Learning Cells
Educational support and tutoring services directly within the communities.
Facing new challenges
When COVID hit in 2020, the Build A Miracle team worked hard to come up with ways to continue to encourage education. Schools in Tijuana were closed for almost 2 years and most students did not have the technology to participate in virtual learning. Furthermore, most parents in the communities we work in do not have high levels of education, so it’s hard for them to help their children with their schoolwork.
BAM's response
This is when the BAM Learning Cells were born. These pods were set up in 29 different BAM homes, where students met in small groups of 8-12 for classes taught by our teachers as well as our college and high school students on scholarship. Over 600 children were able to receive classes each week in the cells.
Continuing the magic
As life began to adjust to a post-pandemic state, we were thrilled to reopen the Community Center for in-person classes. However, we had also seen such tremendous success of students in the learning cells, so we didn’t want to close them. Although they began in 2020 to supplement the lack of education kids were receiving from the governmental virtual classes, we saw that they continued to fill a gap even after schools opened back up. With their smaller group sizes and proximity to families, they have helped so many kids grow stronger in their academics. Today in the cells, students are tutored in all subjects and many who are not at grade level (including some who cannot read at all) are given extra support.
