Dulce and Maria love school and do very well in their studies! This year, Dulce will be graduating. However, it has been a struggle due to economic restraints.

As we work with families and set policies, we try to make everything fair across the board for each family. Part of that process is making sure that each family has “buy-in,” meaning they contribute part of their children’s education. Usually this means that families pay registration fees and take care of the uniforms. However, we discovered from Nancy, that this has been hard for them.

Nancy still has not been able to find work, as it has been taking a while to get her nursing certification from her school so she can apply for jobs again. Additionally, her foot still hasn’t fully healed and it is difficult for her to be on her feet for prolonged periods of time. That said, it was another blow when the school started to reject Dulce from entering. Because she wasn’t wearing the proper school uniform (they give a grace period of about a month), they said her attire was unacceptable, so she could not enter.

Because Dulce is in her senior year and they are training her to be a “professional,” she has a special uniform that the family must buy that costs about 3 times as much as a regular school uniform and it must be tailored. What complicates this even more is that because Nancy is Jackeline’s sister, we constantly try to make sure she doesn’t get special treatment. It’s a rare situation, but we do our best to avoid any appearance of nepotism. As such, Jackeline does not participate in any decision making for this family!

We decided as a team that because Dulce is such a good student who applies herself, it is a way the ministry can reward her while also helping the family in a tough situation. We have done the same in the past with other students. After all, we are investing in their future and so far, we have gotten a good “return” for the investment.

Currently, Dulce’s uniform is being tailored and prepared. In the meantime, the school is allowing her to continue, understanding the situation, and with our help in discussing it with the school director.

Additionally, please continue to pray for Nancy, who is struggling to be able to recover from her foot surgery fully. We were able to help her get a medicated pain-relieving gel for her foot so she can at least bear being on it for a little bit.

Things are getting complicated with her family, especially her grandmother, with whom they live, because she’s recently had a very severe mental crisis and is becoming a bit aggressive. So she’s asking for prayers for this situation and for her family, for God, for her daughters, and for God to provide so they can be able to survive once again on their onw.