TALENT IS EVERYWHERE, OPPORTUNITY ISN’T!
Yesterday, while working with the children at our mentoring centre in La Terminal, Guatemala City, I (Dunc Dyason) donated a guitar.
Marilyn’s reaction was wonderful. She was incredibly excited because she had been desperate to learn to play. But what struck me most was that almost immediately she was talking about learning so that she could teach the other children at the centre.
It made me think about inequality of opportunity.
Children growing up in poverty don’t lack talent, curiosity or ambition. What they often lack are the opportunities many other children take for granted: access to musical instruments, sports, technology, books, creative activities, and adults with the time and resources to help them discover what they are good at.
For a child from a more affluent background, wanting to learn the guitar might lead to an instrument at home and weekly lessons. For a child growing up in one of Guatemala City’s poorest communities, that same interest may never have the opportunity to develop.
This is one reason our mentoring centres are about much more than helping children stay in school. We want to create safe environments where children can explore, try new things, discover their abilities and develop the confidence to use them.
And perhaps Marilyn demonstrated something else important yesterday. Given an opportunity, her first thought wasn’t simply about what she could gain from it. She was already thinking about how she could pass it on.
Poverty should never be allowed to determine which talents a child gets the opportunity to discover.
Thank you to everyone who supports our work and helps us put opportunities like this into the hands of children who might otherwise never receive them.
