Empower Maya Weavers' Children through Education

Currently the beneficiaries of the education program receive English classes with the aim
of learning about other cultures for their personal development. Communicating in a third
language allows greater job opportunities in the future. Nowadays, to qualify for a job, it is
necessary to speak the English language, what would be better if not to begin learning the
language since a young age.
Our students receive English classes every Friday, with the One Two Tree team, which is
an organization that is facilitating English classes to some groups in Santiago Atitlán,
through these classes the beneficiaries effectively learn English, since in local schools they
do not receive the same attention. Although English is included in the curriculum at the
primary and secondary levels, teachers are not trained to develop this course. For this
reason, students hardly learn any English in schools, they need to be guided effectively in
this area.
Being trilingual in Guatemala is the best way to find a job. In Guatemala, many people do
not have a decent job, due to lack of preparation and development of skills, all this is due
to the lack of opportunities. What you want to achieve with the beneficiaries is that they
may be able to support their family in the future, since their parents did not have the
opportunity to study. The Education program that Cojolya is running intends to offer a
better future to the children of the women artisans.
Every human being has many skills, the difficult thing is to develop them professionally,
because there are no opportunities to achieve them. Parents cannot do this work because

they did not have the opportunity to study, therefore they lack knowledge in many areas
and cannot support their children in this regard due to lack of financial resources.

The women artisans who work in Cojolya learned to weave from a very young age, so they
began to work in Cojolya when they were young, now they have been in Cojolya for more
than 30 years, this work has been their economic source for several years. Actually, now
they are elderly people, but due to their need to generate some revenue, their love for
work and family- they continue to give the best of them, but due to their advanced age
they now have different health issues.
During this time there was an ophthalmology conference at the Hospitalito Atitlán, a
hospital with which Cojolya has partnered for the development of the "Healthy Artisan"
program. Our artisans with eye problems participated in this day, so that they can
continue weaving, as they need their glasses, because in the weaving process they need
to count the threads and they strain their eyes for this process.
María Sosof and María Tiney obtained their glasses, thanks to the “Healthy Artisan”
program, this program has been a great support for our artisans, we have been running
the program for a short time, but it has been a good initiative to take care of the most
vulnerable people’s health in the community, which are women.
Women are happy with this program, María Tiney expressed the following: thanks to the
“Healthy Artisan” program, I have been able to count on my glasses and medicines, since
going to the doctor requires a lot of money, for that reason I do not usually visit the
doctor.
Many of our artisans are elderly women who live alone, they depend a lot on the work
they do in Cojolya, for this reason Cojolya does everything possible to generate work for
these women and has made the "Healthy Artisan" program available to them with the aim

of supporting them for good health, through this program the artisans can go to the
doctor immediately and not wait until the last moment for a medical consultation.