Why haven't you been in school?

Like most schools, we have students who, for a variety of reasons, miss more school than they should. In this very poor area, the reasons vary from "My mom makes me sell because we don't have any money" to "I don't have shoes". The difficulty is finding out and trying to rectify situations.

In this case, Mercedes (left - 13 year old in 2nd grade) and her sister Katherine (10 and in first grade), and their kindergarten sister had not been in school for a week. Well, you can't really send an email or call, and after several trips to the home (pictured with our second grade teacher Maura), we found out that they don't have shoes.

Simple solutions - we got them some shoes and they should be back.

Appreciate your prayers. May God richly bless you.