My name is Maria de Los Angeles Leal Lopez, legal representative of the association “Let's do more, the rest of us” and general coordinator of the “St. John the Baptist Community Center"I work with the general coordinators Virginia Ramírez Luján and Arely González Domínguez. The three of us have been leading this project for approximately 10 years.

I have been living in the community as a teacher for 22 years and that is where the need to serve the children, youth and elderly population arose. But it was little by little. First it was with the children; that work was not only about attending to the educational part, but also the social part.

We realized that I could teach children and young people in all areas of mathematics, Spanish and others. All of them had environments of violence and other domestic situations at home, which did not allow them to develop. 

So, that's where the need to integrate comes from. At first, the most important thing was the children and their education. We tried to cover their basic needs, such as food. We set about obtaining resources to support them with shoes, toys, jackets and other things. But it wasn't enough.

We also noted that nutrition was important, but that it was not just about giving them a plate of food, but that this plate in their life really had an impact on their physical and even mental health, because we said: "if they have the necessary nutrients they can make neural connections that help them in their development."

But we also saw that they had other needs, that they were worried about their family, about the economic situation, about what they were experiencing on a daily basis. So, we were also growing as an institution by implementing the food program not only for the children of the estancia, but also for the youth and adults, as well as offering our volunteers and some families in the community basic products at low cost.

In the matter of youth, I feel that this has been a neglected issue for a few years now. So we decided to work together with La Way, the YMCA (Young Women's Christian Association), which is located in La Venta (San Miguel Ajusco, Tlalpan) because they worked in the whole area of training young leaders, but they also work with them in practice to make their motto of body, mind and spirit, of family integration, of developing companionship and humanism a reality, which was very helpful because they not only worked on the emotional situation with them but also on the training of leaders, of taking action for their community. It was an institution that supported us, we worked together with them, it was very pleasant.

The children and young people here began to grow and their parents began to work with the work that La Guay did and the children were educated there. I understand that they had several sessions where they were taught classes on how to feed themselves and, alone or in groups, undertake projects that addressed the needs of the community. They organized themselves to help clean up their surroundings, they helped rehabilitate the soccer field in the community, they helped deliver food supplies and support vulnerable families.

It was a very interesting work dynamic, but we as an institution have not obtained resources to continue supporting and serving young leaders, even though I know a group of young people who were leaders in La Guay who were willing to return to that training and social solidarity part, because unfortunately that center closed, leaving many adolescents and young people "uncovered", since here in the area there is no other space dedicated to serving that group in our community.

We have also promoted entrepreneurial tasks with women in the community. Many of them are very young, very small, so we support them with entrepreneurial actions. One of our lines of action is the production of jams, another is training in sewing and another in tasks related to the gardens. With these actions, what we seek is to develop a circular economy in the community, for them to begin to earn their money, not only to wait to receive a scholarship, but to develop their skills, to know that they can help the community, that they can undertake, that the most important thing, the ideal, is that they are not dependent on someone and that based on their effort they can grow economically.

However, we have encountered many obstacles. What has held us back since we started this project is that most young people do not feel capable. There are children with very low self-esteem, who say they are used to having everything done by mom and dad, in other words, they do not have big dreams and expectations, even though they have been given the tools to start their own business, but, unfortunately, they do not feel capable.

In contrast, we see young people from other places who are already trying to get ahead at 20 years old, who feel supported and confident enough to take, for example, computer courses, in an initiative in which there is a good family dynamic. In the search for a solution to the aforementioned difficulty, we are knocking on doors to introduce young people with low self-esteem to talks about resilience and psychological support with a team of professionals who care for them.

I think that this is something that needs to be addressed, because it is not just about offering workshops, workshops and more workshops, it is also important to give them socio-emotional attention, because I think that would help the youth groups a lot. This is an aspect that we have been discussing among several organizations and there is one of these, which, in alliance with us, seeks to address the root of this problem with community and integrative therapies to work on the emotional part.

It is important to mention that we are training human beings and that there are also young people in our community who have organized themselves into volunteer groups that organize education and health brigades and manage projects in favor of the community. They are an example of how young people who were once children in our school have now joined as volunteers in the work we promote, which has incalculable value and is a good cause.

To cite examples of good results, in the educational area our organization supported one of the teachers at our school, who was given support to complete high school and her technical career as an educational assistant. Another case is that of teacher Jazmín Cruz Ramírez, who had a technical career as a programmer and analyst, but did not find a job, so she studied a technical career as an educational assistant, which allowed her to continue her studies and is currently about to enter university.

I think these are success stories that we can mention, such as that of some young people who studied at our school as children and have now returned to implement projects in what was once their school, and who can replicate them for the benefit of their community. Some of them have just entered university, others are pursuing their university studies in areas such as biochemistry, medicine and dentistry, to name a few; they are young people who as children were provided not only with a formative education but also with socio-emotional care.

They are exemplary cases that are followed up, although not so frequently, but sporadically, to confirm that they are embarking on a good path. It is a nice thing, that you do not let them go, and I, at least as a teacher, almost never let go of my students and I follow up on them.

And so you support them. I would love it if I could help more young people, but it is satisfying to know that they can support themselves, that they are capable of continuing with their dreams and what they believe in, and yet, I think there is a lot to do.