"A self-sustainable
educational co-operative."

BACKGROUND

• Many Spanish language schools in Guatemala are paying below minimum wage to their instructors and host families.
• Although the language schools claim their contribution to various volunteer organizations, the contributions made by those involved often end up for school owners' personal gain. Link

• The instructors, host families and volunteer organizations get paid / donated directly by their students.
• The amount of payment / donation is decided by themselves.
• In order to maintain its self-sustainability, they offer unique services such as
  1. "Small School Initiative" to offer more personalized learning experiences for students.
  2. "Buddy-Up" service

"Evaluation on the school's impact in the local community."

BACKGROUND

• Llano del Pinal is a village located in the outskirt of Quetzaltenango where there was no school for pupils who graduated their first three years of elementary school.
• With Louise Morse CARE funds and matchings by students from Newburyport, USA, the local community were able to build the Llano del Pinal school in 1966.

OUR FINDINGS

• Although local schools had suffered some setbacks due to mal-management of educational budgets, the Llano del Pinal school has always been active.
• Today, there are 29 teachers who are teaching close to 1500 students in K-6.
• The success was followed by construction of many other schools that made a tremendous impact on causing improvement in educational level and income growth in the community.

"The slow, but steady progress of the community initiative at work."

BACKGROUND

• The elementary school is managed by Teacher / Director Santa Teresa Macario Chaj and José Vicente Marroquín Chávez, community leader who organized the community to establish the school 3 years ago.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

• Land that the school is using is a borrowed one (approximately 46 square meters). It's not their property. They aren't even renting it. Since there is no contract, if the current landlord wants them to vacate the land, they have no choice.
• Walls of the school is "lamina" (corrugated metal/plastic sheets normally used for roofing).
• Windows are transparent plastic sheets.
• There is no floor. Just bare ground.
• There are 3 classes in the school (one of them is out of order)

"Nutritional and health support in the surrounding areas of city of Quetzaltenango."

BACKGROUND

• It has been more than 50 years ago when Don Angel and Doña Emilia were married. From this marriage, Pan El Globo came to life. Since they were poor, when Don Angel made his bread, Doña Emilia carried a big basket full of bread on top of her head and walked through the unpaved roads every day to deliver the bread to the poorest people at the lowest price possible.
• Through the passage of time, their bakery and 7 chilren grew. Since 2003, they have began to visit children with various needs in Llano del Pinal.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

• We make bread with soy for the children's nutriional needs. Thanks to the sales in the city, we can deliver our bread to the children in the schools in the community completely free of charge.
• We collect and donate foods, clothes, shoes, etc; We offer medical assistance with other foundations; We offer Literacy education; We offer cooking courses with nutritional education.

"There is no richness of exchange of ideas nor educational contents on personal hygiene, nutrition, civility, culture, etc."

BACKGROUND

• Guatemala is a country with many cultures and languages but with little educational opportunities in formal and informal settings. There are 23 commonly languages other than Spanish. Each ethnic group has its own culture, wardrobe and traditions. Although number of the media of communication has grown, majority of them are just entertaining their audiences.
• They are not educating their audiences what is really taking place in the country and they are transmitting their information in Spanish only.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

• We work with some media of communication making reportages. We also help those who want to transmit educational and informative messages to their audiences but who lack supports from other broadcasters or do not have enough economic resources.
• Long-term objective: Produce series of documentaries to report about social reality of our country with our cultural information and problems in the country.

"We have 30000 trees growing each year and we'd like to double it to 60000 trees in 5 years."

OUR OBJECTIVE

• Educate people about better use of natural resources, prevent forestal fires and plant more trees.

WORKS IN PROGRESS

• Prevention of forestal fire: Have discussions in schools and talk to farmers about fire prevention. Give workshops for forestal fire fighters. Promote the use of other forms of fuels instead of fire woods from forest and make more fuel efficient stoves. Monitor and extinguish fire activities in forests.
• Reforestation: Identify appropriate areas and plant trees. (Begins in May when rainy season starts.) The trees come from the greenhouse owned by the organization.
• Training and education: Train forest rangers and educate students in elementary schools about how to make best use of forests. Make a teaching manual for elementary school instructors in order to teach about forest conservation.