Break The Cycle Of Poverty Through Education in GT

Dear Friends of Niños de Guatemala, 

The past months have been a busy time for us in Antigua and Ciudad Vieja. Antigua Guatemala is famous for its elaborate festivities during Easter Week (Semana Santa). The processions, vigils, and alfombras (vibrant carpets made with flowers, feathers, sawdust) are used to celebrate Easter and draw people from all over the world. Many of our students have been actively part of this festivities which ties the communities closer together.

During March we also celebrated the International Women's day. We are very proud to have equal numbers of boys and girls throughout our project. Our social work department supports our community and makes sure that we minimise drop outs amongst our girls, especially in middle school, where education for women is hugely lacking in Guatemala. It also works with families, students, and staff to provide resources in order for them to reach their full potential. Once a month the families attend “Escuela de Padres” which consists of workshops regarding safe and effective parent child communication along with other important topics to create the best learning environment possible.
Our psychology department strives to provide workshops, programs, and therapy that empower and ensure positive development for the students and families. For example, Autoayuda is a monthly workshop that discusses cases of violence and abuse, then provides skills to empower and increase women's self-esteem.
We also work very close with women of the community through our Community Centers which are open to all members of the community around the schools, not just parents of the students. We hold weekly workshops on baking and recycling, with the long-term aim of providing an income for these individuals.

From April 24th to 30th 2016, Niños de Guatemala will be hosting a group of roughly ten people for a challenge based on The Amazing Race and the Dutch television shows Peking Express and Wie is de Mol. Over the course of the week, contestants will be given different cultural tasks, from painting a chicken bus to recreating a traditional Guatemalan dish. Each activity will be scored, and on the final day, the winner of the challenge will be announced. The aim of the Challenge is to raise money that goes directly towards our organization.

Thank you for your support ! 

Dear friends of Niños de Guatemala, 

Last year has been an incredibly successful one for Niños de Guatemala. During November we had a medical camp run by volunteering doctors from the Netherlands that took care of over 900 children from Ciudad Vieja and El Porvenir. 

We also have seen our second grade of students graduate from Nuestro Futuro, and seen the inauguration of a whole new middle school. The "Centro educativo Basico, Nustro Futuro" is now ready for the new school year starting in January 2016. 

We have forged even closer ties to the community of Ciudad Vieja. Our students participated in competitions of citizenship, art and soccer with our schools from the community. We have expanded our community centre to include even more activities for the families of our students. 

This year we hope to get all of our children sponsored. This will take a huge effort from everyone at Niños de Guatemala, so if you or anyone you know is interested in investing in the lives of one of our students, direct them to padrino@ninosdeguatemala.org or click thelink below to learn more. 

We want to thank you for your support in 2015. We hope you can join with us  this New Year to continue to help Niños de Guatemala grow and continue to break the cycle of poverty in our communities. 

Friends of Niños de Guatemala,

This month has been a very exciting and busy one for Niños de Guatemala. We have received great support from both large organisations and individual people, had wonderful celebrations with our students and community, and been joined by creative and talented staff in our office here in Antigua.

            On September 15^th we celebrated Independence Day in Guatemala and our students took part in parades with all of the schools of Ciudad Vieja. Each of the classes represented a different part of Guatemalan culture and heritage and you can check out all of the photos here. On the subject of photography, we had a volunteer from the Netherlands – Bente Mars – who taught a photography workshop with students at El Porvenir. The kids took some amazing shots and learned a great deal about the subject. She also kindly donated 9 digital cameras to the organisation so her work can continue with other volunteers in the future.

Late last month we received a donation of $50,000 from PepsiCo International that is going towards our Nutrition and Health Program at Nuestro Futuro. They are also sending a team of volunteers to the school to run a careers workshop with our older students; we’ll have updates on how it went in next month’s newsletter. Long-term supporter Pablo Alvarez and the organisation Grupo Alza were able to donate nearly half a tonne of “Plataninas” to provide our students with a snack every day for six months.

In the last few weeks several new staff members have joined us in our Antigua office. Brian Tyler will be taking over management of the Básico project, Matthew Meehan has re-joined the office as Communications Officer and Ambar Atta will be coordinating our service teams. In our social business Devon Wilson has taken over management of Cambio Spanish School and Lea Ritter is the Operations Assistant. A new group of people who are passionate about Niños de Guatemala’s mission, and who will use all of their abilities to better the lives of our community.

Thank you for your support!

Niños de Guatemala is continuing its growth trajectory with new teachers, events and successes!

Our schools are running our full range of programs. This year, we’ve been lucky enough to find two great English Language teachers. With these two new teachers on board we can gladly boast to have a 100% Guatemalan staff at all of our schools!

Since our last report, our schools have been busy implementing their afterschool programs. Our Psychology and Social Work department have begun implementing the Crianza Con Carino program for the year. The focus of this afterschool program is to work with parents on non-violent communication and emotional expression with children. 

A women’s group, that our Social Work Department facilitates, successfully lobbied the municipal government to pave the roads near our school! While this may seem like a small deal, it’s going to make life much easier for our parents and students to get to and from our school, especially in the rainy season!

At the office we’ve been organizing a number of fun new events both online and in Antigua. Our staff at the office had the bright idea of creating videos telling people about our programs, but beforehand, they all ate a Habanero pepper! We used the videos to promote a recent online fundraiser we held to raise funds for our Teachers’ supplies.

One of our past Volunteers, Torin Murphy, “sold” the rights to what he does with his enormous beard to the highest donation pool online. In the end, the people demanded he shave! Check out the pictures below. Also, the good people at the Lucky Rabbit hosted us for our first of the year in Antigua!

To find out more about what we’ve been up to in Antigua and at our schools, follow us on Social Media and subscribe to our Newsletter!

Thank you for supporting Niños de Guatemala and our students’ future!

Links:

• Our Website

The past few months have been packed with groups and activities taking place in our schools in Cuidad Vieja.

In February we had a group from Builders Beyond Borders join in the construction of our Básico. The group of High School students worked hard on laying the literal foundation for our school. Recently in April we had another group of students join our construction project working on plastering and cementing the new walls on the school. Both groups came to us from Connecticut thanks to our partners at Builders Beyond Borders.

Speaking of the Básico, we have made tremendous advances on the construction of the school. Check out the pictures below.

Our office has undergone some changes in the past quarter with new faces joining our team. The most prominent recruit is our new General Manager Tara McLaughlin! Tara comes to us with an extensive background working with NGOs in the US and Guatemala and is excited to be a part of our organization.

For more information on the goingson with Niños de Guatemala please like us on Facebook and follow us on twitter. As always feel free to contact us if you would like more information on any of our programs or activities.

Thank you for supporting Niños de Guatemala!