In 2005 I traveled to Guatemala for a language school. I lived with a local family and became friends with Mina, the cook/housekeeper. Though she was the same age as my daughter, I learned that she had never had the opportunity to attend school.

Mina, her infant daughter, Diana, and I visited the local adult night school and learned that there was an old storage closet that we could use for a nursery so that Mina and several other women would be able to attend school in the evening. That was July. I promised Mina that the nursery would open by January when the new school year began.

I returned home the next day. Emails to family and friends led to donations that would pay for a teacher's salary. Patty, my host mom from Guatemala, interviewed and hired a wonderful teacher. Her high school aged son and his friends emptied out the room at the adult night school and painted it.

In January, 2006, Mina and two other women began evening classes while their children were cared for in the nursery. This continued for two years and came under the umbrella of Casa del Niño.

In 2008, Casa del Niño was given a piece of land in Jocotenango and the goal of the organization became the development of a community center. My connection with that organization has continued to grow and is the focus of this facebook page.

In addition to family and friends, our donors have included Downingtown Friends Meeting, Chester County Reading Association, Rotary Club of West Chester, East High School Interact (Rotary), Stetson Middle School ESL Classes and In Ian's Boots.

If you have read this far, muchas gracias!

Peggy Pillard