Provide fresh water for poor girls in Guatemala

Thank you for your support, we are nearly there!

Thanks to your online support and additional offline donations, we are so much closer to installing the submersible pump for the well at our Sisters of Mary girls' school in Zona 13, Guatemala.

We anticipate being able to update you with pictures of the completed project within a few months. 

The need

The need for clean water is urgent. We are well into the dry season in Guatemala and retrieving water from the well is difficult without a pump. The pump will make a marked difference to the day to day lives of the girls in the education programmes. It will help the school to be cost effective and sustainable and give it independence from the city's unreliable and costly water supply. 

If you haven't seen the well site yet, watch Sister Magdalena talk about the need for a well pump. 

The cost of buying clean water is high with the cost of living and basic goods rising dramatically in Guatemala. The total operating cost of the Guatemala programmes has risen by 14% in 2022.

Keeping up with basic costs like food and clothing for the exisiting students is challenging. The funds saved by completing the well will help to meet these rising costs, as well as funding more school places for additional poor girls from this country. 

Poor families in Guatemala are finding life more and more desperate as jobs are lost and the price of food rises. Guatemala imports a lot of its food and rising import costs mean that poor families and children are suffering the most from the global cost of living increases. 

Education to give Guatemalan girls the chance to find employment after school is the best hope these families have for a life out of poverty. 

New students

Attached you will see images of new students who we welcomed into Zona 13 in January 2023. These girls have faced incredible barriers to education in the past few years. Many of them will have missed out on more than two years of primary education due to school closures during the pandemic. Almost all of the new students need additional support and tutoring to help them catch up to the academic standards for their year group.

Thanks to the dedication of the teaching staff at Zona 13, as well as the Sisters' perseverance and the girls' determination, they are making progress. With additional funds freed up once the well is running, more support can be provided for children who have suffered missed education during the pandemic years. 

Offline donations

You will see that the total amount needed for the project has moved from £19,012 to £8,000. This is to reflect offline donations which cannot be added to GlobalGiving. So in order to reflect the true amount still needed, we have moved the goal down to show more accurately how our fundriasing is going. 

Thank you! 

So thank you again for your continued support and interest in the lives of our girls in Guatemala. Your donations will give them better quality of life while they complete their education and hope for a brighter future.

December 2022 Project Update by Nicola Lawson, UK Manager and Trustee

Life in Poverty

Guatemala continues to experience deep poverty with children, particularly girls, remaining the most vulnerable. Early life in poverty causes chronic malnutrition and stunting and these effects can last girls a lifetime, damaging long term development and productivity. Thanks to you, the Sisters of Mary school in Zona 13, Guatemala City is able to focus on helping these girls.

Each year, the Sisters spend many months in the poorest local communities from throughout the country to reach the girls most in need of their care. With sufficient funding, they welcome as many girls as they can into a place at our school where they will have safe shelter, regular food and an education which will ready them for work and transform their lives.

Throughout August, September and October this year, the Sisters have now travelled thousands of kilometres and visited all 22 regions of Guatemala. They report severe poverty with communities struggling to cope. Your help means they can now offer hope to hundreds of young girls desperate for a route out of poverty and some of these new girls will join us at school in early January 2023.

At our Guatemala Girls school, Zona 13

Safe in our care we currently have 780 girls at school who are growing strong and receiving an accredited academic and technical education. However, it is not just a chance for them to acquire the skills they need to find work when they finish school, it is a chance for them to recover and enjoy a proper childhood, make friends, keep fit, develop personal skills and build confidence so that they will be able to thrive in their lives ahead.

However, for the Sisters, managing the care and everyday health needs of these children is a priority and the provision of fresh water remains a constant concern. The school does not benefit from mains water supply and all water for drinking, cooking, washing and daily sanitation has to be purchased and delivered by lorry to the school. It is a costly and laborious process.

Planning for a more cost effective and environmentally friendly solution was an urgent requirement.

New Project Progress

So, to the great excitement of the children and Sisters, last year we were able to drill and construct a borehole for ground water to supply the school. However, without a pump we cannot get the water into the school and so our new project focuses on the purchase and installation of a submersible pump. The new pump will extract the water and deliver it to point of use in the school. It will complete this sustainable solution for the school and protect and provide for the girls now and into the future.

Thanks to your support, we have made a start on the project and have raised funds which will help towards the pipes and connectors needed for the installation of the pump. In 2023 we look forward to reaching our target and completing the work to support the children.

A reliable supply of fresh water delivered to the school will make an enormous difference to the life of the children. It will ensure the girls have everything they need to remain hydrated, clean and healthy. It will reduce operating costs at the programme and ensure the sustainability of the school far into the future. It will allow our donor funds to go where they are needed most, in providing places for more children in need of our care.

Thank you so much for your support and we do hope we can continue to count on you in our life-saving work.

Links:

• Guatemala Girls School, Zona 13

• Update on progress in Guatemala (PDF)