By Anna-Emilia Hietanen | Project Leader
Our program “We want to stay at school!” has come to an end in Las Margaritas, Chiapas, and will continue in the state of Coahuila. We have achieved great success in Las Margaritas, and surpassed our original goals. We have contributed to the personal development of in total 704 persons: 33 teachers and educational authorities, 90 parents and caretakers and y 581 middle school students. The project was funded by MetLife, but without the additional support of our GlobalGiving donors, we wouldn’t have been able to reach as many children. For that, we offer you our deepest thanks!
The program had very positive results: the students have developed their life skills, increased their motivation to study and their capacity of solving problems and have now more positive attitudes a towards mathematics. We also found that the students have learned to get along better with their family members, teachers and other students. Their qualifications in mathematics have also improved thanks to the program. As two students put it:
“Before I didn’t like so much to go to the school, but after (the program) I started to like it a lot more, now I have good grades and all… Now I feel like it’s me who wants the grades and not my parents.” (Girl, 2nd grade middle school student)
“Before I didn’t communicate with my parents and my siblings but since we had the sessions on family coexistence, now we live more like a family, we talk… My dad took the workshop and since that we also started to communicate better.” (Boy, 3rd grade middle school student)
The teachers that participated in the program have increased their life skills (especially self-knowledge, personal agency, empathy and communication with their students). Teachers have been very content with the program, as this testimony shows: “I’m happy because the program has helped me personally, here at the school and as a person, with my family and my social surroundings… and also outside of school, it has helped me a lot.” (Teacher, 34-year-old woman)
The parents that have participated in the program have increased considerably the interest in the academic achievement of their children and participate now more in the activities of the school: “He (the son) has changed, he has put more attention to his studies and he has become more responsible already, and I as her mother have been there with him doing the homework and I know it has been difficult for him as he is restless, but he has committed a bit more… I tell him look, everything can be done if “I want to, I can”, no one is dumb, we are all intelligent.”
We want to thank everyone who has donated through GlobalGiving and made the program possible. Even though the program in Chiapas has ended, we continue our work so that marginalized Mexican children get better education. Currently, we are working in the state of Coahuila, in the North of Mexico, and we need some additional support from our donors at GlobalGiving. We will train 26 primary school teachers that will replicate the program with their 780 students.
Please help us to continue to provide support to children in Coahuila! Our work there will help children to continue their studies, improve their school achievement and learn about themes related to health and nutrition, prevention of obesity and diabetes and prevention of violence.
By Anna-Emilia Hietanen | Project Leader
By Anna-Emilia Hietanen | Leader of International Resources
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
