Child Aid - Building Brighter Futures

Pasaq, Guatemala – Three years ago, when Child Aid helped Alberta Guarchaj launch a school-break reading program in her village’s new library, fewer than 10 children showed up. Alberta continued to participate in Child Aid’s librarian training sessions, and she tailored the program, known as Adventures in Reading, to fit the needs of her village.

Children participating in reading activities during Child Aid’s Adventures in Reading program in Pasaq.

The following year, 30 children turned out for the program, and Alberta continued to promote it in her community. Because books were formerly rare in Pasaq, even in the village school, parents began to take interest in the program. Most adults in the village are unable to read and know from experience that literacy has tangible economic benefits.

Throughout Guatemala, impoverished parents, especially women, express sadness about their inability to contribute more to their families economically. For most of them, the obstacle is the same: they cannot read.  So parents in Pasaq saw Adventures in Reading as an alternative. The program could help their children avoid the crippling trap of illiteracy. The more time their kids spent in the library, the quicker they were learning to read and the better they performed in school.

In 2011, Alberta conducted Adventures in Reading again. But this year, 70 to 100 children crammed into the library each day to listen to the stories she read. They pulled books off the shelves to read to themselves, and they participated in the literacy activities that form the heart of the program.

At a recent Child Aid Librarian Training Workshop, Alberta told librarians from other villages about her successes with Adventures in Reading. She described children beginning to read on their own and checking out books to bring home to their families. She talked about improvements children were making in their writing skills, and about parents attending reading sessions with their kids.  And she talked about how the program, combined with Child Aid’s other work in the village, is creating opportunities for her community that never before existed.

For Child Aid, the success of Adventures in Reading in Pasaq is another indicator that our program works. Literacy doesn’t happen overnight. It takes long-term commitment and requires flexible programs that communities can adopt and make their own. This year, a total of 21 villages conducted our Adventures in Reading program, engaging thousands of children in reading activities during the three-month school break.

At five and seven years old,  Joselyn and Karen Guarchaj already face the sad possibility of living lives of extreme poverty, just as their family has for generations. But thanks to Child Aid and its supporters, the two sisters also face another possibility: a future in which they know how to read and possess the education they need to lift themselves from poverty. That opportunity is one that their parent’s never had.

Joselyn and Karen Guarchaj (at right) are second-year participants in Child Aid’s school-break reading program.

Joselyn and Karen are participants in Child Aid’s Reading for Life literacy program. Thanks to the program, they now have a fully stocked library in their village and a full-time librarian, trained by Child Aid. Through the program, all of the teachers in their village are receiving training so that they can learn how to teach reading more effectively. (As throughout Guatemala, most of the teachers in their village are young and have little training beyond what they received in high school.) 

Outside of the school year, Joselyn and Karen also have access to a school-break reading program called Adventures in Reading.  Child Aid created this program to keep children engaged in reading activities during Guatemala’s three-month school break. The girls have participated in the program for two years in a row.

For Child Aid, improving literacy in a village like Joselyn’s and Karen’s goes far beyond delivering books and creating libraries. We do both of these and know they are critical components of an effective literacy program. But we also know that to truly improve literacy in a community that has never even had books, we must go further.

For this reason, we make long-term commitments to the villages where we work. We provide one-on-one training for teachers for a minimum of three years. We help communities identify, hire and train librarians from their own villages so we can foster local investment and ensure that the libraries we help create stay open to children every day. Reading for Life is a multifaceted program and, because of this, it works.

Joselyn and Karen could easily have faced a future where illiteracy and poverty were their only paths. But thanks to Reading for Life and Child Aid supporters, there are others.   

Before Child Aid brought Reading for Life to their village, these children in Guatemala had no access to books or reading programs. By helping them learn to read and succeed in school, Child Aid provides children opportunity and the hope for a better future.

Recently, I had the immense pleasure of showing three of our Reading for Life program staff members from Guatemala around Portland, Oregon. The purpose of their visit was to spend time shadowing teachers and to share their experiences in literacy work with students, volunteers and Child Aid supporters. Child Aid recruits and trains its literacy staff from regions where we work.

Graciela Sajbochol (right), a Child Aid literacy trainer, reads a book out loud with a student during her visit to the U.S.

U.S.-based international organizations routinely send workers to villages in the developing world to carry out their missions. But rarely do nonprofit workers from the developing world – particularly indigenous people – have a chance to come here to share their perspectives with people in the United States.

Carlos Pos Ben (right), a Child Aid literacy trainer, learns about classroom activities with a school principal.

Carlos Pos Ben, a Kaqchikel Mayan, was one of the staff members, and this was his first time ever on an airplane. “All I’m hoping from this experience is to learn,” said Carlos, who, along with coworkers Graciela Sajbochol and Norma Guzmán, visited several Portland-area schools, as well as Portland State University’s Bilingual Teacher’s Pathway program, where they had the opportunity to observe classroom activities, as well as discuss ideas about literacy and educational practices with educators.

In the end, our staff were absolutely thrilled from the visit. “My family is so proud of me,” said Carlos. He stepped back and expressed his life-long passion for literacy and education. While many growing up around him didn’t give it much thought, Carlos loved reading and the many opportunities it allowed for him – such as being the first in his family to finish school. “I want to share what I have learned from this visit with the children I work with. There are many opportunities out there for those who have a passion like me for reading and education,” Carlos said, smiling.

Graciela, Norma and Carlos share stories about Guatemala with U.S. students.

We’d like to thank Milwaukie Elementary School / El Puente Bilingual Program and all the schools for opening their doors to our organization.

This week is National Library Week! To celebrate, help Child Aid create better libraries for some of Guatemala’s poorest children.

In the United States, it’s easy to take libraries for granted. They are free, welcoming public spaces where children can learn, study, and of course, borrow great books. Many libraries offer free classes and homework help, provide community resources, host author readings and advertise local events. Imagine your community without a library.

Kids reading new books in the library Child Aid helped create in the town of Las Canoas. Thanks to our donors we helped the community build new shelving and furniture.

In most rural impoverished villages in Guatemala, libraries are extremely rare and high-quality educational resources are even less common. Child Aid works to change this. We help indigenous communities create libraries that provide access to books and reading programs for local children. Child Aid stocks these libraries with new children’s books and helps librarians establish after-school and summer reading programs. With these new opportunities children finally have access to the resources and materials that will help them advance educationally. In a country where most Mayan children drop out of school by 3rd grade, these opportunities can be the stepping stones needed to escape a life of poverty.

How can you celebrate National Library Week?

Donate to Child Aid. We will use your gift to bring libraries to rural Guatemalan towns for the first time ever.

Give a gift to Child Aid in honor of the librarian in your life, and we will send a tribute card.

Juan Byron Guarchaj (age 10) lives in the rural town of Pasaq, Guatemala.  He goes to school in the morning and spends his afternoons harvesting coffee or bananas to earn money for his family.  He chops firewood in the mountains and carries it into town in giant bundles on his back.  Around dusk, he spends an hour or two in the library that Child Aid helped create last year. 

After attending Child Aid’s summer reading program, Juan aspires to become a doctor.

In November of 2010, during Guatemala’s three month school break, Juan participated in Pasaq’s second Adventures in Reading program, which helped more than 25 local children work on their reading skills while school was out.  “I want to be a doctor,” said Juan, “and I want to do Adventures in Reading again this year.”  He’s not alone: Parents in 20 towns and villages enrolled a total of 1,605 children in Adventures in Reading last year.  This is double the number of children who participated in the program the year before.  We are thrilled with the success of this program and glad parents are taking an active role in our work.

With the New Year well upon us, we want to pause and thank you for everything you helped us achieve in 2010.  Last year, we served more children than ever before. In Guatemala, 7,414 kids from 26 communities participated in Child Aid literacy programs and, in Mexico, we treated and/or tested more than 2,600 impoverished children for hearing loss. 

Children in a remote classroom near Santa Lucía Utatlán, Guatemala, show off the new books they received through Child Aid’s Mobile Book Box program. These are the first usable books their classroom has had.

Thanks to generous donations from several US book publishers, we shipped more Spanish-language children’s books to Guatemala in 2010 than in any year in Child Aid’s history – 83,000 in all. Remote libraries and schools in over 50 towns and villages have already received books, and we plan to distribute the remaining materials throughout the first half of 2011. Through Child Aid’s Reading for Life literacy program, we ensure they are used regularly by children in their homes and as part of Child Aid reading programs.

Many of our supporters chipped in last year when they heard the the story about Xojolá, the remote indigenous community where teachers asked us to bring Reading for Life to their village.  By the end of 2010 we raised $18,000 for the community and began work on the library immediately.  We delivered hundreds of children’s books and will soon start literacy training for a new librarian and 21 local teachers. Our work in Xojolá is going extremely well. Check back soon for updates.

These are only a few of our accomplishments from last year. We couldn’t have done this without your support.

We post a lot of photos of the insides of libraries we help create. They tend to be bright, colorful, clean places that create an atmosphere where children want to read. What these photos don’t show are the day-to-day realities children face just outside those walls. Here are a few photos of the communities of Palá and Xojolá which illustrate how people live in rural Guatemala and the need children have for greater opportunities. Child Aid begins work in both towns this year to help the communities implement our childhood literacy programs.

Typical home in Palá with firewood stacked outside.

Many Guatemalans must collect firewood from afar to fuel their cooking stoves, such as this man in Xojolá.

Storefront and house made of adobe bricks in Palá.

In the rural community of Xojolá, where Child Aid plans to begin work this year, the school director, Alejandro Guarchaj Mas, shared his thoughts with us about his community’s need for educational improvement. Mr. Guarchaj explained that without substantial support from the government, their community has been left without adequate resources in their schools. (To put this into perspective, Guatemala spends $133 per year per primary grade student as compared to $10,548 spent in the U.S.)

Due to economic circumstances, many children must work to help their families.

“We need the program Child Aid offers,” he said. “There is not enough work in our communities. The children have to learn how to do what we do, but better. With better education, the children here will be able to develop new and effective ways to grow, produce, and sell coffee, bananas, and artesanía,” without leaving their communities.

This year, thanks to our donors, Child Aid will begin our reading program in Xojolá and help the community create its first public library ever. For the community’s children, this will mean greater educational opportunity, and for Mr. Guarchaj, it will be the realization of a dream.

Thanks to everyone who supported our literacy programs in Xojolá. We will have more updates about their progress soon.

From all of us at Child Aid and on behalf of the children we serve, we would like to wish you a very Happy New Year! Thanks to all our supporters who have helped bring literacy programs and much needed resources to Guatemalan children this year. This has been a year of incredible success and would not have been possible without our supporters. With your help we have been able to bring over 7,200 children into our literacy program, Reading for Life, and we hope to reach even more children in the coming year. Thank you!

To donate, please click here.

Here is Child Aid’s latest video, which illustrates the human impact of our work. Thank you to all our supporters for helping improve these children’s lives through literacy.  Your involvement makes all the difference!