Education for 250 working children in Chiapas

Project update: Education for 250 working children in Chiapas

Se ha elaborado este informe en inglés ya que es la lengua de la mayoría de los donantes de Global Giving. Sin embargo, si quiere recibir este informe en español, por favor envíe un correo a melel@prodigy.net.mx

In the last three months of 2012 we worked with 209 children (107 boys and 102 girls) through a range of activities which we carry out in the markets, squares and main streets where children work. Though we have limited funds for this purpose, we are also able to support a small number of these children with scholarships. This update provides a case study of one of our scholars to explain why this is necessary, and how it helps them.

In theory, the Mexican constitution guarantees free education to all citizens; in practice the cost of books, uniforms and charges for exams and other levies present a barrier that keeps children out of school. Nearly a quarter of the population aged 3-18 in our city doesn’t attend. We currently award grants to 11 girls and 4 boys.

Julia Santiz is one of those receiving a grant. A 12 year old indigenous Mayan, her mother tongue is the Tsotsil language, though she is now more fluent in Spanish. Julia has completed the fifth year of primary school, which she attends in the afternoons. From Tuesday to Friday she does paid work looking after a baby; at the weekends she looks after her little sister while her mother goes out to work.  

Julia says that taking part in Melel Xojobal’s Learning Circles has helped her a lot with her school work, especially as her mother can only provide limited support. Her school teacher says that her reading ability has improved significantly in the last year.

Julia’s family of five lives in a single room, sharing a bathroom with three other families. Their furniture consists of a stove and gas tank, two beds made out of wooden boards, a table and some wooden chairs. The room has a window for ventilation, a concrete floor and walls and a tile roof. Julia, her mother and younger brother all work; the father is alcoholic and unemployed.

Given the family’s difficult economic circumstances, the scholarship makes the difference between Julia attending school or dropping out. This is a big plus in a city where few girls among the population of working children complete their primary education, and very few continue to secondary level.

Se ha elaborado este informe en inglés ya que es la lengua de la mayoría de los donantes de Global Giving. Sin embargo, si quiere recibir este informe en español, por favor envíe un correo a melel@prodigy.net.mx

This first update aims to give you an idea of the project activities, and how your donations will help us continue to run these throughout the next 12 months.

In the last three months we worked with 23 families, explaining the procedures to enroll their children in school. A first step is to help them to obtain birth certificates, which are essential for enrollment but difficult to obtain for Mayan families whose first language is not Spanish, and who are often wary of, or unsure how to deal with officials. We also helped 15 children apply for scholarships which will cover the cost of books, uniforms and other charges.

A central focus of our work is not just getting working children into education, but providing them with the support that encourages them to learn and to stay in school. This is all important: indigenous children typically attend school for even less than the 6.2 years which is the average for Chiapas. Each week we run nine “learning circles”: two hour sessions which take place in the public squares and markets where many children work. 145 children attended in the last three months. These sessions focus on helping children to enjoy reading and writing, as well as to discuss issues that affect their lives and education (in this term for example: different forms of violence in school, what their rights are and what they can do about it).

The comment of an 11 year old girl who has been attending the learning circles: “I learned how to write a story, how not just to keep quiet, how to make a hat, how to get on with other boys and girls, to write and to imagine, and to learn about places in other countries”.

We continue to work in a difficult environment. In the last three weeks the municipal government has used the pretext of a land dispute on the edges of the city to expel street vendors from the city centre, many of whom are children. Melel Xojobal is against children working in unregulated and unprotected conditions, or when it prejudices their education. The reality though is that many families rely on their children’s earnings to pay for school costs and to buy food. Without this income, many children will simply have less to eat, and it will be even harder to get them into school or for them to learn properly if they do go. We are working with other organizations in the city to protest and to reverse the decision.