Empowering Guatemalan Youth to Promote Literacy

We recently returned from an incredible visit to Guatemala where we witnessed the impact that your investment is having and where we were reminded of all the reasons why we are in this line of work.   It’s for the girls - and the boys - who are learning to read on the laps of our scholars. It’s for...

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: There are places on this planet that break our hearts open to the beauty and possibility of life. Guatemala is one of those places. It’s no wonder I’m so incredibly excited to be heading back down there. That’s right, in just a few days...

The day began like any other. A cold morning with fog lifting over the lake. The sound of tin garage doors being rolled up to reveal store fronts. Women crouched over steaming tamales in the cold air. But today was different. From where we sat, today was bigger and better than any day that had come before it. Today,...

For the past six years we’ve been telling you how our reading promoters are not only students, but they are mentors, and teachers, and leaders, and even entrepreneurs. I’m excited to report that now six of our teens are also community health promoters! That’s right, during the school recess from November...

I leave for Guatemala today to celebrate the end of our 6th successful year and the high school graduation of four more reading promoters: Maribel, Laura, Rony and Olivia. We’ve seen the impact our teens have had on the children they read to, and now we’re seeing the impact on their own lives...

As you’ve probably figured out, we’re a literacy organization that doesn’t build libraries. But we don’t have to. This past summer, the teenagers with whom we’ve been working to develop leadership skills and finish high school in the village of Concepcion informed us that they would be building...

I'm traveling to Guatemala a week from Sunday, and I can't wait to interview the teen reading promoter candidates for 2013 and to see the space the teens in Concepción have acquired to convert to the community's first-ever public library.  Julio César (a promoter who graduated...

I just spent a couple of weeks in Guatemala and am happily overwhelmed by the changes I see. I want you to know how deep an impact you are making. (For photos, see link below.) Over and over again, as I interviewed nearly every one of our 30 teen reading promoters, I heard them talk about their reading promotion work in...

I was eager to connect with "Marco," one of our dynamic reading promoters, on my recent trip to Guatemala. Last November his father – out of the blue – asked him when he would be getting married. Marco is 17. He explained to his father that his studies were his priority. He has two more years of high school...

"Today I had a very beautiful moment. I have always heard children asking for food or money, but for the first time in my life I saw a group of children ask for a story. And that, for me, is very significant" -- Gael Dhaenens, Reading Village's newly hired Community Facilitator in Guatemala. He couldn't have captured the...

The next Reading Village Learning Journey to Guatemala is scheduled for March 11-17, 2012. This is going to be a trip packed with memorable experiences, including a visit to the colonial city of Antigua, a walk through ancient Mayan ruins, a boat ride across stunning Lake Atitlan to visit a local coffee cooperative, and...

Thank you for helping us reach our goal on the 19th! Follow the link below to see if you are the lucky winner of an Amazon Kindle Fire.

  Today only and donations made on our GobalGiving site only Donations will be matched 30% and  you could win a brand new Kindle Fire (Amazon's cool new iPad competition - web, movies, apps, games, reading, color!) We've just selected 10 new teen reading promoters for next year.  Help fund their...

  Donate on our GlobalGiving site October 19 And you could win a brand new Kindle Fire. (Amazon's cool new iPad competition - web, movies, apps, games, reading, color) Plus, your donation will be matched 30%. We've just selected 10 new teen reading promoters for next year.  Help fund their scholarships and we all...

I just received some good news from the community of Concepción. Our reading aloud to children is having an important effect that will help them stay in school.  In rural Mayan communities, half of the children fail the first grade and about 75% drop out altogether before completing the sixth...

Juan Carlos is not the most articulate of our newest teen reading promoters. He lives in the shadow of his domineering father and his Spanish skills are a bit weak. But I love this kid because what he lacks in eloquence he makes up for with spirit and determination. Last week as our Learning Journey group ended their time...

Don't forget! Wednesday the 15th is Bonus Day. Donations made on that day only will be matched 30% That means a donation of $50 (10 books) becomes $65 (13 books). As always, your support is greatly appreciated.

  During my last visit to the community of Concepción I encountered a small boy walking toward me. It did my heart good to see a book in his hand. The fact that he was carrying it in a plastic bag told me that he wanted to take good care of this precious item. He had checked out the book...

I never expected that we'd see it this soon, just two and a half years after beginning in Concepcion, but there it was right in front of me -- the birth of a new generation of leaders in this community. Sunday, after Daniel and I had wrapped up the training session with our fifteen teen...

Youth rise to the expectations that we hold for them. Here at Reading Village we see it every day in our teen reading promoters. And it's one of the greatest satisfactions of my work to see them become more than they ever thought they could be. So it makes me sad when I hear of...

I remember vividly just two years ago our first meeting ever with the first teen reading promoters in Concepcion. Julio Cesar's beet-red face belied his embarrassment at having to crow like a rooster whenever it came up in a story being read aloud. It was so challenging for him I wondered to myself...

I'm in Guatemala interviewing teens for our reading promoter program. It's one of my favorite things to do because these youth inspire me so much. Take Teresa Morales Chumil, for example. She is 15, the oldest of four, and her family owns no land so they work as day laborers on someone...

For you and me, who love to read, it's hard to imagine an entire country where reading is not much valued and not regularly enjoyed. But this is the case in Guatemala. A colleague once heard it reported that of the Guatemalans who can read only 1% had read anything for pleasure that year....

Last month we convened a group of amazing people with decades of experience in Guatemala, education, leadership development and literacy to help us take the good curriculum we developed for training our teen reading promoters and make it excellent.  This curriculum will be part of a training manual (funded by a grant...

I'm in Guatemala with our Learning Journey group. They just spent three full  days in Concepción getting to know this indigenous Maya community, their culture, traditions and history as well as our reading promoters, their families and homes -- connecting at a very personal and heartfelt level. Promoters  and...

Donations to Reading Village do triple duty. We empower Guatemalan teens to promote children's literacy, and each dollar donated helps keep these teens in school, helps them develop leadership skills, and engenders the love of reading in children. On June 16 your donation goes half again as far! On June 16 Global...

Fifteen years ago, in the agricultural town of Concepción, Don Martín's eldest son Rufino asked permission to enroll in high school. Having only an elementary school education himself, Don Martín considered students to be lazy good-for-nothings who were only looking to escape hard physical labor in the fields. And no one...