Child Aid - Building Brighter Futures

Background: Rural schools and libraries in Guatemala are desperate for books, but for over a month, a 40-foot container, with 53,000 donated children’s books inside, has been stuck in customs. The books are destined for over 50 communities throughout the highlands. Normally Child Aid’s books clear customs quickly, but, due to a bureaucratic tangle,  this shipment has been held up.

Update: John van Keppel, our program coordinator in Guatemala, has been pounding on doors around Antigua and the capital, involving Rotary members, politicians, teachers and high level government officials. He finally met with the head of Guatemala’s tax authority, who has promised to get them out. 

Earlier this year, Child Aid shipped a 20-foot container of children’s books to Guatemala. In this photo, taken in Santa Rosa, children choose from a stack of books we donated to their school. Before these books arrived, their teacher had to use a newspaper to teach the kids to read.

What Now: Once the books clear customs, Child Aid will begin sorting and distribution. Rotary volunteers from La Conner and Anacortes, Washington, are traveling to Guatemala to help us distribute the books to several towns and villages. 

While the tangle has kept the books out of the hands of kids who need them, the delay has had silver lining. A high-level government official has gotten personally involved and has promised to help usher future Child Aid book shipments through customs quickly. He knows the tremendous need for the books in rural Guatemala.

We just received some photos from our Program Director in Guatemala, John van Keppel, of a celebration in one of the communities where Child Aid works. Yesterday, the Kaqchikel community of Las Canoas gathered to inaugurate new furniture, bookshelves and a computer for the library. Thanks to the Planet Wheeler Foundation, the kids now have tables to sit at, and newly delivered Child Aid books are on shelves low enough for them to reach. The Las Canoas librarian is cataloguing the books and will be using the new computer to help with the book-lending program.

During the celebration, students displayed exhibits outside each classroom showing the various reading techniques they learned in Child Aid workshops. Director of Development Danny Palmerlee was able to attend.  He described the community’s excitement in seeing teachers and students so involved in reading activities. The local school director has been very supportive of Child Aid’s work in Las Canoas, and teachers are regularly using the techniques they have learned. Many teachers, for example, are using the “Star Readers” charts (shown in a photo from John) to encourage reading, and such techniques have realized impressive results. Primary schools students have become more engaged in and enthusiastic about reading. Also, the librarian reports that, with more reading in classrooms, kids are using the library more than ever.

Danny Palmerlee mentioned that the Ministry of Education recently passed a law requiring every child in school to read five books per year. Within the schools where Child Aid works, however, teachers report that some students are reading five books per month. The entire school attended the event to show support for the library and reading programs, as did parents, community members, and the mayor of Las Canoas. Yesterday’s celebration was an excellent opportunity to see the results of and enthusiasm for Child Aid’s work.

Here’s an excellent and sad video showing how people in Guatemala are still struggling following the devasting Tropical Storm Agatha.

The United Nations just released its dense but highly informative State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples report. Throughout the report, the UN reiterates the fundamental importance of providing greater educational opportunities to indigenous children. For those without the time to hunker down and read all 250 pages of the report, here are a few excerpts that pertain specifically to Guatemala and education.

“Indigenous peoples also face huge disparities in terms of access to and quality of education and health. In Guatemala, for example, 53.5 per cent of indigenous young people aged 15-19 have not completed primary education, as compared to 32.2 per cent of non-indigenous youth. Although infant and child mortality has been steadily decreasing throughout Latin America over the last four decades, child mortality is still 70 per cent higher among indigenous children. Furthermore, malnutrition is twice as frequent among indigenous children in the region.

“Indigenous peoples also suffer from discrimination in terms of employment and income. According to the ILO, indigenous workers in Latin America make on average about half of what non-indigenous workers earn. Approximately 25-50 per cent of this income gap is “due to discrimination and non-observable characteristics, such as quality of schooling”.

“...in Guatemala, indigenous peoples’ poverty rates are 2.8 times higher than the rest of the population.”

“In Guatemala, only 54 per cent of indigenous girls are in school, compared with 71 per cent of indigenous boys. By age 16, only a quarter of indigenous girls are enrolled, compared with 45 per cent of boys.”

The World Bank has reported that “the rate of stunting [height/age] for Guatemala overall is 44 percent, but for indigenous children the rate is 58 percent, higher than either Yemen or Bangladesh, and almost twice the rate for non-indigenous children.

Read the entire report here

We have one chance and a deadline. Now we need you.

Child Aid recently received a $100,000 matching challenge pledge. If we can raise that amount from our individual supporters between now and December 31, Child Aid will earn an additional $100,000. If we don’t make it, we lose it!

Educating a child is the best way to provide her with a path out of poverty. Thanks to this matching pledge, the impact of whatever you give gets doubled.

Your gift this season is critical. Your support and this historic pledge will help us continue to bring critical educational programs and health services to thousands of children in Guatemala and southern Mexico.

Thank you for your support! Please donate here.

Once again, childhood malnutrition in Guatemala has made international headlines (read Miami Herald story here). The drought in Jalapa department, the worst in 30 years, has depleted food supplies and worsened an already existing food shortage among a huge sector of Guatemala’s rural poor.

We see the effects of malnutrition on children in Guatemala ever day, and this excellent video makes it very clear just how bad the situation has gotten. But the same video provides a serious reminder that “food alone is not enough to change the fundamental economic and social problems at the root of Guatemala’s hidden malnutrition.”

For us, this is further reassurance that, even amidst a food shortage, we’re doing exactly what needs to be done. At Child Aid, we’re in it for the long run. Our mission is to help poor Mayan children get the education they deserve so they have greater opportunities to provide for themselves and their families. And we need your help to do this!

Another article about the rampant poverty and malnutrition in Guatemala ran in a top publication, this time in The Atlantic (read it here). The article reports that in some areas of the country “malnutrition levels top 90 percent, among the highest rates in the world.”

The author explains that, along with high food costs and zero infrastructure, the lack of education is a major cause of poverty in Guatemala. “Less than 40 percent of indigenous women in Guatemala are literate, compared with an overall rate of 85 percent for Latin America. Worst hit by the chronic hunger are the country’s Mayans and other indigenous peoples…”

So how do you help? We couldn’t agree more with President Obama’s statement at the same G8 summit, which the author quoted at the top of the article: “We believe that the purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where it’s no longer needed, to help people become self-sufficient, provide for their families and lift their standards of living.”

We believe the best way to create the conditions where aid is no longer needed—to help people become self sufficient —is through education. You can help us do that!

In a heartwrenching article (here), The Economist reports that, “according to Unicef, almost half of Guatemala’s children are chronically malnourished—the sixth-worst performance in the world.” The article goes on to say that, “In parts of rural Guatemala, where the population is overwhelmingly of Mayan descent, the incidence of child malnutrition reaches 80%.” That’s twice what it is in Haiti! Getting more food to these families is undoubtedly critical. But, as the article makes clear, so is education. It is the one vehicle that provides a lasting impact on poverty, providing opportunities that otherwise will not exist. Your support is absolutely critical to Child Aid’s mission to bring community-based educational programs to Guatemala’s rural poor.

Most teachers in rural Guatemala have received no teacher training (they generally just have the equivalent of a high school degree), so most have never learned how to manage a classroom of 40 or more grade school students. Especially when teachers lack a strong personality, classrooms can resemble Union Station in New York City! Combine this with a lack of books and materials in classrooms, and it’s hardly surprising children find it so difficult to learn to read.

During our teacher training workshops, we always try to include tips and practices of classroom management. Not only do these help us in keeping teachers tuned in, they’ve given teachers ways to implement rules in their own classrooms. One practice that I was recently introduced to for getting students’ attention and getting them to focus is Superbrain Yoga!

In Superbrain Yoga, the idea is to try to get more oxygen to the brain by doing a simple exercise: deep knee bends combined with crossing the arms and holding and massaging the earlobes. It supposedly helps the practitioner activate both sides of their brain for learning, basically supercharging the brain.

Superbrain Yoga admittedly seems to be a wacky way to start a workshop, but who knows? Maybe it works! There is some research out there that indicates that this simple exercise can enable people to be more attentive and active in their learning. Maybe it’s just hocus-pocus. At the very least it is a fun way to start the morning and get people laughing and engaged in the workshops.

Speaking of special events, it’s not too late for you to organize one for the summer!! Really, what could be more fun than having a garage sale for your favorite charity? (Maybe a bowl-a-thon.) How about a fundraising dinner? Or a Barbeque for Books? If you do decide to do something like this, we can create a little web page for you like this or this.

And be sure to check out our events page from time to time (it’s under the Donate button, top right). Have a great summer!