E-VEN : Evening the educational gap in Venezuela

Dear donors,

Recently, we had our yearly application process, in which we welcomed 43 new volunteers to our team! We are so grateful for their willingness to give their time and energy to help us enhance the E-VEN operation and continue providing knowledge and smiles in every one of our classrooms.

Moreover, to celebrate the end of school year 2022-2023, we held our traditional Spelling Fish competition in Los Roques! The competition brought out the most competitive and committed side of our students, who spent weeks practicing and memorizing words just for the chance to win one of the prizes.

This year, we had different winners than last year. We're so proud of the dedication of our kids, who set their sights on the goal and studied for it.

Thank you for your continuous support to our project!

On January, we resumed our academic activities after winter break! Our teachers got to discuss with our students how their holidays went; in the words of Teacher Anamar (Canaima): "the children tolds us they went on excursions, to the beach, to Pozo Azul, ate many hallacas, celebrated Christmas with their families and received many gifts".

On the other hand, we want to share that, this year, we are celebrating our fourth anniversary of working in Los Roques! We are so proud of the progress of our students.

Last but not least, we would like to leave you with a short interview we made to Teacher Ari Salinas, one of our volunteers!

How was your experience teaching in Canaima?
"This time it was my second experience as an E-VEN teacher in Canaima, and I can honestly say that it was even more gratifying than the first one, seeing how much the children have learned and they have improved their English skills, made me come back with my heart full."

Could you tell us about a memorable moment with the kids?
"This time my partner and I decided to do some competitive activities that the kids enjoyed, and seeing the joy on their faces while learning made me feel that we were definitely accomplishing our mission."

Thanks for your support!

During the summer break, our volunteers prepared to be ready to go back to our classes, and what a way to get back to our amazing routine! We successfully started the student registration process and finished our volunteer capacitation!

For every academic year, we are dedicated to reordering our contents and materials to provide the best quality education to our students in Los Roques and Canaima. For the 2022-2023 academic year, we have standardized our classes, planning the academic content annually. Also, we have organized continuous evaluations, reviews, and didactic reinforcement activities. Finally, we have worked on creating new curricular units and generating educational guides!

To end this project report, we would like to leave you with some quotes from our teachers who traveled this first trimester to Los Roques and Canaima!

• “Nothing compared to the first day of class when the children arrived excited with their new shirts, ecstatic to listen to what the teachers had to say. It’s difficult to think that the paradise we were in was usually pushed to the background of the experience, but it’s true! Once you are embraced by the community, every little part of your day takes precedence and is carved into your heart.” Teacher Gabriel Hidalgo (Los Roques).
• “One of my favorite moments in class was when we reviewed the professions and each one of them told us what they want to be when they grow up. I was moved to see them dream big without limitations, and that we are contributing to help them get there.” Teacher Ariadna Salinas (Canaima).

Last April, we held our third recruitment process and welcomed +50 new volunteers that will help us strengthen our mission and carry out our vision to many more places! It is incredible how much our team has grown since 2019: from just 11 volunteers to over 100!

We are also excited to share that we received our LearnKernels, devices that grant access to information and educational resources without the use of the internet — the best ally for our students living in rural communities! These have been crucial to support our students’ learning methods and maintain the continuity of our activities in both Los Roques and Canaima.

In July, we held our very first edition of the Spelling Fish (SF) in Los Roques — our beach-style Spelling Bee competition! Also, we successfully concluded our end-of-the-year evaluations! We are incredibly proud of the results: 76% of our students in Los Roques and 55% of our students in Canaima were graded with “Good Work” (3.75/5). 

Thank you so much for your continued support of our organization! We can’t wait for the next academic year to begin! 

Big news! We are thrilled to announce our refreshed identity. We have put our efforts into expanding the organization by establishing a connection with two new communities. Gladly, these welcomed us with open arms excited to learn and grow as people for a better future both, individually and nationally.

The wait is over and we can finally share with you that over the last month we have given classes to children and adults in Canaima !

Moreover, even though this is a significant change our core values remain the same. Our mission is to transform communities through education and create opportunities for the people in our country is now stronger than ever.

Also, your E-VEN family wants to take this opportunity to thank you for your loyalty and for the trust you have placed in us. We are excited for you to continue working closely with us by helping the organization bring even opportunities for Venezuelans all over the country.