Compassion program has been a real blessing in the lives of these children; for most of them it means the opportunity to study beyond elementary school.

In the last year the student center graduated 15 teenagers in two different ceremonies where all families, children and staff recognized the success of these youngsters who have been considered “the pride of the program.”

We interviewed and visited some of them in their new activities. (more…)

It’s 11:30 a.m. and lunch should be almost ready, but this home of seven people has only a small bowl of boiling water on their firewood stove.

The father just came back from a busy morning at the farm, bringing some beans that would be used for lunch, the only ingredient of the first meal of their day.

The global food crisis has hit so many people. Guillermo, father of three Compassion-assisted children and another who isn’t registered, used to have a steady job making bricks. But now he is no longer permanently employed. He lost his job because there wasn’t enough demand for bricks. He found another job at a farm taking care of beans and a corn plantation. Those two partial jobs together make an income of about $37 per month for Guillermo and his family.

Ventura, Guillermo’s wife, in her effort to help the home’s income, baby-sits her granddaughter, making about $75 per month with which they have to find a way to cover all of the family’s expenses such as food, clothes, water service, school supplies, soap, toothpaste, etc.

Since the family cannot buy as much as they used to, what they have in a normal day for breakfast is a cup of coffee with bread or just coffee.

For lunch, beans, a piece of cheese and tortilla that Ventura makes. And for dinner, most of the time is just another cup of coffee.

“The crisis has affected our health. We cannot improve our home or buy new kitchen utensils. My husband is working extra but still getting the same,” says Ventura. (more…)