Help Build School Libraries in Rural Guatemala

It’s coffee season in Guatemala, which means children from our partner communities are spending their days hiking through the dense thickets of red coffee berries that cover the country’s rural landscape.

But in San Antonio Chacaya – a nearby community known principally for the quality of its coffee – this year’s harvest was slightly different.

Instead of heading straight for the fields, children in Chacaya this year were given permission to start their mornings at a summer literacy camp led by four local volunteers and co-hosted by Pueblo a Pueblo at the community’s primary school. For the first time ever, the project’s summer camps were over-enrolled!

For four hours each morning, fifty children between the ages of six and twelve worked to improve their reading and writing skills through activities ranging from skits and plays to arts and crafts. All activities were designed to develop students’ reading fluency, attention span, and creativity, among other skills essential for success in the classroom. 

In addition to a successful camp session, we were proud to see parents and community leaders make a conscious effort to put their children’s education first. Through its support of the school’s literacy camps, the Chacaya community made it clear to its children that education and participation in the household economy aren’t mutually exclusive priorities, but rather complementary parts of long-term strategy to improve life in the community.