FUNDIT: Community Education Project
Since 1996, Child Aid has partnered with FUNDIT (pronounced foon-DEET ), a locally run community organization in El Tejar, Guatemala. Child Aid and FUNDIT operate the only Montessori preschool for poor children in the country, a four-year, early-start program serving children three to six years of age. All children who complete this preschool program leave knowing how to read and write at a basic level – an astounding accomplishment considering Guatemala’s extremely high rates of illiteracy.
Due to the extreme poverty of their families, many of the 105 children enrolled are malnourished. Child Aid and FUNDIT sponsor a nutrition program that offers free daily meals to the students. Through the Ethical Bean Scholarship Program (funded by Ethical Bean Coffee), we also provide long-term scholarships to the school’s neediest graduates so they can progress through primary and middle school. A local library, supported by Child Aid and FUNDIT, ensures that families in El Tejar have access to quality books and reading programs. This multi-faceted partnership gives hundreds of poor children in El Tejar educational opportunities they would otherwise never have.
