Our latest project in Chile is called "Centro Educacional Luis Rutten" (Educational Center Louis Rutten). We have named the school after our Founder and the project honours his name.

How did this school start? The 1988 Provincial Chapter evaluated the apostolic works which we were still doing at that time. We were getting short of brothers and we realized that not all the work we were doing was in the line of the option for the poor.

We then offered two of our schools to the diocese but we also wanted to start something new. A new apostolic work. It had to be for the poor, and it also had to fit under the government subsidy rules in order to be able to finance it.

Much survey was been done and it became very clearer that education is the real means to get out of poverty. That is to say, especially technical education, so that young people after schooling can find work. We finally opted for technical high school education.

But we also wanted to do something for our jobless young people by way of short job training courses. Nor did we want to forget the adults around our school and we organized courses in fashion, computers, plumbing and so on.

We gathered these three groups: high school kids, jobless young peolpe, and the adults in one big project.

Many institutions helped us to create and build: our own Congregation, the Dutch government (CEBEMO), the Bask Government, the Talca Municipality, our Regional Government, the Andes Foundation and the European Union.

The project started in 1993 in a very primitive way because nothing had been built by then. San Antonio School provided the classrooms for two groups of students. Little by little the project was developed. It is situated in the outskirts of Talca.

President Frei inaugurated the Center in 1998. A very emotional moment. A crown on a few years´ work.

At the moment there are around 400 pupils in our technical high school, 4 job training courses with around 100 young people and a series of short courses for the adults who are trying to create better life conditions.

Because of our option for the poor pupils we also hit on difficulties in the development of the school : kids are very poorly prepared and have for that reason little chance to enroll in another school with better perpectives.

That means for us that we can´t be very demanding regarding academic results, and that our standard can´t be very high. Because of that it is hard to get 'better' students.