Education Y Deportes Para una Vida Mejor (Education and Sports for a Better Life) or EDVM is a donor funded organization offering opportunities in education and sports to children in some of Puerto Vallarta’s poorest areas. Through this project, these children receive opportunities that would otherwise not be available to them. In all of its programs and activities, EDVM strives to teach values, discipline, character, self-respect, respect for others and service to the community. Children are encouraged and motivated to stay in school and to stay away from drugs, gangs and violence.
The principal campus of EDVM is Club Vallarta, located in the Colonia of El Salitrillo. Founded in 2018, Club Vallarta began by providing training in soccer to neighborhood children but has now expanded to providing opportunities for boys and girls in the surrounding area in both education and sports. Together with our sister project La Escuelita, EDVM currently serves over 600 children in their before and after school programs.
On the education side, Club Vallarta serves primary school children through a daily program designed to supplement what they are learning in their public-school classrooms. In addition, the children participate in daily recreational activities designed to promote their health and fitness. Children are also offered classes in English as a second language, math enhancement, creative writing and a library-oriented class designed to interest students in books and to promote their imagination. The Club Vallarta music program offers classes in wind, percussion and string instruments, keyboarding and choir.
On the sports side, Club Vallarta programs stress healthy living, physical fitness, teamwork and good sportsmanship. Both primary and secondary students participate in regular classes in CrossFit and other exercise-oriented activities. In addition, the children have the opportunity to participate in classes in basketball, soccer, volleyball and swimming. In all four of these sports, the children participate in league games and meets.
In addition to formal classes and sports training, Club Vallarta also provides for fun activities to include the girls’ club, jazz dance club and Friday night movies.
An important program within Club Vallarta is the Community Service Brigade through which children have the opportunity to give to others just as others have given to them. Activities of the Community Service Brigade have included distributing food to some of the poorest homes in the area, helping another project deliver school supplies to a small rural school, serving as ushers at the Club during Friday night movies and shoveling mud from the streets after torrential rains.
Club Vallarta and the children it serves are extremely thankful to the donors to Children’s Shelter of Hope who have helped to fund so much, including salaries for teachers and coaches, musical instruments and a facility which has a huge swimming pool, a basketball/volleyball court and a large game/exercise room. It’s only through the donations of others that Club Vallarta can continue to give opportunities to some of Puerto Vallarta’s poorest children.