Schools and organizations serving vulnerable communities in Guatemala are under-prepared to face the COVID19 crisis. They've closed or are struggling. Yet community needs are more acute than ever. The El Centro team will deliver innovative new programs and support organizations and communities to build resilience, capacity and adaptability. Collaborating with our broad and deep network, we aspire to create and implement responsive opportunities locally and at scale.
COVID19 has had a devastating toll on Guatemalan communities and organizations. Local businesses and education services have largely halted, and organizations are struggling to function effectively to serve the vulnerable. Family incomes are limited and savings depleted. Overall, COVID19 has created systemic breakdowns within systems that were oftentimes already broken. Educational institutions and community-focused organizations are currently ill equipped to adapt and solve these challenges.
We will create and test innovative programs to help organizations and communities respond to the crisis and build resilience, including: Build the capacity of teachers/schools to create practical distance-learning options; Support organizations to build internal capacity and resilience to respond to the crisis and beyond; Design and implement youth entrepreneurship programming. These models will be broadly disseminated to be replicated and scaled by other organizations, schools, and communities.
El Centro and other organizations will have learnt to deliver innovative programs adaptable to times of crisis. We then aim for these programming models to be adopted by 100 organizations, communities, and schools next year. As a result, more children will receive an education, organizations will be stronger, and youth will create more jobs for their peers. Ultimately, these models will create resilience in Guatemalan organizations and communities to build back stronger after the COVID19 crisis.
