These pictures document the Gift of Chess/Unidos Podemos Más initiative that began on January 9, 2023 in the St. Luke’s Lutheran Church theater space. Some are from the first day, the first and second weeks, and then we kept adding as the program continued to grow and branch out. 

The children and their families are from Latin America (Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, etc.) and came to the USA as refugees.  Slowly, they have shared stories of extreme hardship that included marching through jungles, sleeping on the streets, and surviving attacks by bandits. The city of New York generously set them up in temporary shelters (hotels) and they were enrolled in local public schools but after school let out, they had nowhere to go other than back to the shelters. 

The Gift of Chess/Unidos Podemos Más offers them a safe place to stay until 6PM Monday through Thursday where they learn the game of chess, receive math tutoring, and can be artistic in the art corner run by local artist, George Skelcher. To our knowledge, there is no other program like this anywhere else in the East Coast and maybe all of the US. 

In the picture of the two children wearing medals, please note that they began to compete in local chess tournaments after training for just a few weeks and already they won first prizes.