This project seeks funding to train additional Montessori teachers. Two residents of the small Sierra Sur de Oaxaca community of San Sebastian Rio Hondo, Oaxaca, Mexico have started AMI Montessori training to meet the growing demand by parents for Montessori education for their children. Our grant will help cover transportation, room and board, plus tuition for these teachers.
San Sebastian Rio Hondo, Oaxaca, Mexico is a small isolated village far from large centers of education. According to the National Commission for the Development of the Indigenous Peoples (CDI) Oaxaca has the greatest percentage of indigenous people after Yucatan, 48% of the population. Many of the people are socially marginalized, living in poverty. Ananda Learning Center seeks to become a strong center of Montessori education for the area. To do so, it needs well-trained Montessori teachers.
Our grant will enable Ananda to continue sending indigenous locals to an AMI Montessori training center in Mexico City. These highly trained Montessori teachers will return to San Sebastian Rio Hondo to work with 55 Zapotec, other indigenous students plus international community children, aged 3-12. While honoring their local cultures and beliefs, these teachers will help all students appreciate the wider world, while also becoming familiar with the unique cultures of others in their class.
Ananda sees itself becoming a regional educational center over the long term, spreading Montessori pedagogy to other low income communities in the area. By having highly trained Montessori staff, Ananda expects to work within the indigenous communities, enabling those communities to become more engaged with the wider world and to overcome endemic poverty.
