Where We Teach
Tijuana, Mexico - Escuela David Lynch
Kindergarten and Computer / Art / Tutoring Schools:
Our main emphasis at Responsibility is education for the children living in the dirt-floored shacks around the old Tijuana municipal dump. That is where we operate a preschool/kindergarten for approximately 60 students a year. We follow the Mexican Department of Education’s guidelines and add classes in English and computers.
Summer School/ Camp:
Each year we have approximately 150 kids attend camp. It is for all age kids. We have two programs, one at our school and one at the new garbage dump community that is out in the dessert. The main purpose of the camp is for the kids to have fun and to get them out of their colonias. We rent buses to take the kids to museums, parks, pools, movies, and the kids’ favorite place, the beach. We also feed the kids pizza which seems to be the favorite lunch.
Matagalpa, Nicaragua - The Robert Keenan Family School
Kindergarten and Elementary Schools:
This kindergarten/primary school has been in operation for over 10+ years. The students and the teachers have won local and national awards in academia, folkloric dance competitions, and our second grade teacher won the Nicaragua Teacher of Year Award for her creative method of teaching reading.
The Drinking Water Project:
We are now providing drinking water to roughly 600 children.
The ground water is contaminated so drinking water is trucked in.
Scavengers of the city dump:
Eighty percent of the municipal dump scavengers are single mothers with four to eight children. The mom takes all her children to work. Babies come in cardboard boxes and a laid next to the mother while she scavenges for recyclables. Together a family earns about $1.50 a day. Along with recyclables, they usually find breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
United States Educational Programs
Along with our teaching the children in Mexico and Nicaragua, we have been providing educational programs for American students. David Lynch is often a guest speaker at all levels of schools.
On year, Tanner Simmons, a junior at Poway High School in San Diego, California, arranged for David Lynch to speak to the students at the Park Village Elementary School about life in third world countries. The school is following up with a fund raiser to send one child to our Tijuana kindergarten for one year. The goal was to raise $1,400. This entire project was organized by Tanner, a high school junior.
The amount of American students who have gotten involved, visited our school, or attended a lecture is 25,000 students over the past 40 years.
