The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
La Amistad volunteers step up for children
After-school effort strives to improve academic performance.
The long hallway leading to the classrooms smells of crayons, marbles and coloring books. From afar, the sounds of thundering footsteps and rolling backpacks on wheels can be heard.
It is inevitable: The children are coming. It is 3:30 p.m. and almost time for them to visit “La Amistad,” a nonprofit organization that for the past 17 years has provided after-school tutoring, mentoring and other educational programs to Latino children with the goal of improving academic performance.
La Amistad, which means “the friendship,” is an organization led by a group of volunteers — many of them retired professionals — who have lived in Georgia for years and still have a desire to work and help the community.
The program exists as a bridge between two generations: that of the young Hispanic children who migrated to this country with their families and that of the retired men and women who help them every day to complete their homework and to learn English.
“Our mission is to help Latino families to be self-sufficient in their lives and not only for their children to learn English, but also for their parents to learn it and to be able to communicate in their jobs and in their community,” said Kevin Amaya, assistant director of La Amistad.
More than 280 children participate in the initiative, which is offered Monday through Friday in different locations throughout the counties of Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb.
About 25 volunteers offer their time to help the children, including Alba Núñez.
“What I like most about La Amistad is being able to serve the Latino community, not just the students but the families as well,” said Núñez.
Fellow volunteer Mayra Gutiérrez, whose own children participate in the program, echoed the same sentiment.
“The program has helped me a lot, because it was always a battle to get them to do their homework. Now I just get there and make sure they have all their materials,” Gutiérrez said. She added that La Amistad has helped her on a personal level as well, thanks to the English classes the organization offers to adults. “I’ve grown as a person.”
For Vera Woods, a retired teacher who previously worked for the state school system, the program offers a unique opportunity. “It’s a feeling that you really want to be able to empower these children and to empower this community to say: ‘Hey! You know what? You have the ability to kind of stand up and to go places and to make a difference in the world, regardless if it feels that the world is crumbling down right now around you,’” Woods said.