Carlos Omar Santos Henriquez
Birthday: Oct. 8, 1992
Siblings: 3 older and 1 younger
Education: Finished grade 6 last year
Carlos was the last youth to join our program in the first year and the first to leave the program. After completing one year, Carlos and his father decided that it was best for him to stay home and work with this father. His father is a carpenter and the first year of trade school training was in carpentry. Now his father sees no value in Carlos continuing to study agriculture, other trades or junior high as it brings no immediate benefit to the family.
Unfortunately, this is the nature of the battle we face in maintaining the program. The investment is large in each of the participants and requires great commitment from them as well. It is normal that some participants will prefer one component more than others and our challenge is to keep them focussed and motivated to complete the entire program. A key component of this equation is their parents. If their parents cease to support their participation, then you are left to the whims of emotion of an adolescent.
The original information on Carlos is as follows:
He comes from the village of Candelaria and is the cousin of Christian - another participant in our program. We learned about Carlos after one of the original selection was unable to join the program.
Carlos is a very energetic boy who works hard and helps those around him. While he is one of the youngest boys in the program, he is often the first to jump in when help is needed for whatever cause. And talk about energy... I got tired just watching him play soccer the other day at La Roca.
Carlos' father has shown the type of initiative that we are trying to develop in the youth in our program. In each of the past 2 years, the local trade school has hosted a 2 week course on decorative wood lathing and his father made the sacrifice to come in to Santa Rosa each day to take this course. 
He set up a basic lathe in his 'living room' which was powered by a bicycle -- more accurately said - powered by Carlos pedalling a stationary bicycle also set in the middle of the 'living room'. The instructor was so impressed when he saw what Carlos' father had done that he went back to his group in the States and raised enough money to provide a small lathe to Carlos' family so that they could produce the decorative chairs, tables and furniture with beautifully carved legs and stands.
Across from Carlos' home (which is located on the main road that runs from Dulce Nombre to San Agustin) is a semi-finished Catholic church that has always impressed me as I pass by. It's sad to see so much time and effort invested in sticks and stones as opposed to investing directly in the lives of the adjacent residents. At the same time, it speaks of sacrifice and love that drove people to erect such a beautiful structure.