Mayan Power and Light

68 kids at the elementary school of Nueva San Jose, San Lucas Toliman, Solola celebrated the arrival of the school's first computers this Friday.

In 2016, we installed a small solar power backup system at the school to assist with the frequent blackouts. Now, this clean energy is powering the laptops that bring modern education to the rural poor. 

Nueva San Jose school has been operating for 9 years in a building that used to be a chicken hatchery, converted into 4 classrooms with a small covered area for play. Looking out into the street, you see open drains flowing with gray water and houses made from sheet metal. 

The parents of the school children are day laborers at the nearby coffee plantation or at the dairy factory - where many people work 14 hour shifts. We have seen that in many families, there will be one child to receive extra resources for high school education in hopes they will support the rest of the family with their professional salaries.  These gifted children have a lot of pressure on them to succeed, but lack the tools to assist them.

One basic and invaluable tool these children lack is access to a computer. Many had never even seen one up close before. Without learning to operate a computer, to type or to search the web, Nueva San Jose children are entering high school with a severe disadvantage. Without basic training in computers like their peers, the community's dreams of breaking out of poverty will continue to be hampered. 

In the last 6 months, 23 people sent used laptops to our Michigan office.  You, our Globalgiving supporters, funded the shipping and computer reprogramming to a Spanish operating system.

Thanks to you, second-hand computer labs are making technology available to people at the bottom of the economic pyramid, creating opportunity for dignified work.