A fantastic new facility in Tlajomulco will enrich the lives of hundreds of children in two of the municipality’s economically deprived neighborhoods.
U.S.-based charity Children International (CI) opened its fourth metro-area community center this week to benefit the Santa Fe and Chulavista colonias.
Founded in Kansas in 1936, CI supports children in 11 countries across the Americas, Asia and Africa. Funding comes mainly through a program that matches sponsors in the United States and other countries to children in need.
The brand-new center in Tlajomulco will be the fifth opened in Mexico since sponsorship was first offered there in 2005. The three Guadalajara centers offer high-quality medical, dental, nutritional, psychological and academic support to kids from economically-challenged families.
The Tlajomulco center houses two full-size soccer pitches, a 25-meter swimming pool, a paddling pool, a center for urban art, changing rooms, a computer room, dental lab and a cycle path. CI will run sporting programs, nutrition classes, education and psychological analysis there.
The land for the center was donated by Tlajomulco Mayor Enrique Alfaro, while funding came from an unlikely source. In 2009 famed ranchero singer and Atlas (soccer team) supporter Alejandro Fernandez bet Chivas owner Jorge Vergara and businessman Guillermo Romo that his team would win the “clasico tapatio” when the two local rivals clashed in 2009.
The loser of the bet promised to help fund the new center for disadvantaged children. Chivas won the game, but in the end all three men donated two million pesos each toward the cause.
CI will be responsible for funding the center on a day-to-day basis, a cost which is likely to be around 1.2 million dollars per year.
For information about becoming a sponsor of a child call (33) 3121-5497 or visit www.children.org.
Although Fernandez, Vergara or Alfaro did not attend the inauguration, on hand to help cut the ribbon was Jack McCanna, vice president of programs at Children International.
The Centro Comunitario Tlajomulco is located at Boulevard Brasil 80, Fraccionamiento Santa Fe. Tlajomulco de Zúñiga.