Christmas Cards from the
Santa Maria Education Fund


card

Martina, seen here in a Nativity Play, is from a very poor family who live on the outskirts of Santa María de Fe. She is a student at the Institute founded by the Santa Maria Education Fund, but is taking time out to look after her baby. Students like this would have no hope of further education and future employment but for the generosity of overseas donors.

The picture is on the front of the card, and the above text on the inside. On the facing page there are Christmas Greetings in English, Spanish and Guarani.
For more information about Martina and Santa María see below.

Other designs also available: click on the pictures for more information and a bigger picture
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These cards are priced at £3.95 for 10
plus postage and packing: £1.95 for up to 30; £2.95 for 31 - 70; £5.50 for over 70.

contact Mimi Stephens, Lee Cottage, Blockley, Moreton in Marsh, GL56 9HH.
or email at info@santamariadefe.com

The Santa Maria Education Fund is a UK registered charity, no.1105031

Back to the Santa Maria Education Fund Home Page smef



Martina -- photographed as Mary in a nativity play -- is a small person with a big smile and a slight gap between her two front teeth. The Jesus is her own baby. She and her partner Dani live right down on the outskirts of Santa María among the poorest, in the area known as the orilla or “shore”. They are part of a numerous family, and quite a few of Dani’s grown-up sisters and their families live in little huts on the same site and share the same single, outside tap.

One of Martina’s sisters-in-law works in the craft workshop, two others take part regularly in the local basic Christian community, another sister-in-law is now testing her vocation as a religious, and another was one of the Institute’s first group of graduates. One of her brothers-in-law received SMEF’s help to qualify in micro-mechanics on a distance learning course.

Martina began to study at the Institute in 2003, but she always needed a lot of encouragement because of her fear that she would not be able to pay the expenses for exercise books, ink, uniform T-shirt, electricity bill etc. I had to remind her several times of my strong belief that no student should ever have to leave the Institute for lack of money, but that we would work together to find a solution for even those tiny expenses that students are expected to pay. There are a number of fundraising activities that our students are used to taking part in, such as bingo evenings, raffles and the selling of home cooking. In this way they make a small contribution of their own to show their commitment to the opportunity they are given.

I always felt that Martina was more ashamed to admit to her poverty than most of her contemporaries. She would rather go off and hide than say that she was too poor to afford something. When she became pregnant and the date for the delivery came close she was advised that the delivery had to be by caesarean section, and she became very anxious about her inability to pay the bill. We are fortunate to have a wonderful Children’s Villages SOS hospital in the next town of San Ignacio, and I knew that they would not deny her the medical help she needed. I even went to speak to them about it, and they confirmed that she need not worry: those who cannot pay even the token charges they ask for remain in debt, but are not denied either present or future treatment. I gave some domestic work to one of her sisters-in-law to help a little with Martina’s bill, so she could at least have the dignity of being able to contribute something.

The baby is fit and healthy, and it was great to see the two of them playing the star roles in the nativity play, in the church on Christmas night. It was a splendid production, with a group of little demons in red masks, a boy crawling around as a sheep with a sheepskin over his back, and a parallel contemporary story about a young girl being driven from home when she became pregnant. The stable was a leafy bower, dotted with pink, blue and yellow flowers. We were in midsummer, remember!

Martina produced good work while she was studying at the Institute, but because of the date of her delivery she missed one or two of the end-of-year exams. However, she has a good base on which to build when she is able to pick up her studies again. At a quick count, there are already 104 students who have been enabled to take part in a major educational programme thanks to SMEF, in addition to a wider group running into hundreds who have received some minor help such as the purchase of exercise books.
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