San Isidro Labrador Boarding School
“Education for Justice and Discernment from the place of the poor”.
Pozo Colorado, Paraguay. Argentina-Paraguay District
The San Isidro Labrador Boarding School, faithful to the charism of Saint John Baptist de La Salle and to the founding objective of this work, represents a clear option to remain in those places called “evangelically” places in the peripheries “where there is most need to experiment, to imagine, to create, where the risks are greatest and prophecy is most necessary…”. With the sole purpose of offering an educational opportunity to those who would otherwise have it restricted or impossible.
It is an open window to life where children and young people look out every day to see the course of their lives amidst the effort of study, the joy of sharing and the gratitude of those who know they are accompanied, listened to and appreciated.
Main purpose
A firm commitment to a quality human and Christian education for 300 children and adolescents from Chaco, children of farm workers, who live in a rural area with no schools near their homes and who are forced to leave their families in order to receive an education and pursue basic education from the age of six to fourteen.
Distinctive features
- It is a Church option involving three Congregations: the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, with the direct collaboration of teachers and staff who work and live in the Centre.
- It has been a platform for the development of solidarity, cooperation and commitment for many NGDOs, Foundations, Groups, Associations and individuals who, beyond their geographical isolation and infrastructural limitations, have found in it the possibility of carrying out a humanitarian effort and aid for the human, educational, social and faith-based development of the children and youth of Chaco.
- It develops volunteer programmes with the aim of, on the one hand, bringing the outside world closer to the children and adolescents of the school and opening them up to new perspectives of a life based on solidarity and commitment. On the other hand, it offers people who are interested in the world of volunteering the possibility of living a diverse, rich experience in various realities. This experience will make them grow as people who are more committed and sensitive to social and human needs.
Contribution to society
The San Isidro Labrador Boarding School keeps alive its Lasallian identity and vitality by developing its mission to provide the children and adolescents of the Chaco with a quality educational, guaranteed space that protect their right to education:
1 . By providing families who live and work in the Chaco -a vast, dispersed region with communication difficulties- with a suitable place to bring up their children with the assurance that they are well cared for in human, educational, Christian and residential terms.
- By being a witness of ecclesial service of evangelisation and growth in faith by witnessing the life and service that religious congregations have been carrying out since their foundation in 1968.
- By collaborating with society in the improvement of educational and schooling services in a precarious and historically abandoned area of the country such as the Paraguayan Chaco.
- By providing a welcoming space for all those people and organisations that want to live an experience of volunteering and cooperation at both national and international level.
- By including in its educational project values of solidarity, gratuity and service among its students, reflected in the action of the volunteers who share with them a life experience.
The San Isidro Labrador Boarding School, faithful to the charism of Saint John Baptist de La Salle and to the founding objective of this work, is a clear option to remain in those places “evangelically” called “on the peripheries”.
Main achievements
- The experience has been going on since the foundation of the work on 12 June 1968.
- The continued presence of the three religious congregations: the Brothers of the Christian Schools, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
- The presence and work of teachers, monitors and staff with their families who live permanently in the centre, sharing a space of life and community for the mission: life, work, prayer, reflection, education…
- Former students of the school who, thanks to this institution, have followed the path of religious life or education and some of them are currently working in the school.
- Approximately 1,500 students and 500 families have been served.
- Hosting an average of 10 volunteers per year who participate in the school in volunteer programs.
- The support and collaboration of NGDOs and Foundations that trust us every year to implement their projects: Proyde, Proideba, Edificando, Manos Unidas, Ampil, Fundación Santa Librada, Fundación La Salle Paraguay.
Key phrases
HOW DID IT COME ABOUT?
It is a response to the invitation of the General Chapter in 1966 to return to the origins of our association, the preferential service to the poor.
What does it consist of?
It consists of providing a quality educational space with guarantees to protect the right to education in the evangelically so-called “peripheries”.
What is its scope?
It is a firm commitment to provide a quality human and Christian education for 300 children and adolescents in the rural area of the Paraguayan Chaco.
Achievements
Women and men committed to the transformation of society.
Inter-congregational work: the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
The San Isidro Labrador Boarding School is an institution where it is necessary to experience, to imagine, to create, where the risks are greater and prophecy is more necessary.
It is a firm commitment to a quality human and Christian education for 300 children and adolescents in the rural area of the Paraguayan Chaco.
Inter-congregational work: the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
It is an institution where one can experience, imagine and create.
Where the risks are greater and prophecy is more necessary.
A commitment to education for justice and discernment from the place of the poor.