1. How does one become a sponsor of a student?

The process is fairly informal.  Simply send a copy of the Ninos Active Sponsor Registration Form along with your contribution of $300 US to our treasurer: Ann Gebo, 2500 Wellington Circle, Minnetonka, MN 55391 with a note that you wish to become a sponsor.  Please remember that students benefit from the continuity of a single sponsor through grade 12.

During the early part of the school year, assignment of students to new sponsors is typically accomplished in a couple of months.  New sponsors who come on board later in the school year are normally assigned a student for the beginning of the following school year.

2. How are students selected to participate in the program

José Bustos, the Niños Adelante director, works with the staff and teachers in all of the elementary schools in the Zihuatanejo area to identify students whose academic performance meets the program’s standards and who can demonstrate the financial need consistent with the program’s mission.  One of the program’s objectives is to select students who will remain in school through 12^th grade graduation.  Based on a strong belief that parental attitudes with respect to the importance of an education play a major role in a child’s education, José Bustos personally visits each applicant in their homes to interview parents and the student.

3. How are sponsors matched with students?

Although José Bustos, the Niños Adelante director, attempts to meet sponsor special requests such as gender and age of student, generally, assignments are made without any particular matching process.

4. How do sponsors know that the scholarship money is used to keep the participating students in school?

The scholarship is intended to assist families in keeping a child in school.  No attempt is made to control or track school-related expenditures to the scholarship payment.  The only indirect control employed by Niños Adelante is spreading out the scholarship payment over the school year.

5. How can just $300 US per year be enough to keep a student in school for a full school year?

Beginning in the 7^th grade, parents are required to purchase all books and school uniforms.  Additionally, many students must ride a “colectivo” or public bus to and from school at a cost of several pesos each way and some students purchase their lunch at school.  At the high school level there is a tuition that includes Social Security medical coverage. $300 US covers only  about half (less for high school students)  of the out-of-pocket costs of keeping a child in school for the 7^th – 12^th grades, which requires parents to also have some “skin in the game”.

6. How many students is a sponsored permitted to have? 

The Organization has no policy limit on the number students any one sponsor is permitted to support.  Our only caution to sponsors is that whatever number of students they elect to support; they are able to initiate and maintain a personal relationship with each student that is so important to the success of the program.

7. Is it mandatory that each student be given his or her sponsor’s name and address?

We strongly believe achieving the program's primary objective of keeping students in school through graduation requires both the scholarships and the encouragement, incentive and motivation of knowing that some cares.  Contact, whether in person or via a-mail or snail mal letters, provides the essential human component of this relationship.  Therefore, all new sponsors are advised that it is there responsibility to correspond with their students.  Many times the benefits extend far beyond our expectations and sponsors become "extended family" of their students and create lifetime bonds.

8. Are new sponsors only accepted during the summer before school starts?

No, we accept new sponsors year-round.  Often we have students waiting for sponsorship, so we can connect students with their sponsors throughout the school year.

9. What happens to a student whose sponsor discontinues his sponsorship before the student graduates?

Niños Adelante accepts students into the program with the understanding that scholarship payments will be made to students who remain eligible through 12th grade.  When a sponsor discontinues his sponsorship, we immediately look for a new sponsor.  Scholarship payments to the student are continued as long as the student maintains his or her grades.

10. What happens to students whose sponsors do not make the scholarship payment or are late in making the payment?

Niños Adelante strongly believes that when it accepts a student into the program, it has a commitment to sponsor the student through 12^th grade, providing the student maintains his or her grades.  Scholarship payments to students are made without regard to receipt of contributions from their sponsors.  When sponsors fail to make annual scholarship contributions we contact them to determine their level of interest in continuing sponsorship, but their assigned student continues to receive scholarship payments.

11. Are sponsors required to visit their students in Zihuatanejo annually?

Although we strongly encourage sponsors to visit Zihuatanejo annually, some sponsors have never visited Zihuatanejo, but correspond via e-mail or snail-mail.

12. Can sponsors make an additional scholarship gift if sponsors believe a family’s need is greater than $300 US per year?

Although gifts directed to individual students were accepted in the past, we are no longer able to accept such gifts.  The $300 sponsorship, however, includes a $50 gift for each student at Christmas time.  At this time, the organization is unable to assist sponsors who wish to make additional monetary gifts their becados.

Occasionally a student will experience a special, acute need such as medical attention or eyeglasses.  Friends of Niños Adelante makes periodic restricted contributions to Niños Adelante which, based on its sole descretion, are distributed to students with special needs.     

13.  Why is it necessary to pay someone in Zihuatanejo to administer the program?

Growth of the program and growth of the community have made a daunting task out of interviewing and maintaining contact with 150+ niños, many of whom are scattered throughout the hills surrounding Zihuatanejo where phones, mail service and even streets are close to non existent.   To aid in this process, a native of the state of Guerrero and a long-time Zihuatanejo resident, José Bustos, has been employed on a part time basis for several years.  José‘s familiarity with the community, contacts within the school systems and dedication to the Niños Adelante program are a perfect fit with the program.

14.  How can I learn more about how I might become involved with Friends of Niños Adelante?

Contact one of the Board members listed on the Board of Directors page.

15.  How do I send clothing and other items to my student and her family?

Due to the logistics involved, we can not offer a service to receive and distribute physical gifts for the niños.  Unfortunately, government mail service is sometimes unreliable and in many areas it is non existent.  Although expensive, the international courier services are reliable, if arrangements are made in advance so the addressee knows of the shipment and the approximate date of arrival.   For most sponsors, hand delivery by Sponsors who attend the Breakfast Meetings in January and February remains as the preferred method of providing physical gifts for the niños .

16.  Is there any effort to include all 7-12^th grade children in a family to avoid singling out one child for special treatment?

Children are accepted into the program based on their family economic situation and their academic excellence. We have cases where two or more siblings with grade point levels of 8 or above are in the program.  By the same token, there are also many situations where siblings are not included due to lack of qualifying grade point levels.  This program is designed to recognize and encourage academic achievement.

17.  Your dental clinic services sound terrific.  Have you considered trying to offer similar eye and hearing clinics to identify those students that may have special problems?

We conducted vision tests for the first time at one of our Breakfast Meetings in 2004.  Our purpose was to identify those students with potentially significant vision problems and refer them to local specialists for care.  The organization also funds the purchase of glasses where appropriate.

We recently were fortunate to have Dr. John Rundles, an audiologist, and his wife, Diane, become sponsors.  Dr. Rundles has offered to organize hearing screenings for our students in Zihua.  We will be working out the details in the next few months.

18. What is the level of local (Zihuatanejo area) involvement in either Friends of Niños Adelante or Niños Adelante?

We have terrific involvement from our cherished principal local representative, José Bustos, a man who somehow finds time away from his responsibilities as a husband and father and as a waiter in Ixtapa to be our local representative.  A concerted effort is currently underway to increase the visibility of the organizations to local professional, business and political leaders.  We also continue to look for a local bilingual volunteer to provide transaction of e-mails, help draft notes to sponsors and generally support Niños Adelante activities.

We are also very fortunate to have the dedicated involvement of two host dentists for our dental program, Dr. Oliverio Soberanis and his wife, Dr. Azucena Acosta Mena.

19. What, if anything, does the organization do to provide support for the program graduate who has the ability and interest to continue his or her education in a trade school or university?

We are very pleased that the Board of Directors established a Special College Scholarship Fund at its May 2005 meeting.  Details of the program are described at Special College Scholarship Fund.

20. What is the organization’s goal with respect to number of students in the program?

If we had our way, every deserving student would be cared for. Right now, with just under 175 students, Niños Adelante believes that it is at  a manageable level for servicing the program in Zihuatanejo.  We put a premium on running a program that we can effectively manage.  We periodically consider the optimum and maximum number of students that we can effectively manage.

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