Mexico

Letter from Compassion Mexico Director, Omar Villagran Arjona

Warm greetings, dear brothers and friends:

My name is Omar Villagran; it is a joy to write to you and thank you for the support you provide to our programs.

I have been the Compassion Mexico Country Director since 2004. I live in Toluca with my wife, Jeza; we have been married for 30 years and have two daughters, Melisa and Ingrid.

Compassion Mexico started servicing children in 1979 with the model of dining rooms, as a response to the needs of children in the poorest states of the country. In 1990 the country office was established in Mexico City. Today we serve more than 50,000 children registered in the program. There are 210 child development centres established in the states of Hidalgo, Tlaxcala, the state of Mexico, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chiapas and Puebla.

Thanks to your sponsorship, we’ve been able to reach these little ones and their families. Due to your monthly support, the children who belong to our program have the opportunity to develop in different areas of their life. We believe that poverty limits the opportunities of the children, hurting them with a lack of health, education and opportunities; as a consequence, many times children are unable to manage healthy relationships with their families and with those who surround them.

In our programs, the children and youth have dreams and goals, and they know that these are possible. They receive at least one medical checkup each year and participate in different learning activities that complement school. They are also fed with a nutritious meal each time they come to the activities. Part of the program is focused on developing physical abilities, where the children learn to play and work as a team.

Each one receives a Bible in which they have found answers and comfort for many of the struggles they face themselves or within their family. We can say that their lives and their family’s lives are being transformed.

Poverty challenges people in every aspect of life, so our fight seems to have no end. Unfortunately, our country has serious nutritional problems. On one side, it holds the first place worldwide in child obesity—one in three adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 years old is overweight or obese—and this problem starts affecting the population of three- to five-year-olds. The problem of excess weight mainly affects the central zone and north of the country.

On the other hand, Mexico reports high rates of malnutrition in the south-east of the country; 7.25 per cent of the children from five to 14 years old suffer from chronic malnutrition in the urban areas and the number rises in the rural areas to 14.5 per cent.

The risk of an indigenous child dying from diarrhoea, malnutrition or anaemia is three times higher in indigenous or rural zones than in urban zones. This is why we are committed to work harder each day.

Compassion Mexico works with the churches that have established the different child development centres. We have started to share nutrition and childcare workshops, teaching the children and their parents to eat in a heathy way with what they have within their area and reach. In our centres, children have learned to combine a good diet with exercise to have a healthier life.

The program of Child Survival has had a great impact in indigenous communities, following up on the pregnant mums and the little ones, and reducing infant mortality rates in the early stages of life due to malnutrition or illnesses.

Besides all the strategies to support the children and their families in our programs, we have seen that the close relationships that the children develop with their sponsors impacts their development. Through your letters and correspondence, children know there is someone concerned for them, someone who is interested in their growth and who constantly prays for them. Getting to know their sponsor through a letter, a photo or a visit inspires them to continue because they know that someone supports them and that they are not alone. Through the programs, children receive the support of their family, their church and their sponsor.

I cannot say more than thank you for all the support you provide to the children in our country. We know that there are millions of children who live in extreme poverty, but we are making the difference one child at a time. Behind each little one we support, there is a family who receives the opportunity to be freed; their entire world can be transformed.

We ask you to uphold our staff and the volunteers in our partner churches constantly in your prayers because our work would not be possible without the effort and dedication of each one of them.

For now, I say goodbye; thank you for all the support and for the heart that you have for our country.

Shalom.

Omar Villagran Arjona

Country Director Compassion Mexico