Welcome: Welcome to Hogar JUCUM

Thank you for visiting Hogar JUCUM!

Imagine yourself in a small village in the middle of a remote jungle. With stick huts and open fires, it looks just like it always has for hundreds of years. Do you see children laughing and playing? It might look like such a beautiful and simple lifestyle, but the reality is far from it. Many children in villages such as these suffer from parasitic infections due to unsafe drinking water, diseases from the relentless mosquitos, hunger and poverty are commonplace, and many have parents who have abandoned them to pursue a better life in the city. In some of the remote villages in Panama, these kinds of problems are a harsh reality. Life is tough in these villages. As a result, broken families, physical abuse, and alcoholism, is the model many children see while growing up. What can be done about this?

Hogar (Hogar means "home" in Spanish) JUCUM is a ministry of YWAM Panama which gives many indigenous children a chance for a better life through higher education and family-like discipleship. At Hogar, students live with a "dorm parent," a responsible adult who takes the time to encourage, disciple, and assist with the educational goals of the students while they attend secondary school. The goal of the Hogar is to raise up a generation of young people with a solid understanding of Biblical principles, a complete education, appreciation for their own race, language and culture, and a chance to become professionals with the ability to form healthy families themselves and bring transformation to their villages and beyond. Here at JUCUM Panama, we believe in the power of God to change lives, and the Hogar program is chance to do just that.

martes, 11 de mayo de 2010

Welcome to Hogar JUCUM

Thank you for visiting the YWAM Panama Hogar blog. Here you will find all the latest happenings with our students in their spiritual and educational journey. For most of us reading this blog, we are blessed to have easy access to a high school (12th grade) education. However, in many indigenous villages here in Panama, that education comes at a great cost. Families are too poor to send children to school, and the villages that have primary schools only reach the 6th grade level. Secondary school, along with the prospect of going to university, remain for many, an unreachable dream. Tuition, books, transportation, finding their child someone to live with while they are away in the city (at 12 years of age) are things which put a secondary school education out of reach for a family. But Hogar is changing all this for many families. We are finding sponsors who care about the spiritual lives and educational goals of these fine students. We have "dorm parents" who serve as spiritual parents who counsel them, care for them, tutor them, and promote Christ-centered activities for them to participate in (like our recent indigenous worship festival - see photo at the beginning of this post). It is one thing to send someone to school, but we are going one step further and sharing the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ with them in a way they can see and understand. This way they have not only educational tools to help them in their future professional lives, they also have biblical tools to help them in their family lives, their villages and possibly around the world (some Hogar graduates go on to complete a DTS-Discipleship Training School with YWAM and have an opportunity to travel to another country). We are excited to see what God has planned for these students. Please consider partnering with us as we continue to equip young indigenous people to transform lives. Again, thank you for visiting, and God bless!

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We need your help!

Would you like an opportunity to make a student's educational dreams come true? Each student at Hogar is supported by people or churches desiring to make a difference in a student's life. Each student needs $150 per month, and here is a breakdown of what that $150 goes toward:

$40 monthly for food while on base in the evenings and weekends

$40 monthly for tuition

$10 monthly for books and school supplies

$30 montly for school provided lunches

$30 monthly for unforeseen expenses (ex. doctor visits, clothing, school field trips, travels back to their home villages, etc.)

Sometimes a child's parents, if available, will try to contribute toward educational expenses, however due to the extreme poverty in most of the villages, that amount is generally only between $20 and $40 per month.