Education for 400 children in Guatemala

I hope all is well with you. 2017 was a fantastic year in Guatemala, despite the rollover affect from the Brexit vote devaluing Sterling in 2016 and causing us to tighten our belts for the year.

2017 started off with the traditional annual painting of the whole school before welcoming over 200 children in eight grades. Our ten local teachers, most of whom came through the projects themselves, were armed with their teachers’ accessory packs and ready for the next ten months, over which the final grades were excellent and once again, 100% graduation from primary school for the children in the final year (12 girls and 5 boys). 120 children have graduated from primary school in the past 6 years.

During the year we spent $50,000 on teachers’ salaries, daily fruit, classroom materials, rent, cleaning products and events, which included Mother’s Day, Independence Day, Semana Santa, Mayan Queen elections and the final graduation ceremony. Money extremely well spent.

Looking ahead to 2018 we plan to renovate the classrooms and build a new playground. We also hope to increase the number of local teachers, adding assistants, as the number of children increase. And finally, we plan to introduce a new scheme for all of our graduates, past and present, so they can go on and study further education. Very few students sadly do continue their studies after they graduate from our school so we will hopefully be able to fulfill their dreams.

Your donations this year have gone a very long way to helping us to achieve our goals in 2017 and our vision for 2018 is even brighter. Together with your continued donations we can take the projects even higher.

All of us at Fly The Phoenix wish you the Happiest of Holidays this year and all the best for 2018.

Cheers