The Coronado Rotary Club recently welcomed Corazon de Vida Founder and President Hilda Pacheco-Taylor who shared her organization’s mission for enriching the lives of abandoned and orphaned children in Baja, Mexico.
“In Baja alone, over 6,000 children live on the streets and many more live in dangerous conditions of abuse and neglect,” said Hilda Pacheco-Taylor. “Our organization is on a mission to end child abandonment by breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.”
Corazon de Vida supports 10 Mexican orphanages serving almost 500 abandoned children. All orphanages in Mexico are operated privately as the Mexican government does not have a foster care or a welfare system. The only way to care and support children in need is through a network of private orphanages (or group homes) funded entirely through individual and corporate donations.
The Coronado High School (Rotary affiliated) Interact Club’s International Project supports and volunteers at Corazon de Vida’s supported orphanage, the Hacienda Orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico. Club members visit the facility several times each year where they have painted swing sets, gazebos, cabinets, and murals. Children work with them, and very often, as they meet and play with the youngsters, friendships are formed.
Every child deserves to dream; to look forward to a new day.
Children have the opportunity to thrive in orphanages supported by Corazon de Vida that are safe, loving environments where the basic needs of security, shelter, food, and medical care are met, and education and the value of each child are keys to future success. Integral to the process is the support of hundreds of volunteers, who spend time with the children on visits to the orphanages and who donate to the non-profit charity,
Corazon de Vida also started a powerful continuing education program which was created to provide opportunities for higher education/technical education for teens aging out of the 10 orphanages that CDV supports. Corazon de Vida’s belief is that education is the key to helping teens and young adults break the cycle of poverty and abandonment that had resulted in them being in an orphanage as children.
CDV’s goal is to provide scholarship-based funding for tuition, housing, living expenses and transportation, all depending on each student’s situation. Supporting continuing education for teens provides them with the opportunity to create a better future for themselves, their families, and their community.
At the Coronado Rotary Club’s luncheon meeting, Rotarians met CDV alums Karen Thing, a lawyer, and Ivett Martinez a university student soon to become an industrial engineer. Both young people came to the orphanage as six or seven year olds and have gone to college on their paths to meaningful productive lives. CDV has 20 college graduates and 60 students now in college.
“At the end of the day, the amount of money we raise, orphanages we support, and children we sponsor are not the only way we measure our success – we ultimately measure our success through lives changed,” said Hilda Pacheco-Taylor.
The CDV Foundation 25th Anniversary fundraiser Noche de Gala will be held at the Hotel del Coronado on November 2, 2019. For more information about the CDV go to www.corazondevida.org.
