Magic and Hope are alive in El Salvador

In 2005, we met Maricela Medina and Peter Rodriguez in Santa Ana, El Salvador. We were collaborating with Asaprosar, an organization that works with very poor children who live and work in the market place and the garbage dump. We were training these children to become magicians and Maricela and Peter were exceptional magic students; enthusiastic and talented. Together with Asaprosar and our Scholarship Fund they finished high school and went on to graduate from the best Culinary School in El Salvador. They are working as cooks and still performing as magicians. In the spring of 2015 they wrote us and said, “We would like to start a magic class and do for other poor children what you did for us”.

Ryan Bart, a magician who has worked with us extensively in India and El Salvador, connected Maricela and Peter with the Glasswing Foundation and helped them develop a curriculum for the magic classes. Glasswing has many projects, but one of their most exciting and successful programs runs after school classes for at risk children. From July thru October 2015, Peter and Maricela taught a magic class with 12 children. The course was a great success and they will soon start a second one. In a recent letter Maricela talked about her experience teaching the class:

   “I am a magic teacher for boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 15. My experience teaching magic has taught me to understand the background of the children who, like myself, faced poverty and emotional challenges in their families. By working with the children, I’ve discovered their talent and potential – and that they only need a little help to develop their great character and move forward. Their ability to face great challenges at such a young age is both impressive and awe-inspiring. It is a joy to know that every class is filled with genuine expressions of happiness and that we successfully create a space for their dreams to come true through magic. Together we learn to create new stories and to experience them at the same time. I am proud of these children and their successful work.” 

Glassing and Magicians Without Borders are very pleased and proud of the work Maricela & Peter are doing with these children. This is a milestone in the history of Magicians Without Borders, where two of our magicians have taken all we had to offer: magic, schooling and work, and were inspired to pass that hope and magic on to other children like themselves. Magic and Hope have gone full circle and is alive in El Salvador!!

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