Education Guatemala Project #12282

Educate 300 Guatemalan Children

by The GOD'S CHILD Project

Project Report | Mar 29, 2023
Our Reinforcement Center

By Robbie Middleton | Padrinos & Becas Department

As we mentioned in a previous report, last year the decision was made that our Dreamer Center School would not be reopening and functioning as a school but rather as a reinforcement centre for children to catch up on learning they had missed during the pandemic.

This reinforcement programme was a relative success, with over 94% of our children in the scholarship programme passing their school year and moving up. Last year we had 215 children enrolled in our reinforcement programme and this year we hope to have many more taking advantage of the support we are offering.

Our three teachers, Salem, Gaby and María José, have been preparing for the reopening of our reinforcement centre, which is due to open its doors in early April, by visiting over 50 public schools in Antigua and the surrounding villages. The schools have shown a lot of interest in the centre, as the gaps in learning have been apparent and there is a real need for children to have extra learning outside of their standard classes.

Thankfully, schools are no longer working through a study guide system that excludes those in most need of support. This year the classes are in-person with the hope that returning to classrooms with teachers will help children to start making progress again. The funding of public schools is such, however, that some schools are struggling to find teachers and so classes are being combined or postponed. It will be extremely difficult to give children focused or specific support and to fill in learning gaps if there are oversized classes as the children won´t receive the attention they need.

We are basing our planning decisions on statistics from the Ministry of Education, who have identified certain areas where there is a greater deficit in learning. These areas are maths and communication and language (also known as literacy). In these subjects the legacy of covid is apparent, with many more children than expected unable to read, write and calculate to the expected level. These skills are fundamental for Guatemalan children to be able to raise themselves out of poverty and so the deficit is extremely concerning.

As we did last year, however, we will be monitoring the children and taking into account the other needs that they may have. Last year we had extra classes for computing, art and science and so, if we see the need, we may start them up again as well.

We will also be opening our computer room and library for the children to have free use of to support their homework. The vast majority of our children have no access to internet in their houses and so are unable to access much of the learning that they are required to do. By allowing them the use of our computers and internet they have a much better chance of making progress in classes and living up to their full potential.

For many of our children, there is no way to access their education in school or at home because they have no food security. Schools are not currently providing lunch for schoolchildren, and so it can be extremely difficult for children to concentrate and learn on an empty stomach. We want to counter this and give children the best chance at

learning by providing food security for them. Our cook, Zully, will be cooking meals and snacks so that when children come to the Project they are able to focus on their learning rather than their stomachs.

At Asociación Nuestros Ahijados and The GOD'S CHILD Project our mission is to reduce the gaps of extreme poverty in vulnerable and excluded populations, to guarantee equal development opportunities through programmes in food and nutritional security, to support families through secondary, technical, and vocational education, health, child nutritional recovery, volunteering and Service teams, housing, economic and social empowerment of women and their families. We also fight human trafficking through long-term solutions to the causes in Guatemala, India and the United States. Nuestros Ahijados is an affiliate of the organization THE GOD'S CHILD Project (GCP).

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Oct 10, 2022
The CAIPETI Programme

By Robbie Middleton | Padrinos Department

Since November 2021, we have been collaborating with Guatemala’s Ministerio de Trabajo to form a new programme called CAIPETI (Centro de Atención Integral en Prevención y Erradicación del Trabajo Infantil). The goal of this programme is to begin to eradicate child labour in Antigua Guatemala through education and runs alongside our catch-up classes and homework support.

We began with 20 children, who our social workers had identified as being vulnerable due to working in the streets of Antigua, and have now grown to 33 children. These children come to the Project every Friday morning to receive classes from our teachers. These classes are designed to empower the children as well as give them useful skills that they will be able to use in the future. Many of the children did not previously go to school when they were younger and need to catch up the learning that they previously missed. This year we have also added ICT classes to the curriculum and are helping our older children to gain qualifications that they can add to their CV.

Many of the children who come to our classes have previously been involved in internal migration, moving from other departments of Guatemala to Antigua for a better life. Their living conditions are therefore very precarious, with many hoping that their landlords do not take advantage of their desperate situation. Our social workers have been identifying the needs of these families and some of them have been added into our scholarship programme for next year to take these children off the streets and put them into school. Some families have already received beds, stoves and water filters and others will receive them later this month so that they no longer have to sleep on dirt or concrete floors.

After receiving their classes, the children also pass through our weekly vegetable distribution and receive bags of vegetables, fruit, and pizza. They can take this home to their families, meaning that they don’t have to work as much to pay for the family’s food.

Not only are the classes fun and educative for the children, they are also giving them a real sense of purpose. At the beginning of the programme many of the children had no ambitions or ideas of what they wanted to be or do when they are older. Now, many have set themselves goals and are working hard towards them. We are feeling really positive about their futures now.

The GOD’S CHILD Project has been working for 30 years to break the chains of poverty through education, housing and healthcare. Please click the link below to donate to support us in our ongoing mission.

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Jun 10, 2022
Our Centro de Reforzamiento & Beca Programme

By Robbie Middleton | Padrinos Department

Schools in Guatemala have been officially closed for over 2 and a half years due to the pandemic, which has taken a huge toll on our children. It seems, however, that we are now on the home straight, as the Government has begun to allow some in-person classes to begin. Some of our children are starting to be able to go in to school a few times a week, although others are still waiting for their chance amid a national shortage of teachers.

Most schools are still currently working through the use of study guides. Pages of work are sent home with the children and the in-person school sessions are for the teachers to go over the work that has been done at home. This is a system with a number of flaws, though, with many children unable to read or understand the work that is sent home. Over the past two years the children have missed out on learning the foundations on which to build this knowledge. Many also have parents who are unable to help their children to complete the work because they are working every day for their family to survive or because they themselves are unable to read the instructions.

Nuestros Ahijados took the difficult decision not to open as a school in 2022 due to the pandemic, deciding instead to support our children in other ways. Our school building at the Dreamer Center has opened this year, however, as a reinforcement centre. Our three teachers work with over 140 enrolled children both from our programme and external children who need extra support. This way students who were previously missing out on learning and failing their classes have the chance to catch up and to improve their grades. Students are free to come in to the centre whenever they have the need for support with their work or if they need to use our computer and internet facilities, all of which is provided with no cost to them or their families.

As the situation with COVID-19 and the rules are constantly changing in Guatemala, so too has our reinforcement centre and its goals. Now that schools are beginning to have more in-person classes, the need to help with study guides is lessening. Our teachers identified the need of many of our children to have extra support with reading, writing and maths, and so they started to hold extra classes every week for the children to pick up these essential skills. The children come in and learn the basic skills needed to be able to continue learning in the future. There are also plans for English, art, sport and science classes in the future.

Alongside our reinforcement centre, our Beca, or scholarship, programme has now been up and running for four months as well, providing support for the 225 children in our programme. Initially we gave out scholarship cheques to cover the enrolment fees for the children as well as to help with school supplies and uniform. Then, after the initial rounds of scholarship cheques to help with fees, we began to give the children cheques based on the children’s grades, with better performing students receiving more money. This is to encourage and motivate children to work hard at their studies, and to reward children who have been exceeding expectations. So far this year we have given out over $15,000 in scholarship cheques to our children in the Beca programme. This money is for the children and their families so that they can pay their school fees, buy uniform and school supplies and pay for any other needs to help with their education.

The GOD’S CHILD Project has been working for 30 years to break the chains of poverty through education, housing, nutrition and healthcare. Please click the link below to donate to support us in our ongoing mission.

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