Chinatown is the center of the Chinese community in Chicago. While gentrification has watered down many of the ethnic neighborhoods in the city, Chinatown still goes strong and continues to grow.
Marisol, Lina, and I would like to express a heartfelt thanks to every donor who made this project possible. In just over a month, you were able to completely make over a school and change the lives of 30 students.
The school building, as mentioned in the video in the previous post, had several problems. It hadn’t been painted in many years, the roof had huge holes in it and leaked terribly every time it rained, and the school was in bad shape in general.
In Belén de Umbría, a tiny two-room school serves a marginalized community. Andrés Escobar Primary School has two teachers and 30 students from preschool to 5th grade. Many of the students have discipline issues or learning disabilities. Some come from broken families, have just one parent, or are raised by their grandparents. A few students have been displaced by violent conflict in Colombia while others have drug addicts or prostitutes in their families. All of the students come from very low-income families that struggle to afford school supplies, uniforms, and lunches.
Buga, one of Colombia’s prestigious Heritage Towns (Pueblos Patrimonio), is not typically on the tourist radar. This small Colombian city of nearly 100,000 attracts over three million Catholic pilgrims a year to the Basilica of the Lord of Miracles (Basílica del Señor de los Milagros), but there are other points of interest to visit besides its beautiful churches.
Cali has Colombia’s first cinematography museum, Caliwood, which was founded in 2008. This museum is packed with a collection of projectors, cameras, movie posters, memorabilia and more. Some of the equipment dates back to the very first days of cinema.
In Colombia’s Coffee Region, people get around by bus, motorcycle, and private vehicles, but one mode of transportation sticks out above the rest – the Jeep Willys. It’s not just a loud vehicle rumbling down the road, it’s an important Colombian cultural icon.