Panama Project 2023 updates

We were humbled by our experience in Dolega in June 2022. We have been to Panama many times but we had never traveled to Dolega. We learned about our Panamanian roots, love and appreciation for our culture and gratitude for what we have in life. This experience has taught us that there is something to living simpler and how it is amazing how much one can live without. We both feel proud of what we were able to do and want to be able to do more for the community.  

We are still in touch with the mayor's office and are now working on reaching out to Maranatha Volunteers International and put in process a request to assist the only Dolega High School, Colegio Beatriz Miranda De Cabal, in building more classrooms for their growing student population. The proposal that the mayors office provided us in November 2023 is to build another building on the school grounds.  Some students for the school year 2023-2024 were not able to register as there was not enough space for them at the school.

 History of Maranatha Connection:

Ben: In February 2023, my mother and I were researching volunteer opportunities for me to attend in the summer of 2023.  We came across a great volunteer program with Maranatha Volunteers International (a Christian Peace Corps- https://maranatha.org/).  We found a program called the Ultimate Workout.  It is designed exclusively for teenagers in high school who have completed their ninth-grade year; teens are eligible until the summer following graduation from their 12th or final year of high school. One of their most popular and rugged projects, this experience is intensely focused on spiritual transformation through construction and outreach.

After having come across Maranatha, we thought they would be a great organization to request further assistance in Dolega. Upon doing more research and contacting Maranatha, we discovered that in 1996, Maranatha launched a partnership with the Commonweal Foundation to build a large, multi-classroom school building in underserved communities of developing nations. The first Commonweal school, also called Education and Evangelism Centers, is built in Dolega, Panama. (https://maranatha.org/news-events/large-school-complete-in-panama/)

After speaking with Martha headquarters, we learned that we would have to reach out to the Adventist Church in Panama.  Maranatha works directly with Adventist Churches in deciding where they will go for their projects. The request from the Adventist church must go through each regions division, in which Panama’s is the Inter American Division (https://asociacioncentralpanama.interamerica.org/).

November 2023: We will be reaching out to the Adventist church in Panama to begin the process of requesting funding for the High School in Dolega.