Through one of Maria's oldest friends in Colombia who does a lot of charitable work Maria visited a school founded and run by a nun in the worse area in Cali. The nun, Edith Palomo, started the school about 10 years ago in a barrio called El Retiro which is a district of the dreaded area of Cali called Agua Blanca. Agua Blanca lies to the east of the city of Cali toward the banks of the Cauca river and is actually below the river's water table. It is land deemed unsuitable for housing as it floods quickly when it rains and it is plagued by mosquitoes and other swamp-type bugs and animals.

Agua Blanca became populated by squatters several years ago who took over the land and built shacks and makeshift houses. These were and continue to be very poor people, many of whom have migrated to the city from the countryside due to the civil war the country has suffered. They don't have education or many skills - the women are either maids, cleaners or prostitutes. The men have manual labor jobs, with younger man being part of gangs who rob and kill and terrorize their own neighborhood and the citizens of Cali. It is said that narcos and gerrillas hire people from this area to fill their ranks.

Edith belongs to a group of Catholic nuns who are run from Spain. The group's purpose is to be missionaries helping those in need around the world. It is not required that they dress as nuns and one quickly forgets that Edith is a nun - she is so approachable that one forgets she is a nun. She is highly energetic, a very charged woman whose mission is very clear to her all the time: to help the kids in this area become people who can aspire to more than to kill, rob, be prostitutes or drug addicts. She is an amazing person and hearing her talk about her kids with such love, affection and hope gives one goose bumps.

The program she offers her kids is comprehensive. In the mornings kids are taught regular school. They receive breakfast, lunch and a snack in the afternoon as in their homes they are usually not fed. In the afternoon the kids get psychological help, a program no other school private, public or charitable offers. Edith believes that without this psychological help the kids cannot really be integrated into society. Edith talks about how most kids dread weekends or holidays because they have to stay in their homes for extended periods of time. Often at their homes there is no food and they are abused physically, emotionally and sexually. Many ask her to let them live with her in her Albergue which is a small house she rents about 2 blocks from the school. She lives in it and also lets the worse case kids to stay. Even some of the kids' parents tell her they want to give her their kids as gifts - they don't want them! However, she does not have enough room for these kids nor does she have enough helping hands and capacity to run an orphanage home. She tries to help these kids by finding places where they can live. Edith's days are long and stretched to the limit running the school of 130+ kids, building the new school, attending the school affairs and trying to get donations.

Maria has spent some time with Edith while in Cali, helping her build a website so that hopefully she can reach a larger audience to help her with her center. The center is currently building a new school next to the current school house they are renting. Edith relies solely on donations from well-intended individuals to maintain the school, pay salaries and now build the new school. She continues to work on trying the get the city's Education Department to help her with paying the teachers' salaries but they continue to tell her they don't have any funds. She is very adamant about not receiving donations from politicians whose purpose is not to help but to get her to convince the community that knows her to vote for them. She has also been offered donations from people whose motive is other than to help and she has declined those. Spending time with Edith and seeing how passionate she is about her work and what she does to help these unlucky kids makes one realize that there should be higher purpose in life than just those of our own.

You can view pictures of Fundaci�n Chreme's school, including the kids, teachers and Edith in the album called "Fundaci�n Chreme" in the blogs "Photo Gallery".