PROJECT-SUPPORT GUATEMALA

equal education fund - EEF, Bern, Switzerland

Country / Place

Guatemala, Chimaltenango

Guatemala is the most populous country in Central America, located in the south of the Yucatán Peninsula. Guatemala borders Honduras to the southeast, El Salvador to the south, Mexico to the north, and Belize to the east. The country borders two oceans: the Atlantic Ocean, part of the Caribbean Sea, to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Guatemala City is the capital of the Central American state.

The city of Chimaltenango is located about 55 km west of Guatemala City in the central highlands of the Sierra Madre at about 1’800 meters above sea level.

General

The equal education fund - EEF specifically supports educational projects for children and young people who would otherwise not have access to a kindergarten, a school, or vocational training. Education is a prerequisite for qualified work and an independent life. They support children and young people directly through small, professionally managed project partners, all of whom they know personally and whom they visit regularly. Currently, they are giving children and young people in Central America (Nicaragua, Guatemala) and in south-eastern Africa (Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia) a better perspective. In addition, the parents are strongly involved in the project context and are given support and counselling.

Beneficiaries

Chimaltenango, Guatemala

In the city of Chimaltenango, the population lives mainly from agriculture, handicrafts (brickworks of El Tejar) and the service sector. More than half of the population - disproportionately the Indigenous population groups - live in poverty. They suffer from considerable unemployment and precarious health care. The situation of young people is particularly worrying.

Project-support

Project: Community School La Esperanza

The government almost exclusively supports primary schools, so that the state's educational opportunities are extremely limited after completion of primary school. Young people with limited financial resources have no access to vocational training or secondary school. Many primary school graduates therefore are at risk of slipping into drug and gang crime or prostitution.

The Community School La Esperanza gives over 60 adolescents access to secondary school with affordable fees and an officially recognized degree. A school-graduation certificate from La Esperanza secondary school thus makes it possible to continue education at higher secondary schools or to attend vocational training throughout the country. The instruction is highly student-centred and promotes critical thinking and problem solving. Prevention of violence, mutual respect and increasing personal responsibility are important elements of the schooling. The youths put into practise their own initiatives through events, handicrafts or business ideas, gaining experience in social entrepreneurship.