You’re Making a Difference Here
GUATEMALA
In Guatemala, where over 50% of the population lives below the poverty line, socioeconomic status is one of the biggest barriers to accessing a quality education (World Bank 2013). The average length of schooling for a Guatemalan child is only 4 years and 24.1% of the population is illiterate (US Aid 2014; World Bank 2014).
Pencils of Promise works with over 173 communities in Guatemala to ensure our students overcome these, and other, barriers to accessing a quality education. To date, PoP has impacted over 222,000 lives in Guatemala.
QUICHÉ REGION
Quiché is a mountainous region located in northwestern Guatemala. PoP’s base in Quiché is in the city of Nebaj, which is about five hours northeast of our Guatemala headquarters in Xela.
To date, we’ve built over 70 schools in the region and plan to continue to scale our builds, as well as our programmatic work, across Quiché.
Before the PoP School Build
Previously, the pre-primary and primary school students of Caserío Santo Cristo Buena Vista lacked formal classroom structures for learning. Of the 3 provisional classroom structures, 2 were made out of wood and the other was made out of brick. In addition to the dilapidated exteriors of wood and brick, inside the Caserío Santo Cristo Buena Vista classrooms, students sat in old desks above dirt floors and below low roofs. Overall the classrooms were in disrepair: with roofs and interior walls made of rusted metals, aging wood walls and a small number of windows and doors leading to insufficient ventilation. These environmental factors, combined with the issue of overcrowding in the 3 pre-existing classrooms, were previously making engaging and effective learning challenging for the preprimary and primary students of Caserío Santo Cristo Buena Vista.
Your Impact with the New PoP School
You recognized that these conditions were not conducive to learning and responded by helping PoP and the Caserío Santo Cristo Buena Vista community construct a new 3-classroom school. Teachers, parents and community members were committed to this project, and contributed 20 percent of the resources and labor necessary to complete the build. This new school, which was inaugurated by the community in July of 2017, will now allow the students and teachers access to safe and quality classrooms that include student desks and chairs, blackboards and desks for the teachers, as well as proper doors, windows, lighting and ventilation.