Mil Milagros (“A Thousand Miracles”) was founded in 2007 by Margaret Blood, a bilingual advocate for children who is the Founder and President of Strategies for Children, Inc., an award-winning child policy and advocacy organization based in Boston. Mil Milagros was inspired by Margaret’s volunteer work at Proyecto Semilla, a school for child workers in the tourist town of Panajachel, Guatemala, where she began an informal feeding program for children in 2006.
In 2008, Mil Milagros launched a full-fledged pilot program serving 200 children in two schools: Proyecto Semilla and a small public school in the rural mountain hamlet of Chutinamit. In just a year, Mil Milagros succeeded in nearly eliminating the dropout rate in the two schools: by providing the children with nourishing food, they came to school. This relatively small sample confirms research which overwhelmingly shows that nutrition and education are linked, and that improved nutrition leads to improved cognitive functioning.
After raising additional resources, in 2009 Mil Milagros expanded its reach, partnering with two additional schools in the rural community of Santa Lucia Utatlan – El Mesias, a private Christian school, and the public school in Chichimuch. They were able to change the lives of nearly 600 very poor Mayan children at an average cost of $.85 per day per child.
To learn more about Mil Milagros, please visit their website. To read a recent article about the organization, from Boston.com, click here.
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