Engadi strives to empower youth so they can change their community from the inside out. We serve in the Paraíso Neighborhood on 4 levels: 1) The Community — 30,000 people, 2) Public Schools — 2400 students, 3) Families — 300 people, & 4) Individual Kids — 80 individuals. With God’s help we hope to transform this community by impacting one life at a time.
The Paraíso Neighborhood covers only 150 acres, but houses around 30,000 people! That’s a lot of people packed into a small space! Small pockets of people gather for community on the many basketball courts or soccer fields peppered throughout the neighborhood. Engadi has a very superficial impact at this level, but we are at least able to make an initial connection.
We serve the local public school system by offering teacher training and classroom development. Over the years we have served the schools simply by painting their facilities or repairing minor damages. Recently we completed a project to build new classrooms for preschool space. There are about 2,000 elementary school students and 400 middle school students in the area.
The Paraíso Neighborhood is a smorgasbord of dysfunctional families: there are single mothers in their teens with multiple kids; temporary stepfathers just passing through; families with as many as 11 kids from 6 different dads living alone with mom. To truly impact a community we must start by transforming the families. We serve approximately 60 families on a more dedicated basis, comprised of about 300 people.
Engadi stoves to deeply impact one life at a time. The majority of the young men in these impoverished neighborhoods will join a violent gang before their 14th birthday. The sad reality is that once they join a gang, most lives will be snuffed out before they reach their 24th birthday. Joining a gang is an act of desperation, because they see no other way to get ahead in life. If Engadi can offer one boy hope in Christ and a practical opportunity in life, we change the negative future of hundreds of people. We have about 80 kids in our intensive after-school program.
