Child Aid - Building Brighter Futures

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! 

If you live in the Portland, Ore area, join us on a beautiful bike ride to support Child Aid’s rural librarian training program. The ride will take place on Sunday, September 20, in the idyllic countryside around Forest Grove, just west of Portland. We’ll ride through vineyards, forests and rolling hills, all for the sake of great cause: community libraries in Guatemala and helping children learn to read. There are three rides so peddlers of all levels and ages can participate: an 11 mile ride, a 30 mile ride and the 55 mile challenge ride. Read more about the ride and register online here. We hope to see you there!! 

Hogar “Tío Juan” (loosely, Uncle Juan’s Place) provides a welcome home to young Guatemalan boys and girls with no home of their own. During its 30 plus years, over 8,000 children have called Hogar “Tío Juan” their home. The home provides food, shelter and an excellent education.

Formerly homeless, these boy sare now in good hands and getting the education they deserve

The normal school day in Guatemala is from 7:30am until noon. The 400 residents at Tío Juan, however, attend classes from 8am to 5pm every day, including Saturday.  With this amount of classroom time, students work through two grades per year!  While this schedule provides the students with an excellent education, it also presents a problem.  Books in Guatemala are hard enough to come by, but even more so when your students are literally doing “double time”. 

Earlier this year Child Aid received a generous donation of books, including a good selection of math text books. We were able to make a generous donation of about 1,000 math books to Hogar Tío Juan.  Every year, K - 9, received a set of 40 text books along with accompanying workbooks.  They were thrilled to get some new books as the ones they’d been using were battered.  Like the children, I think the books have found a good home at Tío Juan. 

Child Aid works in depth with 14 communities in Guatemala, but we also assist dozens of other communities and organizations on varying levels, whether we’re providing teacher trainings or donating books. This book delivery to Hogar Tío Juan is just one example of how you, our donors, are helping us make a real impact on people’s lives. 

Child Aid’s first reading program was based in the library located in El Tejar, a few miles up the mountains from Antigua. The program, Adventures in Reading (Aventuras en Lectura)was designed to help school age kids engage in reading during their school year break. Since then Child Aid has continued to run Adventures in Reading during the school year break and has provided training to hundreds of rural librarians, helping them help children develop reading skills they’ll keep for life.

Children listen to a story during Adventures in Reading

The librarian trainings and Adventures in Reading program both promote reading as well. The library in El Tejar is a perfect example.  The librarians here visit three schools each week where they read books with students in 11 different classes. The nearly 400 children in these classes are currently reading a book by Ann Cameron called Colibri, a story about a Mayan child kidnapped from her parents in Guatemala City and her long journey back to her family. The children read a few chapters each week as a class. After the reading session, the librarians lead the students through activities that help the students develop better critical thinking skills and comprehension skills,  and encourage them to use their imagination.

The program has sparked in the students a great interest in reading. Teachers say the kids refer to the stories throughout the week in class. The students are also reading books on their own, partly because of the reading program, but also because the library now has open stacks and a lending program. This means the children can peruse the books and can borrow the ones they like and read them at home.

This is a stark contrast to many communities in Guatemala where books simply do not exist, where students don’t have the opportunity to develop comprehension skills for reading, or learn to enjoy books for pleasure. Through the efforts of Child Aid we are making a difference in many of these communities by providing materials, training, and support and helping children develop better reading skills and stay in school.