Guatemalan Women's Cross Generational Development

In a recent survey, MayaWorks learned some interesting facts about the education of its women artisans:

• 27% attended one or two years of primary school;
• 14% completed 6th grade;
• 4% completed junior high school; and,
•  2% completed high school.

Most MayaWorks artisans have not completed their primary education nor do they  speak Spanish as their primary language.  It is important to read and write Spanish to conduct business in Guatemala.  Often, because indigenous women do not speak the national language, they are taken advantage of in business transactions. 

MayaWorks partners with CONALFA, the Comité Nacional de Alfabetización (National Committee on Literacy), a Guatemalan entity, to provide literacy training.  MayaWorks hires a CONALFA trained teacher who comes to the artisans’ communities three times per week to teach reading and writing.  The course is three years long and CONALFA provides most of the materials.  At the end of the course, women read at a sixth grade reading level in Spanish. 

To date, 70% of MayaWorks artisans have received literacy training and can read at least at a sixth grade level in Spanish.  Thirty percent are still illiterate.  It is MayaWorks' goal that by 2015, 85% of women will read at the sixth grade level.