project overview

Love Light + Melody and Open Hearts Ministries are partnering to build Ileana’s School at Club Esperanza, a grade school in the Villa Guadalupe resettlement community to serve kids who formerly lived in the La Chureca trash dump. Ileana’s school will offer preschool through Grade 6 education, with hopes of expanding to offer high school education in the future.

Ileana’s School will provide an education for up to 400 kids in the Villa Guadalupe community. The school will also serve as a community center space, which will add value and unity to the entire community. Potential community activities and services include:

• Medical clinic

• Vocational training and language classes for adults

• Community meetings and gatherings

The current Club Esperanza facility includes two mixed-use buildings, including classrooms and a kitchen. The school expansion plan would create the following additional facilities:

• Six additional classrooms to serve all of the primary grades (one, two-story building with three classrooms on the first level and three classrooms on the second level)

• Art Center including music and art studios, a library, and computer lab

• Covered sports complex

• Additional playground for the preschool and kindergarten students

• Convert the existing preschool/kindergarten building into a community center space

• Maintain the existing feeding center building as a cafeteria for the school

land acquisition

In the Fall of 2017 Love Light + Melody and Open Hearts Ministries bought land adjacent to the existing Club Esperanza property for the school campus. The purchased property will provide the needed space for the 6- classroom building and art center.

Once the first phase of the project is complete (classrooms + art center), Love Light + Melody and Open Hearts Ministries will explore options for acquiring additional land for the next phase of the project – a sports complex adjacent to the school.