This school for girls in Huajuapan de León is one of the first schools to receive a Kids on Computers® computer lab. It is formally known as Centro Apostolico Femenino Santo Domingo, but in conversation we refer to it as The Girls’ School. The school is managed by an order of Catholic nuns and exists to house and educate girls in their adolescent and young adult years. The resident girls come from hostile and threatening domestic environments. While living there they are taught skills that can allow them to live productively and independently without needing to return to the circumstances they experienced earlier.
Kids on Computers® founders who were familiar with Huajuapan de León were aware of this school and the school’s wish to teach computer skills. With considerable help from local volunteers, a room was made available and modified to house a computer lab. Some of the computers transported to Huajuapan de León in 2009 were installed at this school’s lab. The residents and the staff were courteous and very grateful on all our visits there.
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When Kids on Computers® volunteers visited the school in October 2012 there had been a change in the school’s administration. The new Mother Superior wanted a different direction for the lab and in the computer technology that was used to train the girls. Her view was in conflict with Kids on Computers® principles and after several meetings we were unable to reach an agreement.
We consider the effort a success while it existed, but we each have gone in divergent directions. We count the Santo Domingo Girls’ School as a former computer lab.