By nine o’clock in the morning, the line of students stretched out the gates of the Museo Histórico Regional and down the street. Inside the courtyard of the old fort Vicky Santoyo, Comunidad’s Ensenada-based Executive Director, and Teresa Moreno, Director of Comunidad’s Beca (scholarship) program, were directing the final setup of the health fair that has become part of Comunidad’s annual Beca awards ceremony. Over 50 volunteer representatives (medical students, translators, nurses and general volunteers) staffed the following stations:

Vaccines:

•Tetanus
•Hepatitis B

Education and prevention:

•Pregnancy prevention
•Drug and alcohol addiction
•Diabetes testing
•Testing for hypertension
•Nutrition
•Self-esteem and life planning (Susanna Martinez Rios: Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, head of Languages)
•A government booth to help with university scholarships

Once the gates opened, the students poured in to attend each presentation, receive their vaccinations, write letters to their sponsors and visit with their friends from other tribes, who they may see only once or twice a year. Vicky circulated among the stations while Teresa, aided by new volunteer Joe Cook, awarded scholarships to over 250 students. Meanwhile, in one of the old prison cells of the converted fort, Comunidad President Tom Hogan and Bill Rush, Director of Operations, met with tribal leaders, government officials and members of the press to promote the organization and plan for the coming year.

The Beca program, in which Comunidad promises to sponsor any tribal child’s post-6th grade education, as long as they achieve certain grades and maintain strong attendance, is in its fifth year and is generating impressive results. The Cucapah students have won one of Mexico’s highest academic awards for two years straight, despite attending most of their classes via the Internet. One of the students missed the Beca ceremony because he was meeting with President Calderon to receive a prestigious academic award, one of only 25 awarded in all of Mexico. And we recently graduated our two first Beca recipients, one now an attorney, the other a newly-licensed Registered Nurse.

More importantly, the tribal leaders tell us that the Beca program is even more important to their communities than the health care we provide and the water and sanitation projects that we have conducted. They tell us that their children no longer have a ceiling on their dreams; that they know now that if they stay in school and work hard, they can go anywhere and do anything.

For information on the Beca program and how you can sponsor a child, please contact Teresa Moreno @ 408-234-1080 or teresa@teifeld.com. To learn more about Comunidad’s other programs, please contact Tom Hogan @ 408-355-0108 or thogan@bajacomunidad.org.