Centro Educativo Ñandejara

Help For Children In Paraguay

For more than 25 years the Children´s Home and Education Center Ñandejara has been a place that offers help to Paraguayan children and teens. In this Center education goes along with support, spiritual care, and mission. Help in any problem, whether misery, poverty, disease or anything else shall be a testimony of the Christ´s love.

The House Of Love

In 1976 we (Mónica Huck and Gastón Guzmán) responded to the call of God that lead us to emigrate from Argentina to Paraguay to give a home to orphans and abandoned children. In 1981 began our missionary work in Limpio with the orphanage “Hogar de Niños Ñandejara / Casa ÁGAPE” (Children´s Home Ñandejara – House of Love) under the legal covering of “Asociación Evangélica Asambleas Bíblicas del Paraguay“ (Evangelical Association of Biblical Assemblies Paraguay).
For this project an estate in the town Limpio close to Asunción (25 km) was found. Here we gave a home to 54 orphans or abandoned children and with our two own sons we all lived together as a family.
After 25 years, when the adopted children reached adulthood and became independent the Children´s Home Ñandejara became a day-care center which includes social help for needy children.

Christian Beliefs Are Foundational

In 1983 Ñandejara School and Preschool were founded on the same property as the children’s home and according to the “Resolución Ministerial Nº 123“ (ministerial resolution No. 123) it became part of another Christian education center. A few years later we freed ourselves from this resolution and the school became independent. So the Centro Educativo Ñandejara received principles and a clear vision for mission, these fundamentals are lived and pursued since then up to the present.

The foundation of our school are our Christian beliefs and all our teachers are Christians. In giving the students a general foundation of knowledge and what it means to believe in Christ we hope that they will want to contribute their part to change their county Paraguay in a positive way.

1989 was the first year where a complete basic education (1st -9th grade) was offered and the school began to grow. Not only the number of students increased, but there were also added new and better buildings, improved didactic material and a better preparation for Christian teachers etc.
During this year we started a new teaching system which is still based on what the MEC (Ministerio de Education y Cultura – Department of Education) requires, but also contains new strategies that prove to be very efficient considering the success and the high reputation of the Centro Educativo Ñandejara. Up to the present this high level has been maintained and consistently improved.

Approximately half of the students are supported by sponsored scholarships from Germany. In this manner many children with poor and difficult family backgrounds have the chance to get a good general education in order to get into university or the get a good apprenticeship training position. Summing up this means they get a new positive perspective for their future.

Preparing adolescents for their future

Year by year we reach new stages in expanding the program of our school as we follow fixed aims.

In 1995 we began to offer classes for 10th-12th grade which is optional in Paraguay. This part of our education center was officially opened with the “Resolución Ministerial Nº 284” (ministerial resolution No. 284).
Herewith another part of our vision became true, to prepare adolescents for their future in offering specialized classes. The “MEC” (Department for Education) accredited to offer those classes and the students are now able to graduate in book keeping or computing. The success of those classes can be seen in the feedback from the internships that our pupils have done with different companies.

In 2006 another scientific track was added with a focus on basic science to give the students another opportunity to prepare for their higher education.

Influencing Paraguay in A Positive Way

What began with a house for the children´s home and a few rooms for the school nowadays is an education center with 7 buildings for approximately 700 students.

It is a pleasure to see how over time the lives of many dysfunctional families have been stabilized through the school’s influence. Every month we offer parents meetings that are well attended by many parents and in which we talk about upbringing, family life and various social problems. There is not an immediate solution for every problem, but through God´s help we can give hope and in many cases we can support practically.

We are expecting new challenges every year!

Mónica Huck de Guzmán and Gastón Guzmán