A throng of Ajijic youngsters and their parents patiently lined up for a long wait at the foot of the Ajijic plaza bandstand last Sunday as a village couple and a band of helpers doled out close to 400 packets of free school supplies.
The grassroots student assistance project was spearheaded by Antonio Gonzalez and his wife Andrea in an effort to support low income families hard pressed to cover the incidental expenses of putting their children through school.
Toño makes a modest living as an artist and all-round handyman. He was inspired to launch the project after an expat couple who hired his services offered to help cover education expenses for the three school age kids in his own brood.He points out that between supplies, uniforms and “voluntary” fees for school improvements, local families commonly shell out 2,000 to 3,000 pesos per child to get them going in the public school system. Multiple that figure for parents with two or more offspring, and it’s easy to understand the financial burden for the many who barely get by with low wages.
Initially the idea was to aid other students who attend the same school as the Gonzalez children, but the campaign mushroomed as word spread through the community. Toño and Andrea compiled a long list of candidates, carefully kept track of resources as they came in and then divvied up mountains of pencils, pens, notebooks, boxes of colors and other classroom essentials into individual plastic bags identified by grade level.
While the packets did not contain all the items school teachers put on their supply lists, each one represented a savings of 300 to 700 pesos in outlay for parents.
The distribution process was seamlessly orchestrated as parents were screened by official IDs and the names of beneficiaries got scratched off color-coded checklists.
Donations in cash and kind were pulled in through solicitations spread by word of mouth and social networks. Supporter Robyn Ziebert says she even rustled up contributions among friends and acquaintances in the U.S.
“Many people here seem to be suffering ‘compassion fatigue’ so we sincerely thank everyone, expats and Mexican alike, who contributed to this worthy cause,” Ziebert notes. “Materials were purchased wholesale to stretch out the funds. All the receipts are available for review.” For full details interested parties may contact her at 766-1960 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..