Empower Maya Weavers' Children through Education

Cojolya guarantees that there is no child labor or forced labor, a meaning that leads to respecting the development and recreation of children.

This principle is really very important for the association, especially in Santiago Atitlán , where the student enrollment rate falls from 74% to 24% between primary and secondary school.

As a consequence, many children start working at an early age, which leads to them not being able to benefit from education, either because working prevents them from going to school altogether, or leads them to reduce study hours at school. or at home, as a result it may affect their ability to learn.

The children of our social program "Hand in Hand for development" are children of our artisans. The goal of our program is to provide these children with educational support, financial aid , as well as access to educational tools such as computers, printers, or Internet access.

In addition to supporting the children's education, Cojolya organizes a monthly activity that brings together the children of the program to complete their learning or carry out an activity for their personal development. Sharing these moments also allows us to strengthen ties with the children, identify their needs and monitor their progress.

In May , we carried out an activity on the theme “Words in Tz'utujil and English” , so that the children could identify and pronounce words in Spanish, Tz'utujil and English. It is important to teach children Tz'utujil to preserve the Mayan culture of the region.

LOURDES, the girl who breaks all kinds of barriers to achieve her dream of becoming a Doctor.

Lourdes was born into a 100% artisan family, a family that loves and is passionate about transforming threads into art. Lourdes is the youngest of five siblings. When four years old, her mother died and she grew up under the protection and care of her older sister Andrea (one of Cojolya’s star artisans), so Cojolya has been a big part of Lourdes' life and has always known her strength, her desire to excel and that has motivated her to break down barriers to attend school. Working to generate income and staying in school has never been an obstacle for her.

Lourdes's strength to overcome has been one of our greatest inspirations for creating the Mano a Mano para el Desarrollo (Hand in Hand for Development) program and for this program to be an ally of support for her to continue studying and making her dreams come true, like all the students at our school.

We remember when Lourdes was little and said that when she grows up, she wants to become a doctor to support the community. Now she is 16 years old and more confident, and she does everything in her power to achieve her dream.

This year she had to make a decision and she knows well what she wants. Since last year she has been looking for options to study the first years of medicine and then go to university. The only place where she could study at an affordable rate is three hours from Santiago Atitlán. Lourdes has to travel to Totonicapán / Quetzaltenango and the cost of transportation is high, for this reason she visits her family only once every month.

When in Atitlán she takes advantage of the bookstore to pick up supplies and all the stationery she needs through the support of the Mano a Mano program. At this point in her studies, a computer is essential and Cojolya is also supporting her with this.

Lourdes is a great inspiration for all of us. She belongs to the generation of change for the people of Santiago Atitlán, She, like all our students in the program, and we as an organization, deeply thank all our donors for this support. We know that your donation will contribute to improve the quality of life for all our artisans and their children.