You’re Making a Difference Here
WHY 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 four years and 24.1% of the population is illiterate (US Aid 2014; World Bank 2014).
Pencils of Promise works with 190 communities in Guatemala to ensure our students overcome these, and other, barriers to accessing a quality education. Currently, PoP is impacting over 37,000 students in Guatemala.
SUCHITEPÉQUEZ REGION
The region of Suchitepéquez, called Suchi by locals, lies southeast of our headquarters in Xela. PoP expanded here in early 2012, with our regional office located in Mazatenango.
Suchitepéquez offers a variety of exotic fruits and coffee as main crops, and the climate is much more tropical than the other regions in which we work. To date, we’ve broken ground on 47 schools in Suchitepéquez and plan to continue our partnership with these communities for years to come.
Before a PoP School Build
Previously, the Linea B-8 community school had six classrooms; three were formal and three were provisional. The provisional classrooms did not provide a quality learning environment for students. The condition of these classrooms posed a hazard to student safety and wellbeing, as well as to student engagement and learning.
Your Impact with a New PoP School
You recognized that these conditions are not conducive to learning and responded by helping PoP and the Linea B-8 community complete construction on a new three-classroom school. In addition to the new classrooms, our team also worked to repair the roof on the other three existing classrooms. The Linea B-8 community members, parents and teachers were fully supportive of the project, and contributed up to 20 percent of the labor and resources necessary to complete the build. Your support for this new school build will foster an environment of educational growth and promise for generations of Linea B-8 students!