Educate and Empower Maya Youth: Challenge Grant!

The Q’eqchi’ Association Xch’ool Ixim (Heart of Corn) founded Instituto Maya Comunitario K’amolb’e,” (IMaCK) in 2010. It remains the only school that serves 7^th – 12^th grade youth in the region of Nimlajacoc. With your generous support of our digital literacy programs our students and alumni are realizing their educational goals.

The biggest shift in our approach to increasing digital literacy occurred when we received 31 refurbished computers as a Chaptops donation in November 2024. This gift guaranteed that each student in a computer class would be able to have their own computer station and that each teacher would have their own computer.

See attached Progress Report for the full story.

• Progress_Report_July.5.2025 (PDF)
  

Thank you for supporting the Q’eqchi’ Association Xch’ool Ixim (Heart of Corn) and our campaign to support the Computer Lab and to provide computer technology classes to our secondary students at the “Instituto Maya Comunitario K’amolb’e” (IMaCK) in Nimlah’akok, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.

On our very first Giving Tuesday online appeal for our secondary school Computer Lab:

• We received 26 donations, all from first-time-donors!
• We received 30 refurbished laptops as a gift-in-kind donation from Chaptops

While our students lack electricity in their homes and are from the most impoverished families in the area, they have an opportunity to learn how to use a computer and gain digital literacy, typing, and accounting skills.

• Only 5% of students complete high school in rural Alta Verapaz. We plan to break that cycle with interventions aimed at retention.

Your support of this campaign is helping these students gain valuable vocational skills, providing incentives to graduate. Together, we are providing access to education and pathways for entrepreneurship. We are developing future community leaders who can shape their own futures and break the cycle of irregular migration.

On behalf of Xch’ool Ixim, thank you with all of our heart,

Ava