According to UNICEF, some 43.5 percent of the Mexican population are children under the age of 18. Due to poverty, many children migrate, with or without their families, within rural areas, from rural to urban areas, among urban areas, and to the United States. This results in family instability and a large number of working children. According to 1996 statistics, 3.5 million children aged between 12 and 17 are part of the formal or informal labor force.
Economic growth over the last decade has made Mexico an upper-middle income country, but there remain tremendous disparities and social exclusion. Approximately 24 million Mexicans live in extreme poverty.
In Mexico City, a city of 28 million people, the needs are massive. A stringent adoption system leaves thousands of children in orphanages. Many children live on the streets. A five dollar daily wage provides little with which to survive. Government corruption and inefficiencies make it hard to rise up. Disillusionment and a fatalistic mindset of communism lingers.
However, a new generation is emerging. The current high school and college students have grown up connected to a global community. They live on Facebook and MySpace, spend hours on their cell phones, and communicate with other students around the world. They are not satisfied with the status quo. They want to impact the world.
You have an opportunity to come to Mexico City to help meet the needs of the city, and at the same time, help this emerging generation of leaders engage in citywide transformation. Below are just a few of the service opportunities we offer through Mexico Focus:
Casa Alianza
Mexico City has 1,900,000 underprivileged and street children. 240,000 of these are abandoned children. In 1991, an estimated 11,172 children lived on the streets in the center of Mexico City. Casa Alianza now estimates the number at 30,000 in the metropolitan area. Most of these children live in deplorable conditions and resort to drug use to find an escape.
Casa Alianza is an independent nonprofit organization working with these street children in Mexico City. They help willing kids come off the streets, break their addiction to drugs, reintegrate into the educational system and find a good job at the age of 17. Casa Alianza works within the context of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to combat illegal adoption, child trafficking and the exploitation of children as a labor force.
Visit their website.
For more information about our partnership with this international organization, email us at info@enfoquemexico.com.
Operation Serve
Mexico is a nation rich with natural resources yet stricken with devastating poverty. The heart of God cries out for the men, women and children suffering with poverty, abuse, neglect and physical afflictions. You can help provide hope and healing by joining an Operation Serve team and ministering to these critical needs. We are looking for:
- Medical, Dental, and Optical Professionals
- Cosmetologists and Hair Stylists
- Interpreters
- Mechanics and Engineers
- Dramatists and Musicians
- Teachers
- Preachers
- Anyone With a Servant Heart
Then, contact us at info@enfoquemexico.com if you're interested in working alongside Operation Serve.
Dar y Amar (Give and Love)
For women only.
Come help minister to young mothers and their children who have taken refuge from the streets and from threatening situations. Dar y Amar provides counseling, trauma rehabilitation and personal development to these young women. They bring them into a safe and loving environment and help them recover their womanhood, while teaching them how to live as a mother and raise a healthy family.
For more information, contact us at info@enfoquemexico.com.
