By Lois Werner | President
The 2015 school year started in Janaury. The harvest was disappointing because of the drought mid year 2014. Crops suffered, prices escalated, and many families strugged more than usual to buy their corn and beans, staples in the diet of the indigenous living in rural San Martin, Jilotepeque. The students, none the less, were excited to get back to school. Imagine their surprise when they learned their school was next to receive computers!
Those students attend elementary school in the rural village of San Bartolome. This is the school we told you about in our last report. The roof over the classroom to be used as a computer lab needed to be replaced before we could deliver the desks, chairs, and computers. Thanks to a generous donation in honor of their family, Tad & Rita Foringer donated the funds to buy the materials for a new roof. Working together, the parents tore off the old roof and installed the new roof in only five days. Teachers and parents painted the classroom. Now 140 students and 6 teachers have access to computers.
Our aim is to install computers at all of the remote elementary schools in San Martin, Jilotepeque.Using computers gives the students an advantage when they advance to junior high school. By installing computers in the remote schools, the students will be on an even playing field when they enter junior high school and some will have a better chance to compete for scholarships.
Students in remote Maya villages in San Martin where we work want to learn, want to change their lives, and truly aspire for more education. The majority of their parents cannot read or write. They know how difficult their lives are and wish for their children to have a chance to get out of the vicious cycle of extreme poverty that plagues the majority of indigenous families.
We have only met a small percentage of our goal. We need your support to continue to be able to provide computers to more rural schools. Hundreds of students are waiting ...
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