The Parafina Social Project scholarships help to educate children and young people so that they can change their lives and become useful professionals for society.
Near the Paraguay River, a few meters from the center of Asunción, is the La Salle Fátima school, in a very poor neighborhood and housing children and young people of whom almost no one knows or no one wants to know about their situation and who live with the anxiety of whether they will be evicted today or what will happen if the river continues to rise. Migrating, abandoning their homes, their spaces and living in shelters is the story of each year. Surviving, I would say, the environment and society.
In the northern wetlands, things are not so easy. The lack of secure work makes it difficult for many families to support themselves financially, because in most cases, children have to help their parents with some jobs, such as recycling or carnage; sometimes the eldest has to take care of the house and the other siblings as well.
School is the only place of refuge to protect their childhood, to feel safe and accompanied. The accompaniment of a teacher is not only about learning, in many occasions we must forget that role to become the emotional and psychological support of many of them and their families, leaving our own family aside in order to be able to accompany the student who needs it most.
If a pencil or a notebook is missing, we become expert magicians, knocking on doors and trying to get those supplies, because we know that for those students and their families at that moment it is not their highest priority, and how can we compete with Education vs. hunger?
Since the scholarships from our Spanish friends arrived, we feel more supported in this great struggle to give these children and young people the tools so that in the not-too-distant future their story will be different and they will be able to become professionals to help their families and be useful to society.
For us, Parafina is not just a brand. We know Samuel and we know of his great dedication. We had the grace of sharing with him and listening to him. His dedication to the project brought him to the heart of Latin America, where he arrived in Paraguay, entering the marginal neighborhoods and meeting each family personally, where he shared the table and made himself present in the environment where each of our children live and develop. We trust him and we accompany him with the vision and mission of making this world a better place for everyone, and the best way to achieve this is by investing in education.
For us, this project is more than just selling glasses. We know that behind this there are thousands of faces that we don't know but that are somehow part of our history. And all of you behind this dream symbolize that island where we know we can take refuge and that it is a safe harbor where together we will not sink.
Perhaps many people do not see the great action they are doing by simply choosing a pair of glasses, but I want them to know that for each child and young person who is sponsored, it is an opportunity to change their entire environment, it is a smile and the assurance that far away someone is thinking of him or her…
For each one of you for choosing us, for betting on us, on education and a future for today's children, for choosing La Salle Paraguay, I thank you and may Ñandejara (God) always be with you.