Project #61 | Building Classrooms for Children in Guatemala

Our partnership with Long Way Home

Our partnership with LWH built 4 primary school classrooms and a retaining wall using rammed earth construction. Guatemala currently holds the lowest primary education completion rate in Central America. For every 10 students who enroll in primary school, only four will graduate, and of those four only one will complete lower secondary school. Schools often do not have the space, faculty, or materials necessary to provide children with an education. This inadequacy is even greater in the rural areas, which is where LWH currently operates. This new construction is a continuation of the Centro Educativo Los Tecnicos Chixot project, which includes four vocational workshops, three storerooms, an art classroom, three primary school classrooms, a guard station, a composting latrine, rainwater cistern and volunteer house constructed entirely out of recycled waste.

PEOPLE IMPACTED

CLASSROOMS BUILT

STUDENTS EDUCATED

Meet Mario

Mario Xocop has done small welding projects for LWH virtually since we started school construction in 2009, but we were never able to bring him on full-time. At 65, Mario is working to support the education of his niece and his grandchild, after already putting two of his own children through college. He is no longer able to put in as many hours on big welding projects at his own shop but, due in large part to the ODW grant, we have been able to employ him full-time onsite since February of this year. Mario’s age and wisdom have brought a new dynamic to our construction team. He is a role model for many of our younger workers and his insightful comments during meetings have helped to facilitate a deeper feeling of team spirit, especially between the foreign and local staff members. It is LWH’s desire to live by example. Mario Xocop is helping us to meet that objective; he lives the values of his Mayan ancestors while remaining flexible to new ideas and using his voice to affect change in his community.

Thank you for making this possible!

Our movement is grassroots, to us that not only means the work on the ground is led by local leaders with the support of the community, but it also means that we raise the funds for our projects through everyday donors just like you. In addition to all the donors that gave $25, $100, or $250 and the campaigners that ran a race or donated their birthday to raise funds, we also want to thank our generous business, school, and faith sponsors who believed in our work and joined the movement. 

If you want to support future projects like this you can make a donation to our education fund.

                 

 

One Day's Wages is a grassroots movement of people, stories, and actions to alleviate extreme global poverty

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