NDG has the pleasure to announce that the Juan Bautista Gutierrez Foundation has once again supported us with a generous donation of Fortified Rice. Their donation of 40 boxes of Fortified Rice will have a significant impact on our feeding program that is currently providing a snack and meal to each of our 386 students.
The donation will help subsidize the costs our Nutrition and Health program, one of our largest expenses! Supporting this program gives us a greater ability to provide quality education to our students.
The initial donation came from Pan American Development Foundation, the charitable arm of the Organization of American States (OAS), thank you for making it all possible!
Please send a thank you to the Juan Bautista Gutierrez Foundation from us on social media and let them know how much we appreciate their support!
Facebook: FundacionJBG
Twitter: @FundacionJBG
NDG is pleased to announce that we are the recipients of the Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Foundation’s 2014 Sustainability Award! In recognition of our stable financial model, we’ve been given a check for Q250,000.This generous donation will go toward materials for our programs as well as our básico school.
The Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Foundation has been supporting community development projects focused on education and health in Guatemala for nearly thirty years. Their annual Apoyando a Quienes Apoyando (Supporting Those Who Support) grants are designed to recognize smaller NGOs for their work and to help with publicity and funding.
The selection process for these awards is rigorous and highly competitive. In addition to writing a grant, our team gave a detailed presentation about our schools, their impact on the local communities, and how they are financed. More than forty-eight nonprofits across Guatemala were up for consideration.
In the end, it was our social businesses that led to NDG winning the Sustainability Award. Since our founding in 2006, we have opened both Cambio Spanish School and the Experience Guatemala Tour, which donate 100% of their profits back to NDG. Together, they constitute a reliable, independent source of funding for our projects that helps to supplement other donations. To learn more about our social businesses, please visit our website.
Many thanks to the Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Foundation for the incredible support!
The English program at both our Nuestro Futuro and El Porvenir schools has made incredible progress since its founding in 2013. While NDG previously relied on long-term volunteers to lead our English classes, we now have two full-time language teachers on staff that follow and adapt the national curriculum based on our students’ needs.
English is a critical skill for our students. Given the strength of the tourism industry in and around Antigua, even a basic grasp of English can dramatically improve a student’s chances of finding a stable job once he or she graduates from our program.
The students themselves continue to be highly enthusiastic about learning a foreign language, taking every opportunity to practice their English with our international volunteers. Based on their level of interest, we’re now considering launching an English afterschool program to reinforce and expand upon what they have been learning in the classroom. Some of the parents in our adult literary program, CONALFA, have even requested private English lessons from our teachers!
Our classes are divided in half for their English lessons in order to ensure that our teachers can monitor each child’s progress with grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. While the lower grades are focused entirely on speaking and listening, the older students are now reading and writing as well.
In general, our English lessons reflect what the students are learning in their other classes. For example, while our second graders are studying healthy diets this month, they will also be learning about the food pyramid in English. What’s more, our classes are designed for visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles, incorporating songs, hands-on activities, and plenty of visual aids.
Right now, our teachers are still working with limited materials, creating many of their exercises from scratch. In order to continue to grow our program, we need to purchase English-language textbooks, activities, posters, and games in the near future. If you would like to help us accomplish this goal and break the cycle of poverty through education, please donate today.
Thank you for your ongoing support!
The following is a postcard from Lydia Sorensen, GlobalGiving's In-the-Field Representative in Guatemala, about her recent visit to Niños de Guatemala.
Over the last four years the community in Ciudad Vieja has undergone a change. This largely agricultural community used to not place much importance on education, and thought nothing about pulling their children out of school after a few years to help work in the fields. It didn’t help that in Guatemala even the public schools cost money (uniforms, school supplies, transportation) and most families can’t afford even that (according to the World Bank 75% of Guatemalans live under the poverty line and 58% below the extreme poverty line). Today 213 children attend the Nuestro Futuro primary school, and many more are on the waiting list. By providing a truly free, high-quality education, and offering resources to the whole community, Niños de Guatemala (NDG) has been able to create a brighter future for the youngest generation.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing (Maribel, the school principal, describes how in the beginning they had trouble getting children to attend, partially because some parents were worried the school was going to kidnap their children), but this year they will have their first class of graduating sixth graders. Of the 33 families with graduating students, 27 have already expressed interest in having their child continue on to seventh grade—a huge success in a country where only about 46% of children even enroll in secondary school (let alone attend). When they do graduate (and I have faith all 33 will graduate at the end of the school year), they will have not only gained a solid primary education, they will know more about health and hygiene, have an understanding of basic finances, be better nourished, and their whole family will have received years of classes and assistance from social workers leading to less domestic violence and abuse.
As we drive down the volcano and the blue walls of the school fade into the dusty fields, it’s impossible not to think of what Guatemala would be like if more children were able to attend schools like Nuestro Futuro.
We currently employ 30 members of staff across our two schools, who ensure that our children are receiving the best possible education in a comfortable and encouraging environment. Show your support for our staff by donating here and your generosity will be matched by Global Giving, our online fundraising partner.
2 schools. 339 children. 30 staff. Niños de Guatemala. Teachers, social workers, psychologists, cooks, maintenance and directors, each and every member of our team plays a chief role in the functioning of our schools. This year we have expanded our network of staff even more, as our schools and projects grow, the demands for staff increases.
Our teachers encourage and motivate our children to realize their ambitions through education, whilst following the Guatemalan national syllabus and offering extra-curricular activities. Their role is imperative to the education of our children, what would be a school without teachers?
Our social workers work closely with our pupils and families, keeping the local community engaged at all times. Offering monthly classes, our social workers help our families learn how to deal with critical issues in society, such as alcoholism, sex abuse and domestic violence. Social education is a crucial element to a child’s upbringing and future prospects.
Our psychologists offer personalised support to our children and families, offering therapy and clinic sessions for tackling difficult situations. Without a healthy and positive attitude, our children would not be so enthusiastic to learn.
Our culinary staff work closely with nutritionists to offer our children a healthy and balanced diet, fuelling them for a day at school whilst also nourishing their bodies with the right nutrients that will help them grow into healthy, young adults. The role of our culinary team is fundamental to the physical development of our children as many of them come from malnourished backgrounds.
Our maintenance staff ensure that the schools are clean, hygienic and safe working environments for our children, an essential part of the day-to-day running of our schools.
And our directors? Academic coordinators and principals work together to make sure that everything runs smoothly, that our children are happy, that our staff are happy, and that the schools continue to advance.
Each and every member of our team is valued. Valued at approximately at 46,560 quetzales. Each month it costs Niños de Guatemala around $6000 to keep our schools equipped with top-notch staff. Each month our schools continue to flourish and this is the result of being able to provide such a motivated workforce.
If you would like to help us, please donate TODAY as GlobalGiving have pledged to match all donations up to $1000.
Share the love this (2 days before) Valentine’s Day, and be a real tweet-heart and share our pledge on twitter @NinosdeGuate. Sharing is caring.
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