Reports on Send 3 Indigenous Women to College in Guatemala

Project Report | Jul 1, 2021
Greetings from the ladies of Para Adelante

By Vanessa Ferrer | Project Leader

Thank you! Gracias! From all of us at Para Adelante!

All of us at Para Adelante are very humbled and grateful to be part of the group of organizations supported by GlobalGiving and all its supporters. We would like to thank everyone who has supported and those who continue to support us and the women. Our hearts go out to all those all over the world who are still suffering and struggling during these difficult times.

Our women continue to make us proud as they stay dedicated to their studies, despite still recovering from the challenges affecting their income and the impacts of Coronavirus on tourism. Despite the stress and challenges the ladies completed their semester successfully and did well in their classes. Dolores had an extra difficult semester, yet still did well in her classes. Sadly, Dolores’s son's father died suddenly in an accident part way through the semester and it affected her greatly to see her young son suffering so much and losing his father at such a young age. Our aide in Guatemala, Rosario, is a therapist and she and her husband went to visit Dolores and her son and provide them with counseling and support through this difficult time. Dolores has had to be extra strong for her son during all of this while still trying to keep up with her classes, as the school did not have an option to put her classes on hold without significantly delaying her degree. What helped her get through it was knowing she was doing it for her son, to allow him a better life in the future, while still providing the support he needed during this tragic loss. We continue to coordinate any support she may need in this time to work through this tragedy.

These women continue to embody the Para Adelante spirit and continue to inspire us. With that inspiration, we are still staying busy building our online store where we sell a variety of beautiful, one of kind accessories handmade by women in Guatemala with 100% of the net profits going to fund the scholarships. These items can be found on our website (http://paraadelante.org/shop/) with more inventory to be posted and we hope to launch a Shopify store to reach even more people and fund more scholarships to help more women and their families.

You can find more updates on all the women by following our social media pages below.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ParaAdelante.org/

Instagram - @paraadelantewomen

Thank you all for the continued support! As we say at Para Adelante, no matter what life throws at you - Keep Moving Forward! Para Adelante!

Links:

Para Adelante Website

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Mar 11, 2021
Greetings from the ladies of Para Adelante

By Vanessa Ferrer | Project Leader

Thank you! Gracias! From all of us at Para Adelante!

All of us at Para Adelante are very humbled and grateful to be part of the group of organizations supported by GlobalGiving and all its supporters. We would like to thank everyone who has supported and those who continue to support us and the women. Our hearts go out to all those all over the world who are still suffering and struggling during these difficult times.

We are so proud of our women, Angelica and Dolores, who continue to diligently work through all their classwork and studies, despite the continued challenges with the Coronavirus. Despite the challenges, the ladies finished their Fall semester strong and with good grades. This includes Dolores acing one of her final exams with a 98, despite having her electricity go off during final exam day when she had to take two finals. She communicated with her professors what was happening and ended up finishing two final exams in less time than allotted to the other students and still passed both, with one exam getting a 98! These women just keep impressing us every time.

We had our post Fall semester and pre Spring semester video calls and the ladies are excited to keep going and start another semester. Dolores has a tough semester ahead of her as she begins her final year of coursework before beginning her internship in 2022, but she is ready and motivated. She will begin working on her thesis and prep classes for her internship, on top of taking courses, such as Social Anthropology. She is excited to begin working towards graduation and is hoping to intern at an institution for abandoned and abused children.

Angelica is also looking forward to her semester and is interested in her course load for the Spring. She will be taking a Psychology classification course, Neurophysiology (how the nervous system works), Social Psychology, and Sports Psychology. She would like to work towards an advanced degree in Clinical Psychology, which requires three additional years of specialized courses, including English language courses to help broaden her research exposure in the field of Psychology. She hopes to obtain her certification in 2023/2024 and then work for an organization that helps women.

These women continue to embody the Para Adelante spirit and continue to inspire us. With that inspiration, we are still staying busy building our online store where we sell a variety of beautiful, one of kind accessories handmade by women in Guatemala with 100% of the net profits going to fund the scholarships. These items can be found on our website (http://paraadelante.org/shop/) with more inventory to be posted and we hope to launch a Shopify store to reach even more people and fund more scholarships to help more women and their families.

We are also excited to announce we have been accepted into the GlobalGiving International Women’s Week fundraising campaign. From March 8-12, all eligible donations up to $50 will be matched at 50%. We appreciate all and any support and also appreciate you sharing information with friends and family that may feel inspired to contribute to these inspirational women.

You can find more updates on all the women by following our social media pages below.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ParaAdelante.org/

Instagram - @paraadelantewomen

Thank you all for the continued support! As we say at Para Adelante, no matter what life throws at you - Keep Moving Forward! Para Adelante!

Links:

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Nov 2, 2020
November 2020 Update

By Vanessa Ferrer | Project Leader

Thank you! Gracias! From all of us at Para Adelante!

All of us at Para Adelante are very humbled and grateful be part of the group of organizations supported by GlobalGiving and all its supporters. We would like to thank everyone who has supported and those who continue to support us and the women. Our hearts go out to all those all over the world who are suffering and struggling during these difficult times.

We are so proud of our women, Angelica and Dolores, for their continued strength and perseverance with their education during the Summer and early Fall despite all the challenges posed with the Coronavirus. Both ladies lost their income for living expenses due to the impact of the virus on their communities and business closings along with loss of tourism (a major revenue generated for those in the handcrafted textile industry) and are starting to return more to normal business to try to recoup some lost income. As mentioned before, the ladies also had all their classes switched to online courses which affected their ability to listen to lectures, as both have very limited internet and were quarantined at home most of the weekdays. Angelica actually had to listen to her lectures on her cell phone while sitting in a stairwell where she lives, so she could at least hear parts of the lectures, because she has no internet at home to use on her laptop and before the quarantine, she would do as much of her work as she could on campus. We were able to fundraise enough money to get the internet connected in her house so she can do her coursework and listen to lectures and begin the Fall semester, which has also been online. The ladies are wrapping up the Fall semester and will be having final exams in these next two weeks. After they are finished with their exams, we will have our post semester checkup video call to see how they are doing, how they felt about the semester and what is planned for Spring. We will share the notes from those calls in our next report.

We want to repeat our statement from our last report of how despite all the challenges faced, the women still remain driven, humble and appreciative with no complaints, only telling us how much they appreciate the support and faith in them that Para Adelante and all our generous donors have provided over the last year and a half. We continue to beam with pride when we see the ladies academic and personal progress. They still managed to work hard and continue to get GOOD grades! They continue to embody the Para Adelante spirit and continue to inspire us.

So with that inspiration, we are still staying busy building our online store where we sell a variety of beautiful, one of kind accessories handmade by women in Guatemala with 100% of the net profits going to fund the scholarships. These items can be found on our website (http://paraadelante.org/shop/) with more inventory to be posted soon and we hope to launch an Etsy store to reach even more people and fund more scholarships to help more women and their families. During this holiday season, considering making even more of an impact by purchasing one or more of products in your gift list and give a gift that makes a difference and helps the women and their families.

You can find more updates on all the women by following our social media pages below.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ParaAdelante.org/

Instagram - @paraadelantewomen

Thank you all for the continued support! As we say at Para Adelante, no matter what life throws at you - Keep Moving Forward! Para Adelante!

We wish you all and your families safe and Happy Holidays over the various holidays coming up in these months. And we wish you all a safe and Happy New Year! See you in 2021!