Empower Maya Weavers' Children through Education

In Guatemala, young people and children are often denied the opportunity to study for a variety of reasons, the main one being the lack of financial resources in their families. In Santiago Atitlán, elementary schools are public while for the higher levels, middle school and high schools, are almost exclusively private. Due to this, many families cannot afford to pay the monthly school fees for the higher education of their children and the extra costs deriving from books and other material. In most cases, young people are destined to stop their academic trajectory after elementary school or even earlier to start working and providing for their families. Another issue is the archaic belief that only men have the right to go to school, which persists in some families in the community and still affects young girls. 

Acknowledging this situation, Cojolya seeks to empower children and young people through education and to prepare them for a better life no matter their gender or economic situation.

This month we want to share with you the victory, the joy and the excitement of our beneficiaries: Julisa and Concepción are now new professionals in our community. On 27th October 2019, the two girls became teachers and demonstrated to the community that, with effort and dedication, women can achieve their dreams. On this joyful day, we would like to dedicate these achievements to our donors, who gave the support to make this possible.

We would also like to share with you the happiness and pride of Manuel and his family for the completion of the first step of his academic career: the graduation from elementary school. 

Everything that we have achieved this year is the fruit of the support of our donors, which enabled these young people to reach their objectives and change their destiny for the better. Now the life of our beneficiaries will be different from that of most young people in the community who start working from the age of 13 to help their parents cover the needs of the household. For the future, this is the reality we aim to change.

Our objective is that every childbenefiting from our program can one day become a professional, just like Concepción and Julissa, so that they will have access in the future to a dignified and well remunerated job. And thanks to that, may they be able to enhance the economic situation of their family.