Education for 400 children in Guatemala

It has been a fantastic few months in Guatemala. Our local teachers, many of whom started teaching this year and who previously were students at our schools and who we helped through college, are settling well into their roles. The reinforcement teachers we pay for this year have paid immediate dividends with the average grades in the classes rising and the children lagging behind have mostly been brought up to speed.

One of the areas we have been focusing on this year across The Phoenix Projects is the implementation of sustainable plans, including cows, chickens, weaving, fish and small businesses. Here in Guatemala we have started Plan Moo (cows), Plan Pollo (chickens) and Plan Corte (weaving). Not only do these provide income for the schools’ running costs for years to come they also provide much needed employment in the communities as income from the plans is reinvested into future plans and also shared between the families and the school. We employ almost 60 people full-time directly across Phoenix and the plans increase this number to almost 200 which is phenomenal for the local economy and obviously the families as they now can provide for their families with an over-riding pride that they did it for themselves.

Over the next three months we look forward to Independence Day in September and the final exams towards the end of October and the final graduations from 6^th grade. Our aim, funds permitting, is to set up each of our graduates with a small business sustainable plan which will help them cover costs of secondary school and college in the future.

Thank you all for your generous support in the past and hopefully in the future – all your donations are helping to build a fantastic and sustainable future for the communities in which we work.

Cheers

Links:

• Sustainable Plans

On 30th April the children and the local teachers took part in the second Phoenix Seven Continents Charity Challenge to raise funds for local sustainable income plans by hiking around Santa María. 5,000 trees will also be planted around Itzapa in one day once the rains start. Volcano Acatenango was also summitted.  The plans not only provide income for local families to be able to help with their children’s further education costs, including college and university, though also to help sustainably cover our schools’ costs including local teachers salaries, daily food and fruit, school materials etc. This month, to get our Global Giving friends involved in the Seven Continent Charity Challenge, we would like to put all donations to this page towards sustainable income plans. A warm thanks in advance.

The first exams were undertaken in the schools with some very good results. This year as part of the drama and dance classes, the children have been learning new types of dance and genre, including mambo, 70's disco, duranguense, merengue, salsa and of course continuining with the traditional folkloric style to marimba. An emotional Easter Semana Santa procession was held in Itzapa for many hours around the streets.

Our various sustainable plans are coming along well with many families now involved in Plan Moo, Plan Pollo, Plan Huerto and Plan Negocio; please follow the link to find out more.

Many thanks and have a great May.

Cheers

Links:

• Sustainable Income Plans