Education Guatemala Project #10323

Support literacy and learning for 1,900 Maya youth

by Limitless Horizons IXIL

Project Report | Nov 27, 2012
An exciting end to a successful year!

By Lindsay Renaud | Operations Associate

Cartoon time in the library!

Thanks to your support this year’s school vacation (which is during the fall months in Guatemala) has been extra exciting for kids in Chajul!

The librarians got to attend 2 trainings in Antigua and used their new knowledge to create a full schedule of vacation time programming in the Chajul Community Library. The activities, which are held for 3 different age groups, include: Fun with Math, Learn to Read circles, Spanish vocabulary games, and Story Hour followed by a thematic art activity, television program, or game. Very few kids have a television in their home so our newly acquired TV and DVD player is giving them a unique chance to practice their Spanish comprehension skills and learn valuable life skills through youth television programming. Our creative and dedicated librarians are even matching the theme of the TV show episode with the theme of the Story Hour book they read prior.

As the only provider of organized vacation-time services in Chajul, programming in the community library is providing a unique and invaluable opportunity for kids and their families. The only problem with all of this new excitement is that kids will be extra sad when vacation time is over! Luckily for them though, we are currently using a literacy curriculum developed by the organization Reading Village to develop some great new programming for the upcoming school year.

The other exciting development is that we’ve met our 2^nd seasonal goal of completing the renovations of a new study room. We installed a door and windows, fixed the plumbing, sealed and painted the walls and installed lighting fixtures. The extra space has already proven vital for hosting the 45+ children that have been attending each vacation time activity. We are now in the process of contracting tables, chairs, and shelving from local carpenters so that the space will be ready when students hit the books again in January.

With your continued support we can continue to improve literacy rates and educational attainment in Chajul. In fact, there is no better time to give - we are now in the midst of our annual fundraising campaign! Our collaborative partner, the Philanthropiece Foundation, will match all gifts of $100+ until the end of 2012! As if doubling the impact of your contribution wasn't enough, we will also enter all donors giving $200+ by December 1st into a drawing to win an original print from professional photographer Sue Rissberger's Faces of Chajul collection.

Warmest saludos from Chajul!

Singing the welcome song, led by librarian,Tereza.

Renovations done! Story Hour in the new study room

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Sep 11, 2012
Summer Progress and Fall Plans

By Lindsay Renaud | Operations Associate

Our library staff team!

What an exciting summer we've had in the Chajul Community Library!

Thanks to your support, we sent the librarians to training workshops, added over 600 new textbooks and children’s books to the library collection, and got some new shelves to store them on. We are so glad to have expanded our collection, because we now have over 1,000 book-hungry library members!

Another highlight of this summer for library members and staff was welcoming many wonderful visitors to Chajul. We hosted several student groups as well as a group of American teachers on our annual service learning trip for educators. The visiting teachers worked closely with our librarians, sharing new activity ideas and hosting a reading and game party for hundreds of little library members. The end of the trip culminated with the teachers hosting a series of workshops on teaching methods for Chajul primary school teachers. The workshops were hosted in the library and we used this opportunity to give all participating teachers a tour of space and its resources. Since schools in Chajul have no books or teaching materials, the community library is an incredible resource for them. Some teachers are now bringing their classes to the library to work with the new books. It is so great to see positive change happening every day!

As we roll into fall, the annual school vacation time in Guatemala, we will be expanding literacy programming beyond Story Hour by introducing new school-break activities such as reading buddies and learn to read clubs. Our other big goal for this fall is to convert an unfinished space adjoining the library building into a quiet study/special activities room. This will allow us to hold more than one activity in the library at once, give teachers a space to work with their classes, and give older students their own space to study.

Your continuing support can make these projects a reality!

Library Member Party - face painting!

The space we'd like to renovate into a study room.

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Jun 22, 2012
Drum roll please...our Spring campaign results are in!

By Katie Morrow | Executive Director and Co-Founder

Our new librarian Marilu (far right).

Drum roll please...The results are in, and they are outstanding! Thank you so much for helping us reach the goal of our Spring fundraising campaign. We set an ambitious goal of $8,280 and managed to blow it out of the water, raising a total of $8,735 from donations made through GlobalGiving, by mail, and through our website. Thanks to all of you who donated and helped spread the word among your networks, we had the most successful fundraising campaign in LHI history!

After all your work, we've started our work of putting the funds raised to good use for the Saber Sin Límites (Limitless Knowledge) community library. We have purchased art supplies for Story Hour, expanded our young adult and children's book collections, and most importantly, added a new staff member to help kids learn to read those books. Our first priority after the campaign was to hire an assistant librarian. Marilú is the newest member of the ever-growing LHI team, and we are so excited to have her. She has a degree as a preschool teacher from the competitive Socorro High School in Antigua and brings with her a range of skills that we are very excited to add to the library team. She will use her stellar written Spanish language skills to help students with their homework and her outstanding dynamic reading abilities to engage students during Story Hour. She also loves interactive learning and wants to start a drama club in November when students begin their school vacation. We are grateful to have Marilú's energy, patience, and expertise on the team -- and we couldn't have done it without your support!

We are so grateful to have you supporting us to ensure the greatest possible impact on literacy and educational development in Chajul and we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress.

A little Story Hour learner shows off his artwork.

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