Aver School

2011 Final Works Slideshow

Ruth Hartmann — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:26:17 +0000

Applying for the Startup Training School Scholarship

Ruth Hartmann — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 08:57:33 +0000

Lea and Jonathan Woodward of Location Independent announced recently a new program called Startup Training School designed to give entrepreneurs the opportunity “to learn all the skills – design, website & technical – you need to brand, set up and run your online business.” And there are four scholarships available for the first part of the program. That means over $1,000 worth of training for free!

As you can imagine, this is an excellent opportunity to get skills that will help me take Aver School to the next level—which at this point involves fundraising to get better equipment and scholarship money to send Aver School students to the university to study cinematography, photography and digital media.

The ability to design marketing materials and update websites whenever I need to means I can respond faster to opportunities that may come up in fundraising. These skills will help me to communicate better all-around. To apply for the Startup Training School scholarship, I needed to write a blog post and/or create a video. How about both?

The video was shot on location at Puebla, Mexico just before the start of the 2011 workshop at Esperanza Viva Youth Home (being held this week). In the video, you’ll get to see Luz, an Aver School student who is fascinated with cinematography and whose big dream is to get a degree in cinematography from a university in the USA, a challenging, but not impossible dream.

Also, as you can see from the video, we are in desperate need of better equipment. All we had available is an older Canon PowerShot camera. Better design, website & technical skills will help me to communicate the Aver School vision more quickly and effectively, thereby making it easier to grow our community of supporters.

Aver School 2010 Final Works

Ruth Hartmann — Tue, 25 May 2010 06:33:54 +0000

The youth at Esperanza Viva continually inspire everyone around them to reach higher, go a little bit further in expressing creativity. For the past four years, the workshops have been held in the courtyard at the main youth home and every year the kids succeed in photographing something new in spite of being in the same place.

To the young photographers: Thank you for sharing what you see with us; it is truly wonderful to see the world through your eyes.

Update: Driving in Mexico

Ruth Hartmann — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In a previous post, I wrote about a conversation I had with several boys at Esperanza Viva about driving a car. They were all very eager to learn how to drive and also very unsure as to how that was going to happen in their lives. So I asked one of the staff members how/when the kids learn to drive:

The ones that are now or at one point serving in the ministry are asked to get their drivers license and are taught to drive. Once again we are just coming to that point where we have an abundance of teens that are now looking to the future so we don’t have a specific program if you will, we are in the process and are taking them one teen at a time depending on where they are at in their life. At this point most of the teens are still in high school and don’t have access to ministry vehicles nor do they have their own so they are not driving. – Juana Perez

Jerry and Susy McNally founded Living Hope International in 1999. Originally from Minnesota, they had lived in Oaxaca, Mexico for seven years, planting churches and developing leadership in remote, indigenous villages before moving to Puebla, Mexico in 1994. There, an encounter with a boy living on the streets changed the course of their ministry as they felt God challenging their hearts and their faith. This led them to begin Esperanza Viva Youth Home, a ministry dedicated to rescuing and restoring abandoned children.*

I have been visiting kids at EV for several years and have witnessed the incredible commitment and love that the staff at EV have for the 100+ children in their care. Like Juana said, for the first time, EV has entered a phase where there are quite a few teens and young adults — unchartered territory with its own unique set of challenges and new needs — such as learning how to drive a car.

See the full gallery on Posterous

According to Puebla’s Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes website (Department of Communication and Transportation), one has to be 16 years old, pass a visual exam and written test in order to obtain a driver’s license. No actual Driver’s Ed class is required. I have posted screenshots in English and Spanish of the specific requirements.

Thank you, Esperanza Viva, for taking into consideration where each one of your charges is at in life and for teaching them to drive when the time is right. – Ruth Hartmann

*Quoted directly from the Esperanza Viva website.

“Do you know how to drive?”

Ruth Hartmann — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:25:00 +0000

One of the sweetest moments I had during my time at Esperanza Viva happened on the day that I went back to edit the audio interviews with the video team.

A friend loaned us their car during our stay in Puebla so that we wouldn’t need to take taxi cabs and public buses, which is altogether a different type of an adventure. When you pull up to EV, short for Esperanza Viva, there’s a way of honking the car horn that basically means “open sesame” and results in the gate keeper opening up the gate so the car can drive in.

See the full gallery on Posterous

So on this day, I honk the horn, drive inside, park and as soon as I opened up the driver’s door there were five boys, ages 8-14, crowding in to pepper me with questions about the car:

“Is this your car?” – No. I’m borrowing it.

“Someone let you borrow their car?” – Yes. Can you believe it?

“Do you know how to drive?” – Yes. I do.

“Is it hard?” – No, it’s not too hard, you just need to practice a lot.

“How do you roll down the windows?” – With that button over there.

“What is this button for?” (As the 8 year old rolls up the window on German’s neck who had just poked his head into the car on the passenger’s side). – Please push the button the other way!

“How do you accelerate?” – With this pedal.

“Did you drive this car all the way from the States?” – No, my friend lives here in Puebla.

Which led to:

“Are you taking the car with you when you leave?” – Not, I have to return it.

“When are you leaving?” – In two days.

“Why are you leaving?” – Because I have to go back home.

“When are you coming back?” – Maybe in September.

“When is Valentina coming back?” – Yes, in September.

“What about the new video teacher, is he coming back?” – I’m not sure, would you like him to?

The boys were so, so sweet. At some point in time, there was a little break and I asked them if they knew how to drive a car:

“No!” was the all-around answer.

Well, do you want to learn? – “Yes!” “Definitely!” “Si!”

So who will teach you? – “I don’t know.” “We don’t have anyone to teach us.” “I think when we get older we can learn to drive the van if we work here.”

Conversations like these are so motivating to me. My Dad taught me to drive our pickup truck when I was about eight and my brother was driving a small tractor when he wasn’t much older than that. Granted, growing up on a farm made this possible because we had our own private roads and wide open fields with no one to run into. But still, we learned when we were young, got lots of practice and most importantly, had someone to show us how.

As of now, the kids at EV don’t have anyone that will teach them to drive*. They will have to wait until they are 18 or older and somehow take a class or find someone with a car to teach them. It blows me away to think that there are millions and millions of kids that don’t have a way to learn basic life skills, and even more that I personally know some of them.

Actually, something similar is what inspired Aver School. I knew some kids that wanted to learn about cameras and taking pictures that didn’t have anyone to teach them. Now they do.** And it feels great to be a part of this experience.

Anyway, back to the topic, driving a car seems like an important skill to have in the USA, although I’m also aware that there is a segment of the population that doesn’t own a car or drives. I’d love to hear about your experiences in learning to drive a car, at what age did you learn, who taught you? And what does being able to drive, or not, mean to you? What opportunities have you been able to take because of knowing how to drive? What would you have missed out on if you didn’t?

*This conversation happened on my last day at EV and I didn’t get a chance to ask a staff member about this. I’ve emailed them and am awaiting a response.

** Aver School workshops happen every year thanks to many caring supporters and professionals in the photo, video and audio fields that donate their time, money, energy and skills to the kids at Esperanza Viva. Special thanks to Maggie Pettit, Cormac Pope, Stan Hartmann, Chris Watkins, Valentina Vitols, Ryan Bello and Brett Renville for traveling to Mexico and for being so willing to share your expertise with the kids.

Learning about editing audio interviews (and other good news)

Ruth Hartmann — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:14:00 +0000

On Monday, I went to Esperanza Viva again and guided the video team as they created an audio rough cut for the documentary interviews. Brett and I will be using their notes to make the final edits back in Seattle; I was impressed with their commitment and dedication in sitting down for 4 hours straight to get as much editing done as possible with our limited time availability.

On another note, the owners of Musa, a very groovy indie coffee shop are very interested in letting Aver School use their space to show the kids’ photos and documentary. I’m so excited to have found this spot! And can’t wait to see the kids reactions to seeing their photos on display in their home town!

Photo: Audio time code for Eleazar’s Interview.

Gracias Seattle – Thank you for donating your cameras.

Ruth Hartmann — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:28:00 +0000

Aver School and fifteen of the photography students want to say a big thank you for the camera donations for the March 2010 workshop at Esperanza Viva. The cameras made a big difference and enabled us to open up the workshop to 10 more kids than we had last year. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

The next Aver School workshop is scheduled for September 2010. If you have a digital camera in good working condition that is sitting on a shelf quite bored, please consider sending it on an adventure to Mexico. To donate your camera please email us: averschool¨-at-gmail.com.

“It’s a wrap!”

Ruth Hartmann — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:05:00 +0000

First of all, a big thank you to Valentina Vitols and Brett Renville for teaching at Esperanza Viva this past week. You inspired the children to reach for their dreams and graciously led them to increase their their photo, video and audio skills in the midst of the somewhat chaotic circumstances.

I had the opportunity to assist Blanca, one of the camera operators, during the third day of shooting and was so moved when out of the blue she stopped, looked at me with bright, cheery eyes and said: “I love this! I just love all of this!” referring to making the documentary. It is so immensely rewarding to see the kids enjoying learning new skills and genuinely having a good time.

Day 3 Video Crew in order of appearance:

1. Blanca. Photo by Ana Luisa.

2. Graciela. Photo by Jorge.

3. Leandro. Photo by Jorge.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Braulio’s Amazing Self-Portrait

Ruth Hartmann — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:43:05 +0000

Valentina Vitols, Aver School’s talented photography instructor, just
showed me one of Braulio’s photos and the photo just made me want to
cry. It is simply amazing. It is clear proof that the kids are
absorbing everything we are sharing with them.

Braulio, age 13, chose to do a self-portrait as his personal project.
His work speaks for itself.

Photo #1 – Self-Portrait. Photo by Braulio.
Photo #2 – Braulio. Photo by Valentina Vitols.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Behind the Scenes

Ruth Hartmann — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:25:18 +0000

The ten students in the video group are making a documentary about their new home that is currently in construction. Esperanza Viva Youth Home has raised over $800,000 US Dollars to purchase the land and begin construction of their home. We’re sharing some behind-the-scenes photos of today’s shoot.