Bilingual education will increase skills and economic opportunities for the Maya Ch’orti people while maintaining their traditional language, culture and ecological values.
The rural area of Chiquimula, Guatemala, faces extreme poverty and neglect by the government. A significant proportion of the population are Maya Ch'orti people who have struggled to retain their language and culture while facing dire circumstances. Children often drop out of school after 4th grade in order to work in the sugarcane fields or assist their parents with subsistence farming, and many villages don't even have schools. Adults lack basic literacy skills and have few employment options.
The program provides weekend classes for young adults to finish their schooling. Classes are taught in Spanish and Ch'orti and include primary level, high school level and a vocational training curriculum for starting one's own business.
Bilingual education will open up greater opportunities for young adults while allowing them to maintain their traditional language and culture. Pariticpants in the project will develop transferable skills that will benefit the local community.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
