A Day in the Life- Part II

Left to right: Mayra, Ana, Carmelina, Catalina holding Anderson, Claudia, and Amelia.

In the last blog, we took a look at what happens in the kitchen during a typical day at PFH (check it out by clicking HERE!) Today, our tour takes us to the mom’s ministry building where we find the 6 mothers in our program. Our goal is that these women are equipped with the skills necessary to build a self-sufficient and sustainable life for them and their families. They come to the property 5 days a week to study, work, and learn job and life skills such as budgeting, parenting, how to take care of themselves and their health, and how to succeed in whatever job they choose to pursue in the future. At the heart of everything we do is Jesus, and we pray that His love and care for these women is made evident through all the things we do here at PFH.

Mayra colors her memory verse during an activity in our morning devotion.

The women enter the property at 7:25 every morning, drop off their children in the school, and make their way to their break room where we have a 30 minute prayer and devotion time to start the day! After that, four of the ladies make their way upstairs to study. We use an online adult education program and the ladies work independently on the majority of things with the online modules. The rest of the subjects that need to be learned in a class format are handled by Nidia and Glendy, and English is taught by Lydia (stay tuned for the next blog to see what Nidia, Glendy and Lydia do on a daily basis too!)

Glendy helps Paty with her daily lesson.

The other 2 women who are not studying this year help in the kitchen (we saw one of them, Mayra, in the kitchen last week!) and help to keep this large property clean.

After studying from 8:00- 10:00, the ladies go downstairs to the dining room to grab their snack from Doña Saida in the kitchen! They make their coffee and take a 15 minute break before heading to their assigned task for the rest of the day. Each of the women have a task such as cleaning, mopping, raking, or leaf blowing. If there is work to be done in the Esperanza Handmade leather workshop, the ladies will work with the leather in the cutting, hand-stitching or the finishing of the material (check out their work at the Esperanza Handmade online shop!) The ladies work until 1, when they wash their hands, find their kids, and have lunch together as a family! Before 2 o’clock rolls around, they clean up from their lunch, wash their dishes, and brush their teeth before heading back to work until it’s time to go home at 4!

Carmelina hangs cleaning rags to dry after washing them.

Ana takes a break from raking leaves to pose for the photo.

On Tuesdays, we have a workshop once a month and a Bible study the rest of the month. Last month’s workshop was about the importance of establishing routines at home with their children, and this month we worked on healthy eating and how to assemble healthy meals with the resources they have available! After the workshop or Bible study, the ladies make their weekly shopping lists and balance their budgets.

In their budgets, the ladies learn to balance all of their costs with the income they receive here at the project in the form of “points.” They each have a personalized “income” according to how many children they have and where they live, and the ladies learn to make the most of that budget and spend their points wisely while also putting some in their savings for larger purchases or emergencies.

Catalina makes her weekly shopping list and balances her budget.

At 4 o’clock every day, the ladies gather their things and pick up their daily order of bread from Doña Saida in the kitchen before heading out with their kids. Some of the children stay for tutoring until 4:30, and some of the mothers like to stay and finish up their homework after 4 as well. After that, they all go home to finish homework with their kids, make dinner, and get ready to come back tomorrow for another day here at PFH.

Would you consider becoming a family sponsor to one of these ladies that we serve? Your gift of just $35 monthly helps to move these single mothers living in poverty towards a self sufficient life through assisting with basic needs of food, clothing, electricity and healthcare so they can focus on working through their program and education at PFH. Check out our sponsorship page for more information at www.projectforhope.org/about-sponsorships.

Now please enjoy the bloopers below and baby Anderson’s faces!