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 over 170 communities in Guatemala to ensure our students overcome these, and other, barriers to accessing a quality education. To date, PoP has impacted over 35,000 students in Guatemala.
BOCA COSTA REGION
The region of Boca Costa, located southeast of PoP’s Guatemala headquarters in Xela, is home to a more tropical climate than any of the other regions in Guatemala in which we work. PoP expanded to Boca Costa in early 2012, with our regional office located in Santo Tomás La Unión.
To date, we’ve built 116 schools in the region and have also provided our teacher training and educational programming to many PoP schools in the region.
Before a PoP School Build
Previously, the students of Aldea Concepción Ixtacapa Sector Norte were attending school in five provisional classrooms made out of corrugated metal sheds that were built by the community. There were also two additional rooms being used as classes located in a corridor of a private house. In addition to the informal classrooms, the students had no sanitation facilities and no water source available within the school area. These conditions made for a very unsafe and poor learning environment.
Your Impact with a New PoP School
You recognized that these conditions were not conducive to learning and responded by helping PoP and the Aldea Concepción Ixtacapa Sector Norte community complete construction on a new school. The community members, parents and teachers fully supported the project, and contributed up to 20 percent of the labor and resources necessary to complete the build. Your support has made this school build possible, creating a safe and strong foundation that will foster an environment of educational growth and promise for the students in Aldea Concepcion Ixtacapa Sector Norte.