By Leslie Meyer | International Coordinator
Egídia has always loved learning. By the age of 4, her favorite game was pretending to read and write in her older siblings' schoolbooks, and she often tried to sneak out of the house to follow them to school. She even convinced her mom to let her start kindergarten a year early!
One day, her neighbor told her about the Limitless Horizons Ixil Saber Sin Límites (Limitless Knowledge) Community Library. After her first visit to the library, Egídia was hooked. She made friends, saw her grades improve, and, for the first time ever, introduced books into her family's home.
While Egidia's parents admired her passion for books and school, they were struggling to support their 7 children on a combined income of just $35 a month. When Egídia was nearing the end of elementary school, her mom was forced to break the news: they couldn't afford to keep supporting Egídia's studies. She would have to drop out of school.
Egídia jumped into action to find a solution. After sharing her situation with Head Librarian David, he encouraged her to apply for Limitless Horizons Ixil's Youth Development Program to receive a scholarship for middle school and full wraparound support services. She was thrilled to be accepted! Now 13, Egídia is fluent in Spanish (her second language – Ixil is the primary language spoken in Chajul), an avid reader and writer (the first in her family!), and has dreams of continuing on to university.
She loves sharing what she's learning with her family, often reading aloud to them in the evenings. She is also teaching her younger nephew to read, even giving him pretend "homework" assignments that she grades.
With your support, Limitless Horizons Ixil is able to provide 72 middle and high schoolers like Egídia with the opportunity to go to school, access important educational services through our community library, and share their joy of learning with their families and their entire community. Thank you for empowering Chajul’s youth of today to become the educated leaders of tomorrow.
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