We empower 27 poor Mayan families in San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala, with literacy and traditional art/crafts classes which help mothers work in tourism or gain income at home. Youth are assisted to attend public school or technical training to improve their job opportunities in their home pueblo, rather than emigrate or drop out of school to work at the same menial labor of their parents - thus continuing the cycle of poverty. Re-integrating cultural traditions promotes pride in their roots.
Poor education, menial job skills, inadequate housing and lighting, cooking on a woodstove, washing clothes in the lake. This is how it has "always been done" and the tendency is to continue. But our mothers are beginning to embrace some new ideas - collective bargaining to get a better price for the products of their artistry; encouraging their children to graduate high school or technical training to get a better job. Cultivating in our community garden for more veggies in their diet.
Parents participate in the classes, community garden, and our small store in order to gain more food products in their monthly basket, learning work skills in the process. Saturday-class art and literacy-enhancing activities for the kids promote more open minds, creativity, and learning enjoyment, Older youth may choose to leave traditional education for technical training -- which leads to more immediate and better-paying employment.
If moms can make money at home or in the tourist sector, their youth won't drop out of school to help them. If youth begin to enjoy learning, they will stick with school until high school graduation, or complete technical training, Graduation will lead to better jobs, so that emigration isn't their only chance in life. Our pueblo will gain from having more skilled workers and self-sufficient families.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
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