Help fight the spread of Covid-19 in Guatemala

It has been 6 years since the global Covid pandemic shook the world. It is hard to go back and remember what life was like in Guatemala during that time. Schools, churches, public transportation, malls, shopping centers, and government offices were all closed down. Even little mom and pop stores run from the home were only allowed to open 3 days a week. Movement between towns was restricted, borders were closed. Meetings with over 6 people were prohibited. A 4pm curfew was put into effect and being outside of the home after that time would result in being arrested. Not wearing a mask in public was subject to a $1,000 fine. People stayed home and as they did the white flags started popping up in our community. The white flags were used by families to signal that they were in the desperate situation of not having enough food to feed their families. And people like you responded. People like you looked into people's needs and didn't look away, but rather pulled from your own resources during a time of complete and total incertainty so that another family would not be lacking.

After about a year, the Covid restrictions started to relax in Guatemala. All except for the opening of schools. Public schools in our community were fully closed for 2 years and only partially opened (2 or 3 days a week) for the next year. Even still, 6 years later, our local public schools have not been able to get back to the pre-pandemic academic calendar. Not surprisingly, students from low-income families in our community have fallen farther and farther behind academically. And we noticed.

Since 2021 our work has been focused on increasing high quality educational opportunities for disadvantaged students in our community. This currently takes the shape of Montessori preschool classes for 22 students ages 3 to 6; a 3 year cycle of after school art classes which use art to teach essential school skills, history as well as geography and cultural studies (subjects almost completely absent from the current national curriculum); and most recently after school taekwondo classes. The goal of these programs is to help our students succeed in reaching their potential despite the inequalities they face and to help them break the cycle of poverty in their lives. We invite you to check out our current educational projects through our We are the Future Center and if you aren't currently partnering with us we hope you will consider joining with us to break the cycle of poverty in Guatemala through education.

As always thank you for taking the time to care about our community,

Best wishes,

Colleen