Cont. from front page, 

A house of hope

Located at Esperanza 16 in colonia San Antonio, Casa Esperanza works with about 90 street children to get them back in school. “The DIM program at Casa Esperanza is set up to help children who beg or sell in the street and those children who are at risk of leaving school to work,” said Diana Amador, head of Casa Esperanza, who has worked for almost 11 years at DIF. Casa Esperanza was founded by DIF in 1999. It offers a kindergarten for children under 6—the younger brothers and sisters of those already working in the streets. 

“After interviewing the families of the children we find in the street, we invite them to participate in our activities.

They attend workshops and receive counseling from our psychologist, José de Jesús Sánchez, who tries to convince the children they must return to school to have a better life,” said Amador. “In some cases, we offer them scholarships so they can continue studying.”

Casa Esperanza also offers workshops and therapy for children with attention disorders or behavioral problems. As therapist Carla Galindo puts it, “We support schoolwork by offering entertaining activities such as painting or drawing, and we try to help children not to feel frustrated by their failure in school. We analyze their weaknesses in school and try to correct them.”

Amador explained that Casa Esperanza also offers training for parents. “We teach them how to treat their children and how to improve their relationships with their husbands and wives,” she said. “If the parents require individual therapy, we offer it to them.”



Children at Casa Esperanza

Each child at Casa Esperanza has his or her own unique story. Nicolás is seven years old and attends his second year of elementary school on a scholarship. He lives in Ejido de Tirado with his mother and grandfather. His mother, Doña Teresita, is disabled –she lost a leg in an accident many years ago. She plays guitar in the streets of San Miguel to earn money. 

“Nicolás’s case is very difficult,” said Amador. “When we began helping him, he was very aggressive. He did not go to school. His mother is not sufficiently prepared to educate him, and he has grown up alone.

She used to sell every piece of clothing we gave him, or she spent the money for Nicolás on other things. She used to take him with her into the street, returning home late at night. Now we have forbidden her to do that. She and the grandfather are alcoholics, and they live on what she makes begging in the streets.” 

Now, Amador and her staff go with Doña Teresita to buy the things Nicolás needs. He is still rebellious at school, but he attends Casa Esperanza workshops and is improving day by day. 

Clemente is from the rural community of La Petaca, on the road to Dolores Hidalgo. He attends junior high school in the neighboring community of La Cuadrilla. The fourth of five siblings, Clemente’s two older brothers, Héctor and Juan, work in the United States and send money to their widowed mother. He wants to continue on to senior high school in the videobachillerato and he would like to be a professional soccer player. 

Clemente was about to leave school because his father died and his mother, who had always been a housewife and had never worked, had no money for his schooling. Currently, he has a scholarship to continue his studies. 

Lucía came to Casa Esperanza when she was a little girl. Now, she is a mother and brings her two children to Casa Esperanza because she wants them “to learn more things than they can learn in school.” “When I met Lucía, she lived in Las Cuevitas, behind the bus station. She used to play in the sewer in that neighborhood and at the trash dump. She did not go to school,” said Amador. “She joined the DIF programs—in those days Casa Esperanza had not being founded—and now she brings her children to Casa Esperanza and she is knows that it is better for them to attend school.” 

For many local parents and children, life offers little in the way of hope, and a life led in the streets can be all the more desolate, dangerous and bereft of aspirations. Casa Esperanza, the house on Esperanza street, is working to change the otherwise bleak futures of the many children whose palms reach out to passersby.

The relief effort continues in Tabasco
By Cheryl Nemazie

A mother tutors her son in a shelter. The father is checking to see if their home survived the flood.

Over two weeks after the flooding began, and areas are still underwater in Tabasco.

A doctor listens to a girl exhibiting breathing difficulties at a mobile clinic following the flooding in Tabasco.

A few boats serve the several families still living in submerged Rio Vigo.

Many of Tabasco’s animals have also had to adjust to a different way of life since flooding began three weeks ago.

The clean up begins in Tabasco after torrential rains.

Colonia Rio Vigo is still under water three weeks after the flood.

A grandmother gives comfort as she waits for a doctor to examine her granddaughter in the park’s free medical clinic.

The flood waters in Tabasco are still receding. Three weeks after the waters began to rise, some people have just returned to find everything in their homes destroyed. Makeshift shacks along the highways in and out of Villahermosa that housed hundreds of families have all been washed away with no evidence they existed. Even in the vicinity of Villahermosa, people are still living on rooftops, dependent on neighbors with boats for transportation to aid centers. Shelters are full, food lines are long, and a strong-willed people try to make sense of it all.

A Salvation Army truck from Laredo, Texas sat in front of the governor’s residence for several days. A hospital spokeswoman confirmed a medical group from Cuba had arrived to help out with mobile clinics. Aside from these two instances, it is not readily apparent if other international groups are helping out.

As the waters continue to ebb, the need for aid will increase as the people begin rebuilding their lives. Some will be faced with rebuilding their homes. Others will have to replace clothing, appliances and equipment used to earn a living. Health problems, unemployment, sanitation and clean-up all pose monumental costs. To lend a hand in supporting the relief effort, citizens in San Miguel can donate by depositing with Banamex (Fomento Social Banamex, Cuenta: 120, sucursal 100) or donate online through the American Red Cross International Fund, earmarked for Mexico at: http://american.redcross.org. 

Cheryl Nemazie traveled to Villahermosa, Tabasco to take photos of the flooding for Atención and report back on the relief efforts being mounted there. For more from Cheryl, visit www.cherylnemazie.com. 

Tabasco reemerges
By María Elena Lomelín de Ibarra

The water level has considerably decreased in some areas of the city and rural communities and completely decreased in others, thanks in part to pumping equipment and, in part, because water has returned to its original location. Although there is still a great deal to do, reconstruction work has begun. We are working 24 hours a day with the army and other staff cleaning the streets, especially in downtown Villahermosa, which was severely affected. People have returned to their homes and businesses to see the damage and to take everything away— furniture, clothes, machines, tools, etc. The city is now undergoing an intense cleaning beginning with the disinfecting of houses and waiting for the rain to stop completely to do the aerial fumigation. Even light rain prevents fumigation, which will prevent epidemics and infections. People are returning to their homes once they are clean and authorized by the government. Those who are still in shelters are still being assisted by the army, doctors, and psychologists. Help is still arriving from other parts of Mexico and from other countries.

On Thursday, November 15, President Calderón came for the sixth time to this city and met with the state secretaries and Governor Andrés Granier Melo, whose work has been a tremendous service for his people. An evaluation of damages, needed projects and budgets to reconstruct the state was made.

I, myself, think that for all people here, this experience has left a deep imprint because of the impact of the natural phenomena, the great strength of water, the suffering of people, the loss of belongings, businesses, and the impossibility of returning home, since there are areas where access is still impossible. The work, the support and the response of people has been extraordinary. There have been no deaths reported by the government. Missing relatives have been located thanks to the great job being done by the shelters. The government, the National Army, the Police and Transit Department, and the civil population have formed a great support team. Tabasco is reemerging again. Its people are brave. There is a great trust in our governor and in President Calderón. We know that there is still a lot to do, and we are all affected by the consequences of this tragedy, in one way or other. But, we are all ready to fight and I think that there is a well-sustained hope. I think we all appreciate being alive and 
the help of so many people.


María Elena Lomelín de Ibarra is a resident of Villahermosa, Tabasco and a member of Atención reporter Jesús Ibarra’s family.

SAPASMA workers assaulted; 149,000 pesos stolen
By Jesús Ibarra

Two SAPASMA employees, a male and a female, were assaulted on Monday, November 12, as they were transporting the water company’s daily income to a downtown bank.

Daniel Trujillo, head of the Public Security Department, said that four men, two between 40 and 50 and the other two in their 20s, intercepted the employees’ vehicle on calle Arenal in Valle del Maíz. “The robbers were carrying high-caliber firearms, and they stole about 140,000 pesos in cash, along with checks,” he said. “We barricaded all the entrances to the city and the nearby streets, but we could not find them.”

According to District Attorney César Augusto Gasca Toledo, the robbers were traveling in a red pick-up truck, which they forced the SAPASMA employees to get in to. They took them to the road to Estancia de Canal rural community, on the road to Celaya, where they abandoned the employees and where another truck, a dark Suburban, was waiting for them.

“Apparently there are some witnesses in Estancia de Canal who saw the events,” said Gasca. “We are also trying to find some witnesses in Valle del Maiz where the assault took place, but people are afraid to testify. People must be willing to denounce crime, which would help the authorities to find criminals.”

Gasca added that the description of the criminals given by the victims is quite imprecise since they were very nervous.

“I caution businesspeople to be extremely cautious and discreet when transporting cash or important documents,” said Trujillo, “and ask all citizens to be careful when leaving their homes alone.”

Police found the woman who abandoned the baby girl

District Attorney César Augusto Gasca Toledo announced that the woman who abandoned a baby girl on Calvario Street, on the early morning of October 22, was caught last Friday, November 16. The woman, 25, responds to the name of Alma Yareli Salazar Saldaña. 

“After several investigations into pregnant women who would deliver around that date, we found Alma Yareli,” said Gasca. “At first she denied it but agreed to submit herself to the medical proofs to determine if she had been indeed pregnant. Afterwards we performed DNA tests to determine if she was the baby’s mother and all the evidence confirmed it.”

According to Gasca, Alma Yarely abandoned her daughter because the father was another man who was not her husband. She did not want her husband, who had been working in the US, to learn about the affair. She could be sentenced from 25 to 35 years in prison.