Riding for a Reason: Creating Brighter Futures with JustWorld International
When I went to a JustWorld International fundraising event last year, I was excited to spend an afternoon with my family and to maybe bid on something at the auction. I definitely didn’t expect that winning a bridle would lead me to become a JustWorld ambassador.
JustWorld is a nonprofit dedicated to creating brighter futures for children and families through education, nutrition, healthcare, and community development. Today, it supports four primary projects in the Glades region of Florida, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Jocotenango, Guatemala; and Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The challenges facing these communities are very different, and so are the solutions. That’s why JustWorld works with local partners to provide the resources and opportunities each community needs most.
My own connection to JustWorld began last year when my sister and I visited my Aunt Olexa in Wellington, Florida. Because Wellington is such a huge equestrian community, many of the items in the event’s auction were horse-related. Although I ended up winning a beautiful dark brown leather bridle that I now use, I actually left with something even better: an introduction to JustWorld and their ambassador program. JustWorld was founded by equestrian Jessica Newman and has deep roots in the equestrian community. The ambassador program immediately appealed to me because I loved the idea of using something that is already such a big part of my life to help other people.
From right to left: Alexandra Chang, JustWorld’s Elena Corsano, Olexa Celine, and me at the JustWorld Home for the Holidays Social
I am particularly excited about visiting the schools that JustWorld supports and working with the kids in person! Each year, JustWorld ambassadors visit schools in Florida, giving us the chance to see the impact of the organization’s work firsthand. I’m hoping to take part in one of those visits this winter so I can meet and read with some of the kids.
As I’ve become more involved with JustWorld, I’ve also learned more about the communities and people behind each of its projects. What I find especially interesting is how different those communities and their needs are.
In the Glades region of Florida, for example, one of those challenges is low literacy. Many children have limited access to books and writing materials, making it difficult to develop strong reading and writing skills. To help change that, JustWorld partners with StoryBook Treasures to provide literacy kits five times a year to students at Pioneer Park Elementary School and Pahokee Elementary School. The kits have made a huge difference: According to the JustWorld International website, between 2019 and 2022, third grade reading proficiency at Pioneer Park Elementary increased from 23.9% to 47.9%, and the school ranked first in Palm Beach County for English Language Arts gains in 2022!
Thousands of miles away in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, children face a very different set of challenges. Many are forced to scavenge at garbage dumps to earn just pennies a day to support their families. These dangerous conditions often leave families without electricity, clean water, or proper sanitation. To combat these challenges, Phymean Noun founded the People Improvement Organization, which partnered with JustWorld in 2004 to provide children with access to quality education. Through this partnership, students receive instruction from qualified teachers, healthcare from licensed doctors and dentists, nutritious meals, clean drinking water, and improved sanitation facilities. JustWorld also supports families through its Rice Program, which provides 5 kilograms of rice each month—enough to feed a family of six. Something as basic as a bag of rice can make an enormous difference: By easing the financial pressure on families, the program helps more children remain in the classroom instead of having to work.
In the remote communities surrounding Tegucigalpa, Honduras, sometimes the biggest obstacle to an education is simply getting to a school. Poverty and geographic isolation prevent many children from attending school, so JustWorld and its partner, Asociación Compartir, help bring school to them. Since 2003, the Education on Wheels program has sent mobile classrooms into rural villages, delivering books, school supplies, tutoring, educational lessons, and music and cultural arts programs. Students also receive clean drinking water and nutritious snacks to support their health and learning. JustWorld helps fund community libraries as well, providing reading programs and tutoring to thousands of children. For many of these students, the libraries offer something I have always been lucky enough to take for granted: the opportunity to own or even borrow a book.
Some big ideas begin in surprisingly small places. In Jocotenango, Guatemala, community leader and CNN Hero Juan Pablo Romero Fuentes was just 23 years old when he transformed his family's garage into a small school with the help of volunteers. He envisioned a future in which children could escape cycles of violence, poverty, and limited opportunity. In 2008, Fuentes partnered with JustWorld International founder Jessica Newman and Guatemalan Olympic show jumper Juan Andrés Rodríguez to establish Los Patojos, meaning "Little Ones." What started in a family garage has grown into El Patojismo, an accredited K–12 educational system with two campuses. In 2023, the organization expanded further with the opening of the Centro de Oportunidades, a vocational school offering both academic and technical education. El Patojismo also provides nutrition programs, a community medical clinic, and opportunities in art, music, and cultural enrichment. It’s pretty incredible to think about how much that small garage classroom has accomplished!
I am so proud to be a JustWorld ambassador and I am excited to find new ways to help. Whether you ride or have never been near a horse, I hope you’ll find your own way to get involved and join me in supporting kids around the world!
If you are interested in learning more about JustWorld, click here: https://justworldinternational.org/
