Empowering Guatemalan Youth to Promote Literacy

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...

In 1985 a US Department of Education Commission on Reading shared the results of 10,000 research projects done over 25 years to get at the core of what really works in terms of turning kids into skilled readers. Among its primary findings was this: "The single most important activity for building the knowledge required...

Reading Village has nearly double the number of teen reading promoters this year as we had last year. Visit our website for a brief photo update: http://www.readingvillage.org/2010/01/11-teen-reading-promoters-off-to-a-great-start.html Thank you for all you do to make their dreams come true, Linda

Our teen reading promoters have come a long way in just one year, and we have selected eight new teens to join them next month as school in Guatemala gets underway for the 2010 school year. You can see their faces and a brief bit on each of them here: http://www.readingvillage.org/2009/12/index.html Thank you for...

Enjoy this inspiring 3-minute video about the exciting local leadership and initiative that is developing in the community where we are working to promote children's literacy in rural Guatemala. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXcrqLoQdCc

I'm headed down to Guatemala at the end of this month to begin recruiting next year's teen reading promoters. We will be doubling the number from six to twelve! Thanks for your support and please send your friends to our project page:...